The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1918-08-31

successor, Louis XVI, credited with being an am
liable ruler, sent forth 14,5OO on their missions Of
oppression.
1t might well have been written over the en-
trance of the Bastille, "He who enters here,
leaves hope behind" The place realized the dark
est 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 a draw
bridge, it was like an Isle Of the Dead.
In its noisome dungeons abominable %cruelties
were visited upon unfortunate prisoners, who
were condemned to the rack and the boot and the
wheel, or chained to pillars and logged. There
were circular cells with conical tops, in which the
inmates could neither stand erect. nor sit, nor lie.
The roll of the sufferers of the Bastille is a long
one. Various degrees of punishment were meted
out to the prisoners, according to the whims Of
the sovereign. Some Of them, like the Man with
the Iron Mask, for a time a prisoner in the Bas-
tile. were treated with consideration. They
had bounteous meals, and were assigned to rooms
in which there was a 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 Bastille, 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 so impoverished the nation that
the national credit was imperiled. When Louis
XVI came to the throne a debt of $S00,O00,0O0 had
been piled up, and 1t continued to pyramid. The
common people had been footing the bill, and now
came the proposal, strange in those days, that
the nobility and the clergy, the privileged classes,
should share the burden with the Third Estate.
It was a 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 over
these proposals..
In vain were the prisons filled with a~gitators
and the Voltaires sent into exile. The storm was
gathering. If the monarchy was to be sustained
in it's extravaganza and feudalism to be upheld
the mailed fist must do its work. But there was
more 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 were unwilling to kill their IA
theirs and brothers like dogs.
The people of Paris ransacked their city until
they found arms or 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 new order grew they thought with one ac-
cord of the hated symbol of that CALLING oppres-
sion which was the cause of all their suffering.
The cry ITO the Bastille 7" rose from a hundred
thousand Threats.
Men and women armed with weapons as effec-
tive as popguns would be against a dreadnaught
moved against the ancient stronghold. Bullets
battered and hattened against the massive walls.
The defense was only half hearted, and the
French guards on the battlements were soon way
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 Bastile, trembled be-
fore it and surrendered. Down came the creak-
ing drawbridge and across 1t rushed the infuri-
ated citizenry.< The tide flowed In and out of the
dim corridors and searched out the narrow cells.
AS, soon as there was the semblance of govern
ment arrangements were made for removing the
Bastille. The work took the contractor nearly a
year. although he employed a large force. There
was a thriving business IN its relics, for hundreds
of the blocks of stone were carved into models
Of the prison and sold as mementoes. Locks and
bolts were distributed all over the world as
souvenirs.
Although the demolition of the Bastille itself
proceeded, the thing for which 1t 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