Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-07-11
Allies Are to Celebrate
the Fall of Bastille
By John vall1er H-..rtnston.

The Bastille.e symbol Of q tyranny
against h larger part Of the world
Is in arms, fell July IA, 129 years ago,
despite the presence of German
the hordes of the Hun arr again on
hef soil, France, next Sunday, will
observe the anniversary Of the day
on which h threw of the yoke Of
|feudalism. In that observance she
will be Joined not only by her allies
in Europe. but by the people Of the
United States. NJ.
Under the auspices Of the Commit
tee on the Allied Tribute to France
Simultaneous celebrations OF tho
French national holiday will, for the
first time. be held throughout this
[OeAntry. The formal exercises in
||Nst York will take place next Sun
&4e evening in Madison Square Gar
From time immemorial, the Bastile
had stood for the right of might. Or
erected in the Dark Ages on the
banks of the Seine, it received many
additions until it became a vcritable
citadel of absolutism. It stood on
the Faubourg st. Antoine, which at
that time was lined with the palaces
of a wealthy and privileged class who
%AOSVNAOA VI &0 oNAA0
against the masses. A gloomy fabric,
Fashioned, portholed. and moated, it
was the seat of military power and
changed hands whenever a new war
lord arose. At first a fortress, 1t be-
came a prison where many were i'm
INJURED for daring to speak for free
dom and the truth. Within its cells,
rack were ready instruments with
which those voices were silenced
which had been lifted against the re-
gal will. 1t was the stronghold of
the preogative of Kings. It repre-
scented the within Of thet tyrant as OPP
posed to the just decisions Of turtles
and Judges.
Prisoners Of state were committed
to its dim dungeons without process
Of law. ' ~
The only warrant for their deten-
ton was q -l!ettre de cachet, bearing
the seal of the sovereign. Frequent.
ly 1t did not contain the. name Of the
prisoner. The schemes Of the poll
t~icians. the caprice Of royal mis-
t~resses, the petty revenge Of those
many a man and woman to be lost to
the world Of the living. That mys-
FERROUS prisoner, THE Man With the
Iron Mask" who dwelt for years in
one of the towers; the infamous
Ealue, who writhed in the cruel cage
Of his own devising: the Duke of Ne
mours, condemned daily to the rack
by diabolical Louis xL; casliostro.
knaves who flched the diamond
necklace which Du Barry coveted,
and, the innumerable victims of the
craft of Richelieu and Mazarin are
among those brought to book.
The spirit Of liberty came to
France in the eighteenth century to
struggle for the rights Of man against
The common people. taxed almost to
extinction, yet sustained by the great
thinkers Of the time. had begun to
pray for justice. Who knows but
that their petition might have been
granted had it not been for the in
%f1uences of Teutonic feudalism at
Versailles? Louis XVI, weak and ir-
of his Queen, Marie Antoinette, a
daughter Of the house of Hapsburg.
The French capital was h~oneycombed
by Prussian intrigue and beset by
Austrian Adventures. When 1t was
Ievident that the people had the SYM
pathy of the French Army. her in
fuence and that Of the Courts of
Vienna and Berlin brought German
mercenary troops into France. The
| OAA oA0V4 oOA4SVSu AA0 w VI
arms it would defeat the popular
will. 81
"On all highways" to quote Car
lyle, ,Hnthere lowered dust clouds, with
the march Of regiments, with the
trailing of cannon; foreign Pandours
Of fierce aspect; Sails amade, Ester
hazy, Royal-Allemand, SO many Of
them foreign, to the number of thirty
Thousand, which fear car magnify to
fifty, all vending toward Paris and
Versailles-without drum music,
without word of cQumand."
Such was this horde Of long ago,
growing in harsh gutterals," which
was posted at bridgeheads and in
squares, ready to give to Frenchmen
whiffs of grapeshot.
Desmoulins, In the words of that
phrase which was to find its way into
the battle hymn Of. the French Re-
public. This night the Germans