The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1919-11-29
MEN, WOMEN
AND THINGS


have lately been interested in the
memoirs of man who, born in France
In 1898 and dying in 1871, had lived I'M
der % governments. No wonder that
Paul de Kock cared very little as to
what form of government he lived I'M
! der just as long as he was allowed to
live.
| one cannot blame him, however, for
/ being monarchist, for the republicans
beheaded his father. Interested ones
might get wrought up. but so far as
he was concerned he took it easy. hold
ing that those who lived by monarchies
or by republics are right, especially
when their living is good one, in
booming one or the other, but held that
those who had nothing to gain and too
often much to lose by changing this
for that, were utter simpletons to trou-
BILE about who ruled over them.
| He confesses that while he kept out
of the various mixups during two
score years it did not mean that he was
| Indifferent to the too numerous revo-
| lutions which he had seen convulse his
country. He confessed that certain
events grieved him bitterly whilst GER
tain others. on the contrary. had his
full sympathy. But he goes on. to state
that sympathy or grief, he always kept
it to himself expecting nothing from
the man in power whom he approved
or fearin gnothing from the one whom
he disapproved.
He did not take much stock in the'l
great .iberating cry of liberty, Equal
ity, Fraternity" for he was norm in the
most dreadful days of the Terror, at a
time when nobody, whether small or
great, on rising in the morning was
sure of going to bed in the evening with
his head on his shoulders His father
was a double-dyed republican, but all
the same as he remarks, the republic
did not hesitate in killing him. for he
was guillotined. This soured him on
republics. He says with quiet sarcasm
The republic did not permit me in my
cradle to receive more than one kiss
from my father, because they were
waiting to lead him to the scaffold."
Here is a bit which Russia might |
well take to heart. for he says: 1.-The |
Reign of Terror was over, but France, |
while binding up her wounds and |
breathing more freely. was not swim |
ming in that ocean of happiness and
prosperity which the Revolution had
promised her. France had no bread. |
The rain of blood had not made the |
wheat sprout. And you know the old |
proverb, When there is no hay in the |
manger. the horses fight So, lack |
ing bread, people grumbled in Paris |
from morning until night demanding |
the constitution Of 1898, shouting, yell |
ing and fighting in the streets Now |
and again they hung some aristocrat |
who was powerless to help matters"
But now comes the master stroke |
which ought to burn itself in the minds |
of the Reds who are in control in Rus
STA, that is, If they care anything about |
the teachings of history, 70 rthis writer |
of novels which were a scandal even |
in his day at times in his souvenirs" |
as he calls them, let's drop bits of wis |
dom which are well worth needing for |
he says: Poor people, they ought to |
have learned from thousands on thou |
sands of proofs that it is not by killing |
that the best living is earned" This |
ought to be driven in by all of us who |
love peace and prosperity as wedge |
between the damnable I. ". W. propa-
ganda and our American workingmen.
The Parisians have been known for |
more than century as the greatest of
all street fighters. Pick up the story
of the French Revolution or OF any of
the later ones and you will be startled |
by the accounts of the street barricades
and the furious fighting. 1t seemed |
for long time to have been a diversion |
OF the inhabitants of the French cap
ital. 1t runs all through Paul de Kock |
He sets out how his own beloved boule- |
ward was torn up by the sanguinary |
fire OF the hostile mobs. The old elms |
stripped and the shutters Of the houses |
looking like sleeves, but with true |
French curiosity he admits that he and |
his wife both would take peeps out |
through the windows in spite of the |
fact that they were counting death
1t was a great mistake of the Huns
to think that they could break the nerve |
of a people who had such a history be- /
hind them, for Paris was used to the |
sight of blood and had stood an awful |
siege in the Franco -Prussian war. If /
one is familiar with the nonchalance of |
the French they can understand how
even they took the visits of the Yep |
pelins with rare composure and made |
jokes of that which was to strike ter
ror to their hearts and make them beg |
those in power to make hurried and |
compromising peace. Germany made the |
same mistake in bombing unfortified |
towns in England. The militarists of
Wilhelmstrasse wholly failed to un-
derstand the psychology of the French
and the English.
But let's tally the score of govern
ments under which Paul de Kock1
lived. Born during the reign of the |
National Convention 17s2 to 1880, he I
lived during the Executive Directory
G7s5 to 1899. Then during the Con-
suary Committee (1799), the Tempo
rary Consulship G79s to 1902, the Per
manent Consulship QS02'to 1900. Then
came the Empire with Napoleon 1 (1So4
to 1910. This was followed by a Pro
vsional Government $50. Then
came Nopeoleon and the famous 100
days the thing which some are won
followed another Provisional Govern
ment (1s15).
But the time arrived for king, and
Louis XVIII enters on the stage with
the Second Restoration (1S15 to 1920.
Charles X follows in the royal process
sion 1924 to 1890 But France tires
of royalty, and q Provisional Govern
l