Omaha daily bee., 1914-10-05

but when the hour came 1t found in
Mirabesu the man who was to turn it TO
the lasting good of France and the world.
Up to the meeting OF the states general
on that ever-memoreble May day of the
fateful year 1852 Mirabeau's career was
anything but pleasant to contemplate,
Did ever another man lead Just such
q life? LIS II really the record of mans
life?' Is it not rather the story Of some
sort Of monster in the guise of a man.
Think OF that stormy college course,
the miserable marriage and the cage in
which the lion Of bridegroom and the
tigress Of a bride found themselves growl
ing and clawing at each other; the initial
army life, with its wild orgies, and the
gloomy prison into which its dissipations
cast the mad young soldier; the army life
again. after the grated cell had disgorged
him: the scandalous second marriage,
with its still deeper shame; the clashes
with the infatuated father; the exile in
Switzerland. with It's wretched hack
work and poverty and misery: the re-
morse less letters de cachet which showed
him into the Vincennes dungeon, where,
like mad beast, he ragged and tore away
at himself for three and half years.
And then recall the fact Of the escape
from the Vincennes dungeon and the re-
turn to France, and the ambassarorship
to the Prussian court and its wretched
failure. and the unutterable anguish of
! the mans grief as he realized the collapse
Of the first really worthy enterprise to
which he had ever dedicated his brain
and will power
Did not the most iIlustrious of the
ancients advocate the resort to self.
destruction when lifes way seems hope-
lessly dark? And was not this the time
for the most miserable man in the world
to avail himself Of the advice of Seneca
and Cato?
He was 70 years old, and had done alb
solutely nothing but evil His enormous
appetites and passions had well nigh
wrecked his powerful body. and his al
most superhuman brain did nothing but
nurse and brood over its blasted homes
| and unfulfilled ambitions.
Poor MirabeRul
But hold The king wants rnonay for
himself and his favorftes, and he calls
together the representatives OF the as
tates OF the realm-a sort of general con-
Vention. as 1t were, of the nation. It
Louis had had the smallest inklinR OF
what he was really doing he would never
have called that meeting, but he called
1t, and among the representatives that
gathered in response to the call sat Mira
beau-sent by the people of MarseilIes
to be their spokesman before the king
the nobility and the clergy.
IL is unnecessary to dwell upon what
happened almost Immediately after the
estate got together at versailIes-bow
when the "notables'' began turning IN
their noses at the representatives of the
people those hitherto inconsequential gen.
tlemen retired and set up business on
their own hook under the name OF the
National Assembly.
OF the famous body Mirabeau becama
at once the head and soul. and when the
National Assembly blossomed into the
/ Constituent Assembly that also was dom
mated by the mighty personality Of the
man from Marseilles.
Events crowded upon each other thick
] and fast, and when the Bastile went
down with a crash along with II fell the
last hope OF the privileged classes that
had for centuries exploited and oppressed
the people
new regime was at hand. but what
sort OF a regimen" cried the now great
mlraoeau "A regime of settled order
he Numbered. Not anarchy, but har
mony You are at last supreme" he
said to the people, "and now see TO fl
that you act wisely. Don't turn this
thing into carnival Of blood. BY all
means establish liberty and justice, but
establish them along with security and
order"
A strong central government. made by
the people and responsible to them-such
was the ideal that Mirabeau held I'd be
fore the assembly. And so long as he
was on the stage no one dared to disre
gard him, but he was prematurely old.
the volcanic passions had burnt him out
and right in the midst of the struggle
the great leader died, leaving the fanatics
70 run amuck, with no one to control
them in their madness.