Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-07-10

Will next Sunday join in the world
wide observance of the 12sth anni-
versary of the Fall of the Bastile
again sets the pace for the cities of
/ Pennsylvania. Since the beginning
of the war the capital of the Key
stone state has been foremost in its
/ patriotic endeavors, and next Sun
/ days city wide observance will be
par with what has gone before. The
, formal exercises in New York City
! are to be held in Madison Square
Garden; in Harrisburg in beautiful
! Reservoir Park, as we'll as in the
! scores of city churches.
! The Bastile for hundreds of years
stood for the right of might Orig
iually only pair of small towers
erected in the so-called Dark Ages
&, on the banks of the Seine, 1t received
many additions until finally it be-
/ came a citadel of absolutism. 1t
stood on the Faubourg St. Antoine.
which was lined with the palaces of
the rich and privileged class who de-
sireo the protection of the Bastile
guns against possible onslaughts by
the masses. 1t is described as hav-
{ ing been a gloomy fabric Fashioned,
portholed and moated; and it was
/ the seat of military power, chang
I ing hands whenever new war lord
arose. II was first a fortress, but
1 finally became prison where hun
dreds were immured for daring to
speak the truth. Within the for
kbi6ding walls were to be found the
| instruments of torture with which
those voices were silenced which had
been lifted against the royal will;
and there were to be found. too,
men experienced in the Smanipula-
ton of the rack, the thumb screws
and the dreaded boot" The Bas-
/ tile represented the whims of ty-
rants as opposed to the just decisions
/ of the courts Prisoners of state
were thrown into its dungeons with
out process of law. The only war
rant for their detention was lettre
de cachet, bearing the seal OF Inc
sovereign. Frequently 1t did not con-
/ tain the name of the prisoner. The
caprices of royal mistresses. the
schemes of willy politicians, the petty
revenges of royal favorites who har-
/ bored private grudges, caused many
man and many woman to be lost
to the world of the living.
The mysterious prisoner, Ihe
/ Man With .he Iron Mask. who
dwelt for years in one of the tow
ers: the infamous Balue. who sur
( fered in a cruel cage of his own in
vention: the Duke de Nemours. con-
demned to the rack daily by the in
! human Louis NJ; Cagliostro, cham
pion charlatan of Europe; the
| knaves who flched the diamond
necklace which duBarry coveted, and
the hundreds of victims of the craft
of Richelieu and Mazarin were
among those brought to book.
! Prussian Intrigue
] The common people. in the Eight
eenth century, had begun to pray
/ for Justice: and they struggled for
the rights OF man as against dis
solute and eNtravagant court. They
! had been taxed almost TO extinction.
Z but they were sustained by the great
thinkers of the time. Teutonic in
! fuences at the court of Versailles
are declared to have resulted in the
! refusal of their prayers. Louis NNl,
weak. irresolute, was under the DOM
inetion of his queen. Marie Antoin-
/ cite a daughter of the House of
Hapsburg. Paris and Versailles were
honeycombed by Prussian intrigue.
They were beset by Austrian adven-
turers. When II became evident
that the people had the sympathy
of the French army, the queens in
| fuence and that of the courts of
Vienna and Berlin brought German
mercenary troops into France. The
/ ola order believed that the popular
will could be defeated by force of
arrns-just as the Kaiser of Ger
many to-day believes the same
thing.
ION all highways" says Carlyle,
there hovered dust clouds, with the
march Of regiments. with the trail
| ing of cannon; foreign Pandours of
fierce aspect, Salis-Samade, Ester
| fNf
lthem foreign, to the number of thir
! " thousand. which fear can mag
nifty to fifty, all vending toward
Paris and Versailles-without drum
music. without audible word of COM
msnd."
! Such was this horde of long ago,
growing in harsh gutturals.' which
was posted at bridgeheads, and in
squares. ready TO give the French
men whifts of grapeshot.
ITO arms, To arms! cries
Camille Desmoulins. in the words OF
that phrase which was to find its way
| into the battle hymn of the French
! Republ:c This night the Germans
and the Swiss troops march to our
massacre, We have but one recourse,
I to defend ourselves"
Teuton soldiers charged the pro-
cession of protest. Prussian dragons
sought to hold the French Guard un-
der arrest in barracks; regiment aft
er regiment of Boche hireltngs were
aligned to the Field of Mars, All
we're of no avail in the storm which
swept over Paris and on to the
Bastile, which fell before the attack
of the enraged people. Within few
months the crime-steeped pile had
been demolished and in its stead
stands a column upon which are re-
corded the deeds done on July IA,
1889.
The Walls Yield
The walls Of the Bastile yielded to
the onslaughts of the wreckers. but
the spirit which the Bssti'e repre-
1 sented was kept alive through the
interference and by the wiles of the
Central Powers-just as the ideas of
a dead past are being kept alive to-
day by these same powers.
The King pretended to accept the
new constitution, but he wss still
under Teutonic domination-under
1.-The spell of German Imperialism.
When he tried to escape across the
border to Germany a Prussian army
officer arranged the details of his
flight and obtained the passport for
l.1,a de