Some Americans in Helen Keller's young years saw the Populists as a frightening replay of the revolutionary mobs. Others turned towards Progressivism, thinking that reforms were necessary to prevent a French-style revolution.
But some people got their view of the French Revolution from novels and stories of starving peasant children being run over by carriages and arrogant aristocrats abducting and ravishing poor women. Helen Keller may have been one of those who shared a romantic view of the Revolution, a view that stayed around for generations.
I'm not saying this to excuse Keller - her romantic view of the French Revolution made her an admirer of Lenin and the Bolsheviks in all their murderousness - but that romantic view was common until a few decades back, and became much rarer only in recent years.
I doubt someone who has a “romantic view” of the French Revolution would explicitly reference the gorier aspects of the French Revolution and explicitly voice support for that kind of carnage or feel no remorse toward it or the thousands of lives it claimed. If anything, the romantic types would be disgusted with the blood and/or be unaware of it. I had a history teacher in my Sophomore year of High School who ALSO had a very romantic view of the French Revolution, practically cheering on the fact that they killed Christians and the king, yet even HE expressed disgust towards the Reign of Terror which claimed lots of lives, citing that Robespierre was “stupid” for conducting it. From the way Keller was talking, she even supported the Reign of Terror.
And I’m not entirely sure that romantic view has disappeared. If anything, it’s grown more prevalent, especially when there’s a major film company that’s making a movie about the French Revolution and even paints it in a positive light.