of to-day; the proletariat has none of the servile instincts of democracy; it no longer aspires to walk on all fours before a former comrade who has become a chief magistrate, or to swoon for joy before the toilettes of ministers' wives.[1] The men who devote themselves to the revolutionary cause know that they must always remain poor. They carry on their work of organisation without attracting attention, and the meanest hack who scribbles for L'Humanité is much better known than the militants of the Confédération du Travail;[2] for the great majority of the French public, Griffuelhes will never have the notoriety of Rouanet;[3] and in the absence of the material advantages, which they could hardly expect, they have not even the satisfaction that celebrity can give. Putting their whole trust in the movements of the masses, they have no
- ↑ The essence of democracy is concentrated in the mot attributed to Mme. Flocon. "It is we who are the princesses." The democracy is happy when it sees a ridiculous creature like Fé1ix Faure, whom Joseph Reinach compared to the bourgeois gentilhomme, treated with princely honours (Histoire de l'affaire Dreyfus, vol. iv. p. 552).
- ↑ Parliamentary Socialism is very keen on good manners, as we can assure ourselves by consulting Gérault-Richard's numerous articles. I quote at random several specimens. On June 1, 1903, he declared in the Petite République that Queen Nathalie of Servia should have been called to order "for having listened to the preaching of P. Coubé at Aubervilles, and he demands that she be admonished by the police commissary of her district." On September 26 he is roused to indignation by the coarseness and the ignorance of good manners exhibited by Admiral Maréchal. The socialist code has its mysteries; the wives of socialists are sometimes called ladies and sometimes citizenesses; in the society of the future there will evidently be disputes about the order of precedence as there were at Versailles. On July 30, 1903, Cassagnac makes great fun in the Autorité of his having been taken to task by Gérault-Richaurd, who had given him lessons in good manners.
- ↑ Griffuelhes, who had been a shoemaker, was at one time secretary of the Confédération du Travail; he was remarkably intelligent; cf. a pamphlet by him entitled Voyage révolutionnaire.
[Rouanet was Malon's principal disciple; he was for some time a deputy, very much opposed to the Marxists, naturally a great adversary of the Confédération du Travail, a type of socialist politician who occupies a considerable place in journalism and in Parliament, but who does not count at all intellectually.—Trans.]
