The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-01-28 00:00:00

WAITING FOR THE NEWS.

Tte Daily Nee,' 4 qrtspowlent went out to see the recent
battle before rails, and glvee the following account if fete
!Cum : .

I went nut early to see what WA3 to be seen, but I
was suffering from a Revere attack of influenza. The
day was damp and cold ; there was a fog which made
it difficult to Ste anything ; and, after finding that the
French had made god way, end that acre was a lull
. . - .

in the battle, I re-tunrned to Viten. I suppose I was about
the first to return from the firld. As I entered by the
Porte Maillot there was a moat wonderful sight. A
dense crowd—perhaps 2,ooo—men, women, and
children, waiting wiih dread aexiety for news. They
ci uld see nothing, standing as they did for the moat
part behind tee drawbridge, but they listened
to every shot that was tired, and looked hard
for any one c endng from the field. I was sloe at
torn to pieces. They ett upon me with terrible
eagt rn era. "What news? How goes the battle ? Do
you know anything of the 12fted of the National
Guards? How many guns did they find at Montre.
tout ? " Of course I could tell them very little. I had
only seen little bits of the battle. But ore thing I
could tell them—and perhaps it was thoughtless of me
tohave let it out—that whereaa so far the troops had been
successful, Paris must he prepared for many killed and
wouceled. The number of wounded was very great.
It was the Prusaian inniketry tire that did most semi-
thin. The artillery was comparatively harmless.
The Prussian gnaw ra tire with a beautiful re-
aularity, whigh, is, however, little serviceable. If
you marked where a shell fell, you were pretty
sure to note that every twenty seconds other
shells would fall in the same place, or thereabouts,
1 with the mechanical regularity of a steam haulm. r.
Beware of that particular spot, and you were corm
paratively safe. It was, I have said, the musketry
that did most execntion, and its affect WA% murderous.
In the rear of the battle the sight of the ambulance
carriages and the stretcher.beartrs leading up to them
was to be compared only to the precints r f the Italian
Opera in London on a grand night, whirr you sae long
lines of carriages, corner lines three deep, writing to
carry home the ttcy assemblage. If any of your
readers go to the Opera after reading this letter, let
them imagine, loot, ad of neat broughams and capa-
cious carriages filled with bright•eyed beauties, long tiles
of stretchers three deep, each containing &wounded man
groaning, and bleeding, and blanched of feature, and
each b irue elf tenderly by two men, one at the head
and the other at the foot. My imagination fu lof
this terrible sight, I told the people as I entered the
wells of Paris that there we re many wouoded. They
were greatly agitated ; and then came the women
round me, anxious to know of their kindred. One bad
a son in this regiment of the Natii mai Guards, another
o husband, a third a brother, some one else a father.
I shall never forget the trembling of the people
waiting to have news of their nearest and dearest
—their faltering voices, their swimming eyes, their
restless manner. And if ever you wish to picture to
yourself the horrors of war. do not let imagination
rent alone upon the battle field. Think Aro of the
thousands of people at the gates cif this great city—
thousands of all clauses, tine ladies and poi r women—
in agony for those they loved the best; wondering
whether they are safe ; fearing they are dead • certain
they ninet be wounded. This it is to fight with
National Guards. Teey fight with their families in
sight, ani the agony if these families waiting at the
gates is in some respects greater than the agony of the
field of lict,le itself. l'he crowds, let me add, were
not merely at tie gates. All up the Avenue General
Uhrieb, f, rmerly known as the Avenue de l'lm-
rratrice, they stood in group'. Half-way up is a solid
barricade right across the Avenue. They got on the
top of this barricade trying to see something, and all
round the List of the Arc de Triomphe they stood
watching with an intensity which it was most painted
t s witness.