The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1918-08-30

successor. Louis WI credited with being an am
liable ruler, sent forth 14,5O0 their missions of
oppression.
1t might well have been written the
trance of the Bastille. He who enters here,
leaves hope behind" The place realized the dark
visions of Dantes Inferno. Separated from
the of the city by 12J feet wide
and - feet deep, and accessible only by draw
bridge. it like Isle of the Dead.
In its noisome dungeons abominable crueties
We're visited upon unfortunate prisoners. who
condemned to the rack and the boot and the
wheel or chained to pillars and logged There
circular cells with cOncal tops, in which the
inmates could neither stand erect, sit. lie.
The roll of the sufferers of the Bastille is long
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 prisoner in the Bas-
title. 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 i'm the garden.
They had scant enjoyment. however for they
knew when they would be doomed to the
fate of their less favored fellows. Men lived 80
and even go years in the Bastiile. 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
WI came to the throne n debt of SSOOOOO.OOO had
been piled up. and it continued to pyramid. The
common people had been footing the bill. and
the proposal, strange in those days. that
the nobility and the clergy, the privileged classes
should share the burden with the Third Estate
1t Il day of questioning and hearkening and
soul searching. The words of VOltaire, Rousseau
and Diderot sinking deep into the national
consciousness. Hence assemblies to talk
these proposals.
In vain were the prisons filled with agitatOrs
and the Votares sent into exile The storm was
gathering If the monarchy to be sustained
IN its extrava gance and feudalism he upheld
;ln<J fi.fy <1.,
deal with than murmuring serfs and
handful of encyclopedias. The soldiers of France
who expected to uphold the old regime,
showed that they We're unwilling to kill their IA
theirs and brothers like dogs
The people of Paris ransacked their city until
they found the material for making
pixies. The time had come when the rights Of
should prevail. and who starving
under tyranny are easily recruited. AS the forces
of the order grew they thought with one
cord of the hated symbol of that Calling oppres-
sion which the cause of all their suffering.
The cry. ITO the Bastille.' from hundred
thousand thrOats
Men and women armed with weapons effec-
tive popguns would be against dreadnaught
moved against the ancient stronghold Bullets
battered and flattened 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 resistess torrent. De-
launay, the governor Of the BastilIe, trembled be-
fore it and surrendered. Down came the creak-
ing drawbrdge and across it rushed the infuri-
ated ctizenry. The tide flowed in and out of the
dim corridors and searched out the narrow cells.
As there the semblance of govern
ment arrangements made for removing the
Bastille The work took the contractor nearly
year. although he employed large force. There
thriving business in its relics. for hundreds
of the blocks of stone carved into models
of the prison and sold mementOeS. Locks and
bolts distributed all over the world as
souvenirs.
Although the demolition of the Bastie itself
proceeded. the thing for which it stood not
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 more upon the