The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1918-09-05

successor, Louis XVI credited with being an am
liable ruler, sent forth 1880 their missions Of
oppression.
1t might well have been written over the
trance of the Bastille, He who enters here
leaves hope behind" The place realized the dark
visions of Dante's Inferno. Separated from
the streets of the city by a mOat 125 feet wide
and % feet deep, and accessible only by draw
bridge, it like Isle of the Dead.
In its noisOme dungeons abominable cruelties
were visited upon unfortunate prisoners, who
condemned to the rack and the boot and the
wheel chained to pillars and fogged. There
circular cells with cOnical tops in which the
inmates could neither stand erect. sit lie.
The roll of the sufferers of the BastflIe a long
one. Various degrees of punishment melted
out to the prisoners, according TO the whims of
the sovereign. Some OF them, like the Man with
the Iron Mask, for time prisoner in the Bas-
tile, were treated with consideration. They
had bOunteOuS meals and were assigned TO rooms
in which there was fair amount of light and
were even permitted to walk In the garden.
They had scant enjoyment however, for they
never knew when they would be doomed to the
fate of their less favored fellows. Men lived 30
and even go years in the BasttlIe, until they lost
all connection with the world beyond the mOat.
In that world toward the close of the eighteenth
century mighty changes came to pass. The line
of the Louis had impoverished the nation that
the national credit imperiIed. When Louis
XVI came to the throne debt of SS0OOO0,OOO had
been piled up, and it continued to pyramid. The
common people had been footing the BILL and
the nobility and the clergy the privileged classes
should share the burden with the Third Estate.
1t day Of questioning and hearkening and
soul searching. The words of VOltaire, Rousseau
and DiderOt were sinking deep into the national
consciousness. Hence assemblies to talk
these proposals.
In vain the prisons filled with agitators
and the VOltaires sent into exile. The storm was
gathering. If the monarchy was to be sustained
IN its extravaganza and feudalism to be upheld
the mailed fist must do its work But there was
to deal with than murmuring serfs and a
handful of encyclopedias The soldiers of France
who were expected to uphold the old regime
showed that they unwilling to xiii their IA
theirs and brothers like dogs.
The people of Paris ransacked their city until
they found arms the material for making
pixies The time had come when the rights OF
men should prevail, and men who are starving
under tyranny are easily recruited. As the forces
OF the order grew they thought with
cord of the hated symbol of that CALLING Oppres-
sion which the of all their suffering
The cry ITO the BastilIe!" rose from hundred
thousand throats.
Men and women armed with weapons as effec-
tive popguns would be against a dreadnaught
moved against the ancient stronghold. Bullets
battered and nattened against the massive walls
The defense was only half hearted, and the
French guards the battlements were soon wav-
ing flags of truce. a force greater than all the
munitions ever made was at wOrk-a public senti-
ment which had become a resistless torrent De
launay the governor of the BastiIIe, trembled be-
fore it and surrendered. Down came the creak-
ing drawbridge and across it rushed the infuri-
ated citizenry. The tide flowed in and out Of the
dim corridors and searched out the narrow cells
AS there the semblance Of govern
ment arrangements were made for removing the
Bastille. The work took the contractor nearly
year, although ne employed large force There
was thriving business in its relics for hundreds
of the blocks of stone carved into models
of the prison and sold as mementoes. Locks and
bolts distributed all the world
souvenirs.
Although the demolition of the BastiIle itself
proceeded. the thing for which it stood was not
so easily swept aside Feudal Germany and
Austria blocked the road TO liberty. We Of this
day, with the perspective OF a century and more
OF history and belonging to a nation which is even
now in arms against the powers which sought to
foist the yoke OF serfdom once more upon the