Paris and the Social Revolution Part 7

I

_Je suis le vieux Pere La Purge, Pharmacien de l'humanite, Contre sa bile je m'insurge Avec ma fille, Egalite._

REFRAIN

_J'ai ce qu'il faut dans ma boutique, Sans le tonnerre et les eclairs, Pour watriner toute la clique Des affameurs de l'Univers._

II

_Pendant que le peuple s'etiole Sur le pave, sans boulotter, Bourgeoisie, a.s.sez de la fiole!

Avec ma purge il faut compter._

_J'ai ce qu'il faut, etc._

III

_J'ai des poignards, des faulx, des piques, Des revolvers et des lingots, Pour attaquer les flancs uniques Des Gallifets et des sergots._

_J'ai ce qu'il faut, etc._

IV

_J'ai du petrole et de l'essence Pour badigeonner les chateaux; Des torches pour la circonstance, A porter au lieu de flambeaux._

_J'ai ce qu'il faut, etc._

V

_J'ai du picrate de pota.s.se, Du nitro de chlore a foison, Pour enlever toute la cra.s.se Du palais et de la prison._

_J'ai ce qu'il faut, etc._

VI

_J'ai des paves, j'ai de la poudre, De la dynamite, oh! crenom!

Qui rivalise avec la foudre Pour vous enlever le ballon._

_J'ai ce qu'il faut, etc._

VII

_Le gaz est aussi de la fete!

Si vous resistez, mes agneaux, Au beau milieu de la tempete Je fais eclater ses boyaux._

_J'ai ce qu'il faut, etc._

VIII

_Ma boutique est toute la France, Mes succursales sont partout.

Ou la faim pousse a la vengeance, Prends la bouteille et verse tout!_

_J'ai ce qu'il faut dans ma boutique, Sans le tonnerre et les eclairs, Pour watriner toute la clique Des affameurs de l'Univers._

[Ill.u.s.tration: "ENLEVEZ L'HOMME TONNEAU!"]

"_For the great Idea, the idea of perfect and free individuals For that, the bard walks in advance, leader of leaders._"

WALT WHITMAN.

CHAPTER III

THE WRITTEN PROPAGANDA OF ANARCHY

"_The wonder is that he didn't take a pair of tongs to hand me my paper. He held it towards me with the tips of his fingers in a horrified fashion, full of bourgeois indignation at the idea that the_ Pere Trimard _came to one of his lodgers._"-Journal d'un Anarchiste (AUGUSTIN LeGER).

"_You are not guilty because you are ignorant, but you are guilty when you resign yourselves to ignorance._"-MAZZINI.

"_What we should try to do is to sow ideas, to force reflection, leaving to time the care of making the ideas which it shall have received blossom into consciousness and deeds._"-JEAN GRAVE.

In 1898-99 Sebastien Faure took advantage of the exceptional chance for agitation offered by the Dreyfus matter to found an anarcho-Dreyfusard daily, _Le Journal du Peuple_. All other attempts to establish a daily anarchist organ seem to have failed completely,[11] and the _Journal du Peuple_ lived-if its feeble panting for existence can rightly be called living-only a few months. After its demise, M. Faure, as if to conceal his defeat, started an anarchist weekly, _Les Plebeiennes_, the good will of which he was not slow and, apparently, not too reluctant to turn over to another anarchist weekly, _Le Libertaire_ (eight pages, price two sous a copy), which had been printed intermittently at Montmartre for a considerable period, and which M. Faure himself had been instrumental in founding. The public proclamation of the consummation of the fusion between _Les Plebeiennes_ and _Le Libertaire_, which, being the fusion of two miseries, was at the farthest possible remove from the up-to-date fusion that goes to the forming of a trust, is of interest because it throws a great deal of light on the make-up of an anarchist paper, and on the anomalous and difficult position in the newspaper world of the anarchist press:-

"Because of material difficulties-want of money, to speak frankly-the _Libertaire_ was obliged to suspend publication.

It reappears to-day after a very short eclipse, and we have every reason to hope that the regularity of its appearance will be exposed to no fresh interruptions....

"We have profited by this short, obligatory vacation to attempt to group about the _Libertaire_ new forces and more numerous signatures; in a word, to take all the measures necessary to insure it a vigorous life.... You will see elsewhere that our friend Sebastien Faure has interrupted the publication of his excellent _Plebeiennes_ in order to rally as many readers as possible about the _Libertaire_. It is in the _Libertaire_, then, that Sebastien Faure will hereafter express his thoughts as often as he shall feel inclined to do so.

"Furthermore, precious and a.s.siduous collaborators have formally promised us regular contributions; namely, Laurent Tailhade, who with his incisive and scholarly pen will treat especially of the vulgarities of Christianity; Paul Ary Cine, who will expose barrack life; Raphael Dunois, who will chronicle and interpret the labor movement; Georges Pioch, dramatic and literary criticism; J. G. Prodhomme, musical criticism; A. R. Vertpre, art criticism; Alfred Griot, review of the reviews; Fred-Pol, review of the week; Alfred Bloch, scientific _chronique_; A. Harrent, anti-clerical _chronique_....

"In a word, we are doing what we can. Let our readers on their side do what they can in making known the _Libertaire_, in seeking new purchasers for it, in sending us financial aid sometimes, and in establishing in favour of their organ a serious and persevering propaganda.

"In this manner we can be certain that we and ours will have a journal to voice our opinions, our angers, and our hopes, and one which we can depend on to lead the people in the way that is frankly '_libertaire_' on the fast-approaching day when it is going to be necessary to 'fight it out,' when all the political parties are going to fall on each other in order to retain power or usurp it. We are on the eve of important events. It is the moment for all of us to show ourselves, to shake off, some of us, our apathy, others of us our egoism, to silence all our dissensions, to combine with force will, abnegation, and audacity."-_Le Libertaire._

[Ill.u.s.tration: DORMER-WINDOW OF JEAN GRAVE'S WORKSHOP

_Office of "Les Temps Nouveaux,"

in the rue Mouffetard_]