The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1912-08-12

lid face. Such was LIN VIA
Jean Paul Marat, ~ NYM
ruler of frances | L-1J
destinies at a day N \ r ~ v
when France was a slaughter house.
The French Revelation was at its
height. After throwing off the cruel
bondage of royalty under which they
had groaned for centuries, the French
people beheaded their old tyrants, the
aristocrats. Then, the xlirst for
blood being still unslaked, they fell
to beheading each other. The Reign
of Terror" set In. First the reyolu-
tionists who believed in higher ideals
and gentler methods were slain. Then
the more rabid revolutionists divided
into several parties or factions. And,
whichever faction CHANGED at the mo-
ment to be uppermost executed men,
bers of the others, One leader after
another arose to Guido his predeces
sors in deeds of violence. only to lose
his own life and power to some still
more murderous demagogue.
And the heart and soul Of the Reign
Of Terror was Marat. He was Swiss
by birth and had at various times
been a scientist, a literary man,
physician and--so says Carlyle--a
horse doctor When the revolution be-
gan he started a paper called "The
Friend OF the People" 1t was prob
ably the most scurrilous, bloodthirsty
sheet ever published.
The revolution at that time had
not wholly thrown sanity aside.
Marat's arrest was ordered. He es-
capped and fed to the lowest slums.
There, hiding In the sewers and cell
lars, he spent his time making friends
with the vile outcasts of the Paris I'M
derworld and in preaching to them his
doctrine of wholesale murder. From
time to time, as the revolution waved
more fierce. he would emerge from
Hiding with new plans for deeds of
violence. Each time the saner leaders
denounced him. But soon or late,
they followed his advice. And thus
the revolution grew daily into the
Reign Of Terror.
At last 1t became safe for Marat to
come wholly out Of seclusiou and to
proclaim aloud, by voice and by his
| newspaper. his ideas for the death Of
his fellowmen. The revolutionary
leaders feared and hated him. They
held him in contempt for his squalid
filth and his shrieking clamor for
blood. But they could no longer send
him into hiding For the worst ele-
ment of the mob now ruled Paris
And the mob adored Marat He grew
in power and his most terrible orders
were obeyed.
He framed a law by which 100000
persons were arrested on suspicion of
being false to the revolution Hun
dreds more we're guilotined at his
command. He even gravely expressed
wish to behead an entire French
army of 100000 officers and men.
With Robespierre and Danton (both
| of whom later fell victims to the guillo-
| tine) he formed trlumvirate to gov
ern the French people. For time he
was the ruling spirit in this combina-
| ton. In vain did his opponents call
him Sewer rat" and even less COM
plimentary names. In vain did they
| plot for his downfall BY sheer force
Of evil he crushed all opposition. And
the crazy mob slavishly followed his
one virtue. BY grating, as did other
revolutionary chiefs, he might have
made millions Of dollars He died
with just twenty-one cents.
Nature at last did what man could
/ not to shorten the career Of this "star
villain" Of Frances Scarlet Tragedy
| Marat's health gave out, He suffered
| intolerable pain. The only relief he
could get was to lie for hours in tub
Of hot water. The great unwashed
was actually forced to battle!
| It was while he was wrapped in a
\ Rheet.in the steaming bathtub ON the
Il evening of July 10, 1893, that young
Igirl from the provinces called to see
/ him She said she had with herea
| list of traitors names and began to-.
| read them to him. Marat listened
| greedily. At the end he croaked;
They shall die! Every one Of
| them!"
AS he spoke, the girl-Charlottes
Corday--stabbed him to the heart.
| She had hoped to free France fromeas
| tyrart. But she did more harm than
/; good. In the first place, Marat had
already been dying from disease, and
lat most could have had but few
weeks to live, In the secondyR she
made the people regard monster as
O martyr And, for months, the most
atrocious cruelties were carried on;
fuudersthe pretext that Marat would
have wished them
/ Instead of ending the Reign of Ter
Error. Charlotte Corday had but in
creased its horrors. Here was a
/ wasted crime.