It was also interesting to note by the Paris papers how the French
valued the expressions of sympathy which poured in upon them. The fact
that both Houses in the United States had adjourned to do honor to
the memory of M. Carnot was not in their minds of as much importance
as was the telegram from the Czar of Russia, which was given the
most important place in every paper. It was followed almost invariably
by the message from the German Emperor, whose telegram, it is also
interesting to remember, was the second one to reach Paris after the
death of the President was announced. When one reads a congratulatory
telegram from the German Emperor on the result of the Cambridge-Oxford
boat-race, and another of condolence to the King of Greece in reference
to an earthquake, and then this one to the French people, it really
seems as though the young ruler did not mean that any event of
importance should take place anywhere without his having something to
say concerning it. But this last telegram was well timed, and the line
which said that M. Carnot had died like a soldier at his post was well
chosen to please the French love of things military, and please them
it did, as the Emperor knew that it would. But the condolence from the
sister republic across the sea was printed at the end of the column,
after those from Bulgaria and Switzerland. In the eyes of the Parisian
news editor, the sympathy of the people of a great nation was not so
important to his readers as the few words from an Emperor to whom they
looked for help in time of war.
This was not probably true of the whole of France, but it was true of
the Parisians. Two years from now Carnot's assassination will have
become history, and will impress them much more than it did at the
time of his death. The next Salon will be filled with the apotheosis
of Carnot, with his portrait and with pictures of his murder, and of
France in mourning laying a wreath upon his tomb. His son will find
quick promotion in the army, and may possibly aspire to Presidential
honors, or threaten the safety of the republic with a military
dictatorship. It sounds absurd now, but it is quite possible in a
country where General Dodds at once became a dangerous Presidential
possibility because he had conquered the Dahomans in the swamps of
Africa.
Where the French will place Carnot in their history, and how they
will reverence his memory, the next few years will show; but it is
a fact that at the time of his death they treated him with scant
consideration, and were much more impressed with the effect which their
loss made upon others than with what it meant to them. It is not a
pleasant thing to write about, nor is it the point of view that was
taken at the time, but in writing of facts it is more interesting to
report things as they happened than as they should have happened.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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