The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1914-02-06

book, and began TO translate the in
structions into cipher for safety's sake.
Where the Vosges mountains lowered
In obscurty a curtain OF rain Joined
earth and sky. The rivers ran yellow,
brimful, foaming at the fords. Some
where In that spectral forest Prussian
cavalry were hidden, watching the
heights where our drenched divisions
lay. Behind that forest a German army
was massing, fresh from the combat in
the north, where the tragedy OF Wis
sembourg had been enacted only the
day before. in the presence OF the en-
tire French army-the awful spectacle
Of a single division of seven thousand
men suddenly enveloped and crushed
by seventy thousand Germans.
The rain fell steadily but less heavi-
ly | changed my civilian clothes for
hussar uniform. sent a trooper to
find me a horse, and sat down by the
window to stare at the downpour and
think how best | might carry out my
instructions to successful finish
The colony at La Trappe was, as far
as ! could judge, a product Of condi-
tions which had, a hundred years be-
fore, eliminated In the French Revolu-
tion. Now. in 1870. but under different
circumstances, all France was once
more disintegrating socially. Opposi-
tion to the Empire. to the dynasty to
the government, had been seething for
years; now the separate crystals which
formed on the edges of the boiling un-
dercurrents began to grow into masses
which. adhering to other masses, in
terfered with the healthy functions OF
national life. First among these came
the international Society Of Working
men, with all its afiliations-the In
ternationale,' as it was called. In its
wake trailed minor societies. some
mild and harmless, some dangerous
and secret, some violent, advocating
openly the destruction Of all existing
conditions.
With one exception, all those whom
the police and the government regard
ed as inclined TO violence left the
group There remained, with this one
exception, a nucleus of earnest,
thoughtful people whose creed was in
part the creed Of the Internationale,
the creed of universal brotherhood,
equality before the law, purity of in
dividual living as an example and an
incentive TO a national purity.
To this inoffensive group came one
day a young widow, the Countess de
Vassart, placing at their disposal her
great wealth, asking only to be re-
ceived among them as a comrade.
Her history, as known to the police,
was peculiar and rather sad: at six
teen she had been betrothed to an ell
derly, bull-necked colonel of cavalry,
the notorious Count de Vassart, who
needed what money she might bring
him to maintain his reputation as the
most brilliantly dissolute old rake in
Paris.
Her dossier-for, alas the young
girl already had a dossier-was inter
esting particularly in it's summing up
of her personal character:
ITO the naive ignorance of con-
vent pensionnaire, she adds an inno-
cence of mind, purity of conduct, and
a credulity which render her an easy
prey to the adroit, who play upon her
sympathies. She is dangerous only as
a source Of revenue for dangerous
men"
II from how uo1nn haf q
Victor Noir went to his death at
Auteuil on the 10th of January; and
possibly the shock OF the murder and
the almost universal conviction that
justice under the Empire was hope
less drove the young Countess to seek
a refuge in the country where, at her
house of La Trappe, she could quietly |
devote her life to helping the desper-
ately wretched, and where she could |
in security, hold counsel with those |
who had chosen to give their lives to |
the noblest of all works-charity and |
the propaganda of universal brother
hood.
And here, at La Trappe, the young
aristocrat first donned the robe of |
democracy, dedicated her life and for
tune to the cause, and worked with
her own delicate hands, for every
morsel of bread that passed her lips.
But the simple life at La Trappe,
The negative protest against the EN-
Dire and all existing social conditions,
The purity of motive, the serene and
inspired self-abnegation. could not
save the colony at La Trappe nor the
young chatelaine from the claws of
hose who prey upon the innocence
If the generous.
And so came to this ideal communi-
y one John Buckhurst, stranger,