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Show FRANCE AND FRENCHMEN. A synopsis of an article on the Louisiana Purchase Pur-chase centenary by Pierre De Coubertin Is published pub-lished in the Review of Reviews. The writer thinks Napoleon sold Louisiana because he was ignorant of its resources and political Importance, and charges France with criminal and Inexcusable ignorance regarding her colonies. The first charge is a slander upon Napoleon, the second is not quite fair. When Napoleon sold Louisiana Nelson had nearly every port of France blockaded and plenty of ships beside to play havoc with any French colony. He sold It to keep from having it captured and expressed the hope that it might help cause the United States to become Great Britain's great commercial rival It Is quite true that France had but a dim conception of the great value of Louisiana, but her general knowledge knowl-edge of the United States was equal to that on this side and she was 3,000 miles further away, and steam was not a motive power for ships in those days. The average voyage across the Atlantic was forty days. There were no telegraphs on land, no cables under the sea then, and to every French statesman America seemed further away than Central Africa seems now. Many statesmen in America did not believe IHH the property was worth the purchase money, and mB! half a century later there was the same dim per- B ception of tho value of our west coast. The men 9H of those days knew nothing of the miracles that fifl oould be wrought by the Pike county man, his 191 long whip, his patient steers, his indifference to 11 hardships, his pluck that never quailed, his perse- 11 verance, his unconscious belief that he was sufllcl- ent for tiny long-drawn-out duty. They knew noth- ing of the treasures of gold and silver that were 11 to quicken and electrify the land, and which, with H the steam engine, was to crowd the work of three jH hundred years into fifty. M Then this writer is not quite right about the flH French as colonists. The native-born Frenchman flB is not a good colonist. When he leaves France, H it is but for a temporary purpose. He means to 9 return. Half those who went to Canada and Or- IHi leans would have found the way back had seven- H day steamers been crossing the Atlantic in their H day. The second generation are all right, but then H they are no longer Frenchmen. H An example is seen in Algieria, though that H is but a short sail from France. Suppose the Eng- H lish had planted a colony there. Is there any H doubt but that they would have long ago possessed jH northern Africa? Suppose they had been there H in force a few weeks ago when the American and H the Englishmen were kidnapped, what would have IH happened? The next day a few brigades of cav- H airy would have been on the trail of the man- W& stealer, and before the affair was over they would jHfl have bwned all that part of the country.- One of H the loveliest traits of Frenchmen is their devotion H to native land. They are always ready to stake ,1 life, fortune and sacred honor in its defense; to M them there is no land around which the past has H drawn such splendors, none other that compares fl with it in present magnificence. Nat Goodwin M says, "People live in New York; when they leave M there they camp out." That is the Frenchman's M B ' Hj idea of France. In arms, in the arts, in solence, Hj: jH in enlightened industries France has kept abreast B ,,!' of the very foremost of the world's peoples; in Hi '3 the moment of Victory she is generous, from a de- BS ! j feat she rises with a swiftness tbat astonishes her j M enemies B if Her shining record is burned into the brain B ! S of all Frenchmen, and while too polite to boast, B ' their inmost thought is that no other land com- B i i i pares with theirs, and that they never should de- BB f sort it to become the citizen of any other country. |
