Evening star., 1923-07-08

/ came to know and to love Paris,
by day and night, on both sides Of
the Seine, and in all its quarters,
rich and poor. To me il is still the
most attractive city in the world.
and | have an abiding passion for
it's ghosts, its beauty and it's people
To feel" Paris one must be steeped
in the history and literature of
France, so that one walks, not lonely.
but as a haunted man along the Rue
st. Honore, where Danton lived. and
where Robespierre closed his shutters
when Marie Antoinette passed on her
tumbril; in the Palais Royal. where
Camille DeSmoulinS plucked leaves
from the trees and stuck them in his
hat as a green cockade; in the great
nave of Notre Dame, where a thou
sand years of faith, passion. tragedy,
glory, touch ones spirit, closely. as
ones hand touches its old stones;
across the Pont Neuf, where Henry
met his murderer and where all Paris
and fair women: on the left bank.
by the bookstall, where poets and
scholars roved. with hungry stom-
achs and eager minds: up in the
Quarter Latin. where centuries of
student life have paced by the old
gray walls. and where wild youth has
lived it's short dream of love, quaffed
its heady wine. laughed at life and
death; up the mountain of Mont
martre where apaches used to lurk
in the darkness, and vice wore the
false livery of joy; in the Luxem
burg Gardens, where a world of
lovers have walked, hand in hand,
while children played and birds twit-
tered, and green buds grew to leaf,
which faded and fell as love grew old
and died.
One of the most interesting times
had in Paris was when the Con-
federation Generate del Travail. un-
der the leadership of Jean Jaures,
declared a general strike against the
government of Aristide BRAND. 1t
was a trial of strength between those
two men, who had once been COM
rades in the extreme left of the revo-
lutionary labor. Both of them were
men of outstanding character. Jaures
was much more than a hot-h AIDED
demagogue, of the new bolshevik
type, eager to destroy civilization in
revenge against capital" He was a
lover of France in every fiber. of his
body and brain, and a man of many
Christian qualities, including kind
ness and charity and personal moral
ity in spite of religious skepticism.
He sawNwith clear vision the ap-
preaching danger of war with Ger
many, and he devoted his life. and
lost it, on behalf of antimilitarism.
believing that German democracy
could be won over to international
peace, If French democracy would
link up with them. 1t was for that
reason that he attacked the three
years system of military service, and
denounced the increasing expendi-
ture Of France on military prepara-
tions. But to attain his ideal of
international peace, he played into
the hands of revolutionary labor, and
defended many of it's violent methods,
including direct action" 1t was
with Aristide BRAND that he had
drawn up the plans of a general
strike in which every trade union or
the appointed hour, in order to dem
onstrate the power of labor" and to
overthrow the autocracy of capital"
When BRAND deserted the left wing,
modified his views for the sake of
office, and finally became premier of
France, Jaures, who had taunted him
as renegade, put into operation
against him the weapon he had helped
to forge. A general strike was de-
clared.
THERE were astonishing scenes in
i Paris. The machinery of social
life came to dead stop. No railway
trains arrived or departed, and 1 had
a sensational journey from Calais to
Paris in the last train through,
driven by an amateur who had not
mastered the mystery of the brakes.
so that the few passengers. with the
last supply of milk for Paris, were
bumped and jolted with terrifying
shocks.
Food from the rural districts was
held up on wayside stations. and
Paris was like a besieged city, living
on rapidly diminishing stocks The
" Mat .aag.a ,.,n,.L-~ss.,,,.l /.