n the apparently well established French principle that it is better
that ten innocent should suffer punishment rather than that one guilty
person should escape the patriotic young men assaulted everybody. A
white-haired old man who protested was slapped in the face, another
man was quieted by a brutal kick in the abdomen that doubled him up,
a couple of foreigners who could neither understand the language nor
comprehend what it was all about were roughly handled, a half-grown
boy was cuffed,--everybody but the driver came in for blows and
insults; and this driver of the omnibus was in all probability the
real villain.

"En avant!"

This lesson was administered en route, and without stopping the main
body of manifestants pressed on into the grand boulevard, to be
swallowed up in the resistless human current that now flowed down upon
the Place de l'Opera.

CHAPTER XII

A formidable proportion of the grand concourse which filled the
fashionable boulevards from curb to curb this beautiful Sunday
afternoon was composed of the so-called "boulevardiers," "flaneurs,"
and "badauds," who invariably appear on occasion offering excitement.
For the Parisian world loves to be amused, and to have the pulse
quickened by riot and bloodshed is to very many the highest form of
amusement. It is better than a bull-fight.

To most of this very large class of Parisians it is immaterial what
form of government they live under, provided that in some way or
another it furnish plenty of excitement. No other country in the
civilized world, unless Spain is to be included under this head,
produces this peculiar class, the unseen influence of which seems to
have escaped the brilliant French writers who have recorded the
turbulent history of France.

The cardinal characteristic of the French individually and as a people
is love of and admiration for theatrical display. This finds such
ample illustration in all of their known domestic as well as
international affairs that even the mere statement seems unnecessary.
It permeates every social rank, and it enters into the performance of
the simplest private as well as public duties. In higher governmental
affairs it was accurately represented by the late President of the
republic, Felix Faure, who went among his countrymen in a coach and
four preceded by trumpeters and accompanied by a regiment of
cuirassiers, and who required of his entourage all of the formalities
of royalty. The hundre