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OURTH YEAR
vendetta
Behind the Throne of Despots and
Persecutors.
j POWER OF REFORM.
„ ncitipq Os History—Fa-
Cu X S vfctims of the Pri
vate Revenge for Person
al or Public W oigs.
Assassins.
When the First Consul of the
French Republic rid himself of his
form er rivals he made an excep
tion in favor of Paul Barras, who
ssMme.de Stael observes, had
changed the fate of the world by
being .harp-sighted enough to rec
ognise the capacities of the weazen
faced Corsican.
Soen after the murder of Eng
hien this same Barras had a pri
vate interview with the young Dic
tator. “Citizen Consul," he said,
“I did not come to ask a favor,
but to repay one. A ou do not need
my political advice, and your sword
will soon make you arbiter of the
the Latin nations— qne dis je—of
Europe, perhaps, and the territo
ries of the old Roman Empire. But
beware of private vengeance. It
does not matter how many thou
sands your battles and decrees send
underground, but the way human
beings are constituted they cannot
forgive the individual who singles
out individuals as the scapegoats of
his wrath.
It i« a curious fact that the neg
lect ot that advice ruined the cause
of the future Emperor in the strug
gle for existence following the col
lapse of the Russian enterprise. He
might have held his own againet
the armies of the Holy Alliance,
and, indeed, gave them an unholy
thrashing in the first three bat
tles, but the scales were turned by
the deadly enmity of Bernandotte,
whe for years had been made the
scapegoat of the Emperor’s bad
humor.
A relative of the exiled reformer
Be.tujeff, is now kuowu to have
engineered plot that cost the
life sf Czar Alexander,and the re
cently published confession ot Dr.
George Foote of Warrenton,N. C.,
makes it probable that Abraham
SM STARK
1 desire to inform my
Friends and Patrons
and the Public gen er
ly, that my elegant line
f new Fall and Winter
WOOLENS
Has been received, and
are now open for n
spection, And I willfur
ther state that 1 am
now better prepared
than ever lo turn out
FIRST class work
AND
JIRST CLASS GOODS,
At Orices'never before
heard of in Rome,
s. M. STARK,
merchant tailor
16 ARMSTRONG HOTEL
THE HUSTLER OF ROME.
Lincoln, too, owed his fate to the
one quasi despotic act ot his patri.
otic career.
On the whole evinced an txtreme
reluctance to the adoption of terro
rism measures for Ihe suppression
ot lhe rebellion, and rarely signed
the death warrant ofja prisoner of
war before the winter ot 1864,when
he consented to the execution of
Captain Harry Beall of the Con
federate Army’ the leader of the St
Albans raids who had been cap
tured in one of his daring inroads
and sentenced to death as a spy.
The dread of seeing the last
campaign of Lee’s regulars follow
ed by a guerilla war may have had
s imething to do with that decision
but even impartial outsiders like
Governor Andrew, of Massachu
setts, admitted that Beal had been
guilty of no offense that could not
with the same plausibility be charg
ed against Colonel Mosby and doz
ens of Sherman’s and Sheridan’s
cavalry officers.
John Wilkes Booth, one of Beall’
many personal friends, is said to
have pleaded for his life by throw
ing himself at the feet of the Pres
ident, who at last promised to re
spite the prisoner and reconsider
his case.
But on the very night after that
promice the post commander of Ft.
Columbus removed a telegraphic
order to hang Captain Beall, and
executed the sentence at 10 o’clock
the next morning. Booth, in the
meantime, had communicated the
glad tidings of the respite to Beall’s
mother, after advising his friends
o abandon the plan of the propos
ed jail delivery, and on learnii g
the details of what he considered a
heartless breach of faith at once
v<>wed to avenge ths fate of his
friend.
o o o
Au exactly similar mistake or
misunderstanding cost the life of
Caliph Ottoman, one of the ablest
and on the whole, most humane
succa.sors of the prophet,
A rebellion of his Egyptian
Btadthoh • had been suppressed by
th. execution of the ringleader.,
including a nephew of one of the
former Caliphs, Otham himself,
had been averse to that measure,
but tue intriguing virags Ayesha
forged a copy of an order signed by
the commander of the laitbful and
ojutnved 'o let it fall into the
hands of ihe rebels.
A relative of the condemned in
surgent at once set out for Medi
na, and, considering the supposed
ukase a scand lo .8 breach of a
personal promise, stabbed the ( a
liph in his own palace
the founder of the
Turkoman Empire, was killed by
conspirators who had personal rea
sons to resent a gross abuse of his
power, and private vendettashave,
indeed, more than once proved the
most efficient check on the excess
es of absolutism, and even of fa
naticism.
At a time when the thought of
the inquisition hung like a Damo
cles sword over the peace es every
household in Southern Europe the
zeal of its terrible procurators was
frequently’ moderated by the dread
of blood avengers.
O 0 o
As early as 1285 Pedro de Plane
dis was speard on hi. return from
a provincial auto-da-fe, and two
years after Pierre Castelran was
clubbed to death in Toulouse.
Ponce de Espira, a zealot who
had been warned that conspirators
were on his track, at last refused
to admit strangers and never left |
his residence without a bodyguard, I
but had no objection to engaging
the services of a cook who had in
troduced himself with forged rec
ommendation. of a former employe.
A few day. after that the cook
disappeared and his patron wa.
found writhing on the floor of his
bedchamber. Antidotes were ad
ministered by the next convert
< I Fl
ROME GEORGIA. FRIDAY EVENING
di’iiKgist.but he died in convulsions
before the arrival of an alcalde.
Innumerable arrests followed, but
neither threats nor torture could
fasten the guilt of the crime upon
anv speaial survivors of the mar
tyr’s victims, and as the advice of
hissucc ssor all th* defendants
were ultimately released
Pietro de Verona, another in
jqnisitor of that period, was stab
i bed in his confessional, and Pedro
' Cadirebas (his first name seems to
i have been almost an omen of mar
tyrdom) was stoned to death in
passing a village that had lost a
benefactor by the indiscriminate
zeal of his heretic
What risks such expedients in
volved in that age of ecclesiastic
supremacy may be infered from the
man hunts following the a.sassina
of the Inquisitor Arbues. The re
morseless activity of that official
had culminate!? in a r.ign of terror,
and when he transferred his head
quarters to Saragossa nocturnal
mass meeting, of the inhaditaut.
warned his agents that trouble was
brewing. A Navarrese abbot pro
phesied that th. first auto-da-fe
would be followed by th* murder
of the Chief Inquisitor, and when
that prediction had been fulfilled
not only all the suspected member
of the actual conspiracy, but even
all the known participator, of tbose
midnight assemblies, were at on e
thrown into prison.
The arrival of strong military
detachment overawed the citizens,
and for weeks the sky was black
ened with the fumes of smolder
ing corpses, and scores of prisoners
were guarded in suburban camps,
as the available dungeons were al
ready overcrowded.
Hundreds, however, had saved
themselves by timely fight, and
the Inquisitors next turned thei r
attention to th.ir relatives and
friends, who were suspected of hav
ing aid.d their escape. Forty-six
of th. citizens arrested on that lat
ter charge were noblemen of the
first rank, but could think them
selves lucky if they got off with
dislocated joints and splintered
thumb bones.
One Gtspar de Sant* Cruz had
succeeded in getting across the
Pyrenees, and being suspected o
havii g taken refuge in Southern
France, his son was compelled to
make a,round trip of theFranch
border towns and warn the author
ities to keep a sharp lookout for
the fugitive, or in case he should
have died (of fatigue and extreme
old age) to exhume and burn his
bones.
From the decision of the Moore
ish Princess there was at first a
chance of appeal to the Bagdad
successor of the prophet, but ever
after the rulers of Cordova had de
clared free independence, on. of
those potentates, the Caliph Al
mostansir, became involved in a
sort of Pollard scandal and was
killed by the brother of the injur
ed damsel.
He had jailed the local Jere M il
sons and scared the moral reform
committees into silen.e, when on
day a dust-covered horseman forced
his way into the Castle park where
the Caliph was feeding his Indian
peacocKs.
Somehow or other the au'o?rat
guessed the purpose ot the intru
der, and realizing the inability of
an appeal to the office holders took
to his heels, but was overtak* n and
slain on the palace steps. The
murderer galloped away,and would
h ive escaped if his horse had not
i-hied and thrown its rider in the
1 suburbs.
I With better luck that desperado
could have made his way across
the Castilian border and abdjured
the error of Islam, and the Moor
ish Princes would never have sur
rendered the slayer of a grand in
quisitor, while an unsuccessful at
tempt on the life pf a Roman Err.
peror would have obliged the
Htientatcr to get off the earth.
Neither Africa nor Asia won d
have off red a chance of escape
from the bullies of the omnipresent,
proconsuls, and in Roni* itself the
spies of the despot wou d have fer
reted him out <*f the darkest back
alley, and he might as well have
tried to hide in Benaresaf er kick
ing a sacred ape, or in Pittsburg
after playing a game of ball on
S .inday.
• But for »11 that, not lees than 11
of those world rulers were killed by
the avengers of private grievances,
the sense of personal wrongs hav
ing proved a far more powerful
stimulus than the wrath of out
raged patriotism.
The Vendetta Association that
undertook to tackle the ogre Cali
gula knew that they had to deal
with a matchless expert in the art
of refined torture, and that even
1 in the case of complete succe.s they
would run the risk of being cut to
pieces by the Pretonan guard,
whom the crazy butcher had just
sense enough to propitiate by fre
quent presents.
o o o
Boabdil el Chico, the last Moor
ish ruler of Southern Spain, guard
ed his precious person too closely
■ to give his numerous enemies a
ghost of a chance, but his pen
chant for signing death warrants
1 cost him his throne.
The mass execution of the Abe-
Cerages, with all their kinsmen
and retainers (on a eharge of dis
loyalty ), deprived his kingdom of
its ablest warriors, and a bosom
friend of one of the murdered cav
aliers succeeded in getting himself
appointed Post Commander of Ft.
Alhama .nd promptly surrender
ed that is, and Gibraltar to the
Christians.
‘•Ay. d mi Albania,,'
“Woe be us, Alhama is-lost!'
was the refrain of a Moorish dirge
that recounts the fate of an old pa.
tnot who gives King Boabdil a bit
of bis mind in desperately plain
language.
“Where laws are not respected”
he winds up his regi.ter of royal
crimes, “there is a higher law
which ordains general ruin.”
That law finally ordained the
end of the Moorish Empire. When
constant assasinations could no
longer moderate the tyarnny of
the Caliphs. In Russia things al
most seemed to have reached a
similar crisis, when the death of
Czar Alexander was followed by
orgies of bureaucratic despotism,
but the lesson of that historic
March day has, after all, not been
lost, if it is true that the rap
id decline of the present autocrat’s
health is a direct consequence of
his dread of assassination.
‘Let her alone and she will soon
pick quarrels with her new friends,”
says BfcnjJohnson’s rustic phiiosopner
us a vixen who marries just to spite
one of her old neighbors ; and more
than one absolute ruler carried bi g
despotism to the imprudent lenght
of bullying his own soldiers beyond
the limit of human endurance.
Ali Rashaw’was fired at repeatedly
from ambush by his exasperated
troopers, and t Charles XII , of Sweed
en, was shot dead in his own trench
es, either by the kinsman of a bru
tally maltreated’recruit, or by|a stafl
officer whom the King had insulted
n the presence of his comrades,
o o o
Marecbal Veudome.a cynic in tie
coursest pagan sense of the word
but withal the idol of “the French
Army, once made a speech warn
ing some overbearing ’dandy offi
cers not to treat armed men like
galley slaves, incapabl. of taking
the law in their own hands, and a
historian of Queen Anne’s time
plainly insinuates that Vendome’s
great opponent the Duke of Marl
borough would more then once
have paid his military rigor and
his avarice with his.life if the pa
triotism of his soldiers and their .
admiration of his strategic genius
had n got the better of their ri -
sentment.
Und.r th* reign of Katherine 11.
When Polish recruits were for the
first tiini subjected to ths knout
discipline of tbe Russian Army .the
assissinVioii of martinet offijeis
became ainriiiugly frequeu»,tiii the
Muscovite Ministtr ot War ordered
that t v ry suspected company reg
intent or brigade should ue doub.e
decimated .In other words /if a i
unpopular officer had been killed
by a bullet undoubtedly fired from
the ranks of his own men, and H e
assassin could not be identified,
th- whole detachment of the sus
pected fusilleere had to draw lots
and every fifth man was lakeuout
and shot without mercy. .
o o o
The Rhadamantic court of inqui
ry which the Provost Marshal ot a
modern European army convenes
in mob case are not much more
ageeable. but*’removals’’ of obnox
ious officers recur, lhe latest sen
sation < fjtbat sort being reported
from Erloacti, Bavaria, where the
Sixth .Regiment of the Bavarian
Infantry had taken part in a sents
of field maneuvers, Captain Tueo
dore Kress, ot that regiment,hau
the reputation ot being the stricf
est disciplinarian of his army
corps and was suspected of having
stopped sevral formal complaint of
his noncommissioned officers. He
also slopped their extra allow
ances on the slightest provocation
but could not stop a rifle ball that
hit him midways between the
shoulders ou the morning of Sep
tember 28 and caused his death by
1 recking his spine.
.There is not the slightest clew
to the basis of a personal indict
nient, and it will be intereating to
learn the decision of the Kriegs
herr, th. Berlin War Lord, who
only a few we.ks ago sent 188
graduate, of the Prussian Artil
lery School to the military prison
of Magdeburg for having joined in
a disieepectful demonstration
against one of tneir superior offi
cers.
JUST RECEIVED
One of the most corr
plete assortments o.
TOILET SOAPS
AND
TOILET ARTICLES
Ever brought to the
city. See our line of
fine
IMPORTED TOOTH
ES
They have no superior
on this or any other
market
SOLE AGENT
CANDIES
J. T CROUCH & CO.
Medical Building.
IO CENTS A WEEK
TROUBLE
The Well known Finn of Lanham t
Sons ofThe 4th Ward.
CAUSESERIOUS TROUBLE
To the Merchants of this en
tire Section.Theycutprices
so low that Competitors
are knocked out. Start
ling Figures.
The well-known firm of Lan
ham & Son, of the Fourth Ward,
are causing serious trouble to the
merchants of this city.
They cut prices so low that none
dare compete with them. Just
think about it!
LARGE HEAVY
BLANKETS
20c EACH.
A GOOD COMFORT
OR QUILT FOR 25c.
LADIES ALL
WOOL HOSE,
12 and a h a 1f
cents per Pair.
Jeans as low as 1 Oc.
Ail Wool Flannell
10c.
Sea Island yd wide 4
& a half cents.
Yd wide Bleached
Cotton 5c
CHECKS 3 l-2c
SHOES!
SHOES I
SHOES!
Baby shoes as low’as
2O2cts.
Clothing cheaper
than anywhere! else in
the city.
DRESS GOODS.No
tions and everything
else in 4 propotion.
Sugar Coffee Flour
and Groceries at whole
sale or Retail below.the
regular price.
Tinware, Stoves,
Crockery etc,£at hard
time prices.
LANHAM &SONSI
316 TO 326 STH AVE.
&236 BROADSTREET