Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1916-12-27
REICNS OF TERROR
Times During Which Law and Or
der Are Dethroned.
WHEN CITIES GO STARK MAD.
This Has Happened Many Times In
Different Lands, the Most Notable
Example Being Frenzied Paris In the
Revolution and In the Commune.


During the Instruction i'm Ireland,
which had its center In the historic old
capital OF that long troubled isle and
which resulted in the execution of sew
eral OF Its leaders. including Sir Roger
Easement. Dublin went mad-stark,
ravlng mad. 1t is way cities have
sometimes Then. just as sing.e indi-
diduals do when smitten with insanity,
they perpetrate all sorts OF horrible
deeds thai in their saner moments thcs,
would lie the first to repudiate and con-
slemn.
Paris was attacked by Just such n
violent fit of mental alteration during
he stormy and blood soaked days Of
he revolution and again Immediately
after the last Franco-German war.
Her revolutionists in the latter event
allied themselves Communists, end
these frenzied people did pretty much
as did the Dublin .nsurfectlonists-tha
is TO say. they seized public buildings.
threw up street barricades and In
trenebed themselves In open strategic
SHsiNtN- sit iSsait III tiG Nuu. tOu
was the same. They We're overpowered
by the regular troops. and the bulk Of
them werr killed or made prisoners,
but not until fourth part OF Paris
had been laid In ruins. property worth
t3o090,0 600 being destroyed.
To find anything in London approx
mating to the Dublin madness we
must go back to the year 1880. when
Lord George Gordon's armed rioters
held Englands capital at their mercy
for several days. On this occasion
Newgate Jail was stormed and set on
fire. after the prisoners had been re-
leased. the Bank OF England was be.
sieged and hundreds Of houses.
churches. shops and other buildings
were set on fire and destroyed.
Bristols turn came fifty years later.
during the reform agitation OF 1881
The city. long seething with political
excitement. suddenly exploded like q
powder magazine to which a lighted
match is applied. and In the course OF
n day and night 500 OF her citizens
"'t' ~ tDt VI
10 death IN the fires they themselves
had lindled. and most Of her printI
pal buildings. including the manson
house. the bishops palace and above
100 shops and private dwellings. were
heaps of blac kened ruins.
In 1890. Newport. Monmouthshire.
underwent q similar experience. but
the mayor called out the troops with
conmendable promptitude. and after
brief but bloody conflict In the mar
ket square the maddened rioters fed
lervla. the place n shambles, OF
what fiery Welsh mob Is capable
however, when II Is allowed to get our
Of hand. was shown In 1852 at TreGe.
gar. in the same county. when the
miners there. Infatuated by an attack
made on Protestant religious meet
ing by some Irish Roman Catholics.
stormed the quarter OF the town In
witch the latter lived and literally
w,n"d II on the face ~ the earth.
n 1913 FIVE white mechanics wor.s
In, underground at the New Kleinfon
'e'n nine. rear johannesburg. were
as.ed to assent to an alteration OF
hours that would involve their wo.k.
Ing for the future on Saturday after.
moons. They refused and were dis
missed, whereupon practically all the
white miners on the Rand came out on
strike.
That week saw johannesburg given
up to scenes similar to those enacted
in Dublin. Bands Of armed madmen
fought the soldiers with rifles. with re-
volvers. with dynamite bombs. The
railway station was set on fire and de-
stroyed. The Offices Of the Star news.
paper were blown to pieces with giant
powder. To venture into the streets
was to gamble with death In the end.
OF course. the military got the upper
hand-they always debut not until
some 200 OF the strikers and their sym
pathizers had been killed and wounded.
Hunger sometimes drives cities crazy.
The people suffer until they feel they
can suffer no longer. Then the mad
ness mounts into their brains, and
things-terrible things-happen. Milan
for instance, went mad from this cause
In 1898 owing to the long continued
scarcity and dearness Of bread. Gaunt.
skeleton ike wome.. stripned to the
waist. led the rioters and urged them
by fanatie cries and gestures to try
conclusions with the soldiers.
Milan ran red with blood. In one
short afternoon eiehty-two Of the hun.