The sun., 1918-07-14
Destruction of French
Citadel of Tyranny
129 Years Al go
Marked VitalStepfor
World Democracy.
By JOHN WALKER HARRINGTON.

Il namely, on July IA, 1889, over
threw the worlds most notorious citadel
of tyranny, and started on her long, hard
road to freedom.
Her national holiday, in the celebra-
ton of which the Allies, including the
United States, are joining, is doubly sig
nificant to the American people. Our
own troops, fighting gloriously for lib
erty on the soil of France, won a victory
on the natal day of this Republic. The
Fourth of July and the anniversary of
the fall of the Bastille come so nearly to-
gether that they might almost be cele-
brated on the same date. Circumstances
brought them into close relations.
The stirring events which eliminated
in the taking of Frances fortress of
feudalism were in motion early in July,
1889, and two great characters in the his
tory of France and the United States
were in the French capital at that very
time. The Marquis de Lafayette, after
consulting with Thomas Jefferson, the
author of the Declaration of Indepen-
dence, presented to the National Assem-
bly, bill of rights. Had the French
acted ten days sooner, as there were many
indications that it might, common birth
day might now be observed by the sister
nations.
Edi6ee a Sign of Divine Right.
The traditions Of the American Col
onies and those of France differed so
widely that to sense the true meaning Of
the Bastille it is necessary to trace the
origin of that gloomy pile in the Eau
bourg St. Antoine. For centuries the
edifice was the sign of the divine right Of
kings. Before the storm of the French
Revolution broke there were fifty such
prisons in France, for bastille signifies
merely fortified building. As the years
went by so Infamous became that one
which stood on the banks of the Seine
and was usually known as the Castle of
Paris that it took unto itself the all
embracing title of "The Bastille."
Like the institution of monarchy, of
which it was the symbol, the structure
was the development of centuries. The
original ediiice consisted of a pair Of
towers, and was a part of the stone bar
rier against the medieval Huns. Charles
V. about 1869 commissioned Hughes
Aubriot, then provost of Paris, to en-
large the old fertilization. Aubriot, hav-
ing in mind the extension of the feudal
power, made it both fortress and Jail.
Various additions weye made by the
kings of France. As fort it was con-
sidered impregnable, as the main walls
at their base were forty feet thick, and
beneath the battlements, one hundred feet
above the pavement, the light struggled into
the cells through narrow windows pierre
ing nine feet of solid masonry. Cannon
were set in the deep cmbrasures, and there
were portfolios from which archers and
crossbowmen once sped the shafts of
death.
TO the peasantry and the common peo-
ple the Basiille was ali that was formlda-
Bile and forbiddins. A grim and mystic
rious stronghold, it earned year by year
its evil name.
Spared Neither High Nor Low.
Kings with power Of life and death
over their subjects used it as the instru-
ment with which to punish all who OPP
posed them They spared neither the
high nor the low. In the days of abso-
lutism the monarch could commit pris-
oners to the Bastille without any other
process of law than warrant which be-
came known as lettre de caehet.
This document, bearing the royal seal,
was often in blank. Many lettres de ca
chet were obtained by unprincipled per-
sons who either used them to punish their
enemies or sold them to those who had
sinister ends in view. The monstrous
abuses which grew out of this practice
were a blot on European history.
Courtiers, charlatans and eourtesans
found a way to safe their grudges. The