The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-12-17 00:00:00

CRUEL WAR!

"It is to be noted that the losses of the German muslin in
these last encounters have very much extended, pro rant,
what they lost in the battles in which they overthrew the
French Empire and captured its armies. It Is felt that a
great uprising of the people would be a very serious thing
for these armies, strong and deservedly confident as they
are. Hence the new orders which will prevent any
enrolment of able-bulled men in the occupied districts,
and a strict watch will be kept on all Frenchmen
who could swell the ranks of the enemy. Re-
venge and Immortal hate will be potent recruiting officers.
In remote villages, from the Baltic to the Bavarian Alps,
from the Weser and Viatula to the Rhine, the cries of sor-
rowing mother, and fathers, and fatherless homes, most
still be heard before weary and bleeding France cries,
" Hold, enough Postal arrangement. uninterrupted, and
traffic largely developed, tell their own tale of the impo-
tence of guerrilla war against grand regular organntlions.
But the German if he does not love the Frenchman more de,
spin. him less. This light Is worthy of their name and their
race. The Germans are now obliged to hang together. They
stand in face of a popular " insurrection in some districts.
Not a soul was there to give them warning at Chatillon when
the esserey was stealing to surprise and murder them. And
it is a hard saying, hut It Is to be accepted by all people, that
they Somme sense—a military one—deserved their fate. A
great personage lost in A ivensleben a very esteemed friend,
but it said that he repudiated any sorrow for that log.,
" because he bad allowed himself and his men to be our-
priseo. And " the Prussian solaier," you know, 'should
be always en vedette." . . . The country between Orleans
and Toury, and all in front of it, Is described as beyond con-
ception terrible to contemplate. Four times now the storm
of war and battle has passed over it The villages and farm-
houses are burnt, the towns gutted. They are, neverthelen,
full of wounded men. Every house, almost, is crammed
with them—Plusalans, Hessians. Bavarian., Hanseatic.,
ffiecklmiburgers, and French. The fields and roads are
covered with dead hones and dead men, frozen sad stiffened
in hideous multiplication of fantastic contortions:.

CHRISTMAS

" The senile, tnvesting Parts are In the midstof I winter
campaign. The air is so cold that we shiver at night in
rooms where wood fires have been blazing all day. Plot one
green spot into ha seen in this most fertile land, where the
Clue grows everywhere in luxuriant abundance. The teenage
trees are like giant spectres—every branch Is stiff and hoary;
a thick snow covers every field, and road, and housetr.p, and
flakes are descenritng with a steady determination that dis-
countenances all h ipe of milder weather. Are wago spend
our Christmas beret I don't find any or.e bold Ibough to
say ' hto." A fortnight ago the Idea would have been
scouted in any assembly of German officers , but there Is a
change, and • great one. It net In with the beginning of lust
week. Like your Special Correspondent at Versatile., l sin
not able to account for it, but I recognise the fact I hear
no more of the immediate storing of provisions to carry into
Paris, and though not German doubts that Paris will be re-
duced, the posaibility of yet another great sortie and a resist-
ance dill prolonged Is reluctantly admitted."

QUITE INCOMPREHENSIBLE !

" Why did not the French attempt to follow up their ad-
vantage last week, when 12,000 or 13.000 of them having
crossed the Marne, bringing fourteen field batteries with them,
possessed themselves, for the time, of three Important posts
on tie line of the enemy's investment, and when 50,000 of
them at least were beneath the forts on the other side of the
river ready to pass over if their comrades in advance should
succeed In fsirty breaking through the " circle of Iron ? " It
Is simply Incomprehensible. Had they done so we should
have hail a great battle in the open field somewhere In the
nelghbiurbood of Champs. The Germans say that is what
they wished for. One would have supposed when the
French, with sis days' rations, had come out In such force
that they also desired such so encounter.