The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-07-14

self such horrible place to be held
in. We believe that II the Man In
the Iron Mask had had his choice be.
tween the Bastile and one of the old
: cells Of Sing Sing, as those old cells
are to-day, he would have preferred
to stay where he was. A prince OF
the blood, incarcerated in one of the
huge towers that frowned upon the
Faubourg Saint-Antoine, had nm al
lowance from the crown of fifty francs
n day; quite enough for phtes and q
bit of play at dice with his governor
The smaller fry Of prisoners were
kept at the rate of what would now
be 81 day. OF course there was
graft and cruelty, but these blots were
then upon every prison.
1t was not that the Bastile itself
was such bad place or such big
place. 1t never held more than sew
enty prisoners at once. The Bastile
fell because autocracy put the wrong
men into it. AS autocracy was, and
is, usually evil, 1t happened that too
many comparatively good men went
into the medieval citadel. Their spir-
its, however, were not confined by the
thick walls, the three sets of iron bars
or the big mOat. They went out and
began to possess the people of France.
There was too much mystery about
tho pIn co ubnro ,rr-Dr cnapt fuoptx,
years for playing joke on Nine.
PoMPADOUR; too much broOhng hor-
rOr about cell where man lived
for, years with his face strapped in
velvet and died without his secret
being revealed.
The Bastile fell because 1t had come
TO be, more than the Crown itself, the
symbol Of oppression. 1t was to the
people of Paris what the picture of
the Kaiser is to civilization now: the
figurehead of something sinister that
must be destroyed. Here the men of
the Revolution tore down the statue
of King GEORGE in Bowling Green.
With the men Of Paris there was n
hatred of more than the villainies of
one man. 1t was the concentrated
rage of centuries, and the Bastile was
one thing that for centuries had rep
resented black wrong. 1t was not to
rescue the Count DE SoLAGE. who had
been there since his boyhood. or Ia
WERNER, who came out after thirty
years, that $4,000 people tore down
this castle and filed the dungeons
with the copings from the battlements.
1t was to rescue France from the cell
of autocracy in which she had been
imprisoned for hundreds of years.
Not merely seven souls came out Of
darkness, but twenty millions.
The scientists say that certain
vibration, produced with violin,
would bring down the Brooklyn
Bridge; we trust no fiddler with the
secret will play the fatal chord. Three
words, whispered by the French peo-
pie, brought down the Bastile: Lib
erty, Equality, Fraternity. Nobody
believed then that this triple alliance
was possible, except perhaps In Amer
lea, where the Declaration of indie
pendence had already sounded d great
note. But liberty, equality and fra
ternity live in France now. There
may have been those who doubted
it before the war, but they doubt
no longer. No cOuntry-and we are
not forgetful of our own-has made
such a magnificent demonstration of
the stability of republics. If democ-
racy has been on trial, she is acquitted
on the evidence of France.
America is part Of France In this
new attack on the greater and more
hideous Bastile of Prussianism. Our
million men on French soil join the
Frenchmen in the struggle to pre-
serve liberty. They are as one in the
equality Of courage. Their fraternity
is that of brothers coupled In splen-
did purpose. What feelings must a
young American have this morning
as he watches the sun rise and gild
the Spirit Of Liberty that, rising
above the site of the old Bastile, tops
the Column of July!