The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1917-05-03

the same sort OF revoiuti
that today makes Russia Il
center of the worlds attention.
are accustomed to think of the Fren'
revolution in hazy way as tin
of turmoil and upheaval, of blooc
nightcaps, savage knitting wome
Marie Antoinette on her way to II
guillotine, Bonaparte loosing his car
non in the streets of Paris. 1t is a
weller of blood, out of which looI
fantastic and terrible figures, fror
which energies Napoleon and worl
at war, and from which is evolved
finally, in some mysterious way, tn
French Republic. We are accustom
ed to speak of Bourbons, as we ma.
some day speak of Romanoffs, as sym
bols of pigheaded oppression-but i
will all bear looking at somewhat
more closely.
In France, as in Russia, out of al
assemblage of the people came revolt
Louis XVI, by no means the worst OF
the Bourbons, but destined to REAP
the whirlwind of his fathers sowing
found France in desperate way fl
nancially when he called the states
general to convene in 1889. This
legislative body of the people, the
clergy and the nobility, had not been
called together since 1914, and it came
together at a time when the body pol
itic of France was sick with many ills.
Two-ffths of the land Of France was
in the hands of the mobiles and the
clergy, another fifth in the hands of
the crown; four-ffths Of the produce
of the small farmer went in taxes.
A feudal system of land holding and
tax paying survived, and the most
brilliant writer's of France, men like
Voltaire and Rousseau, had been busy
for hundred years pointing out the
injustices and absurdities of it. At
this time the states general were con
vened in the bland hope that they
might discover some new way of
raising more taxes.
The Third Estate, the representa-
tives of the people, promptly got out
of hand. It's members refused to meet
as separate body from the mobiles,
and the clergy, for in house of one
body the Third Estate could swing the
vote. And, being locked out of their
legitimate place of meeting, the mem
bers of the Third Estate met in a
building at Versailles known as the
Tennis Court, and June 20, 1889, took
an oath not to dissolve until they had
given France constitution. Joined
BY the mobiles and the clergy at the
Kings command, these men formed
he National Assembly.
In July the king dismissed Necker,
lis minister of finance, in whom the
people had great hope, and concen-
rated troops on Paris. The result
vas riot and bloodshed, and July IA
he Bastile, the prison in which VIC
inns of Bourbon tyranny had Ian
.uished for many generations, was
formed, the prisoners freed and the
uilding partly destroyed. To pre-
ent general disorder, a provisional ,
was established in Paris, ]
nth the Marquis De Lafayette as {
of newly formed local ,
,ilitia known as the National Guard. {
here now began in France what was b
nown as the Great Fear. Outbreaks I
/ all parts of the country led the s
obles to fear for their lives; many C
them fled from the country, aban- |
,ning their estates. Government d
i'd broken down, and energetic men ii
the head Of companies of the Ma d
onal Guard administered local af- q,
irs as best they could. The Ma t,
Dnal Assembly was busy coming f
Oh phrases about the rights of men F
I'd had made no progress toward a h,
able government. Paris buzzed with a,
mors of the kings secret hostility hi
reform; it was believed he was vi
citing with Austria to overthrow st
e rule of the people. b,
October 5, mob, composed largely lu
hungry women, marched to Yer
lilies, followed by Lafayette and the
ational Guard. Lafayette prevented
Oily harm to the royal family, but p,
ade no attempt to dispense the mob,
d the next day the mob marched
ok to Paris with the king and his
mily virtual prisoners. They were re
artered in the Palace Of the Tuil- Al
les. in