The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-10-01 00:00:00

FROM PARIS TO TOURS.

The Correspondent of the Doily Trl(2l-aph given the
following interesting discription of biz journey from
Paris to Tours :--
Nothing could be leu warlike than the beautilul country
along the line of the Chemin] de ler de Fe luest from Rouen
to some distance beyond he Mane. At Omen it t, so richly
wooded and so well cultivated that. m it gLisre in the autumn
sun, It seems to be a Continental Kent. Front the side of
the line the country stretches away in gentle uplands, covered
with pine teed elm, with oak and beech : by the tide of the
railway rich orchards glow with ruddy apples ; as the train
dashes along, white.washed village, start nut from the wood-
lurid., while, crowning the cluster of houses, rises the spire of
the village church, the square tower jutting up into a
long, narrow atceole, like many of the church towers in the
neighbourhood of Canterbury. Now and again, atm, springs
out from the pines, or darts up from come old SCILS, a
chateau, built of bright red brick, and with whadowe painted
white; so that it looks gay, and galloot, and French. Stith
housen recall the fact, not only that France hut once grande
itirwurs, but that she has a few granule wiguturd still.
Despite the laws of the Revolution, some of her Wallas have
contrived to keep their land unbroken, and boast of their
flawless de icent from noire robber chief with as Olympian •
e3loi as if culture were not becoming the supreme arbiter in
the world of social distinction, or as if culture did not view
the pride of birth with Olympian contempt.
As we dashed along, however, the t -elk turned on anhJects
cry nidfereut from the richness of the landscape, the fain of
the old noblesie, or the triumph of democracy. Me of ray!
cowl anions WWI e. French MUSS, whose deftly fume oud
clear blue eye told of unleeveeed vigour, although his iroe.
grey hair In spoke the advat.ce of tours lie had 1,10ng..el
the army of al stc Mahon, and h 011,000 at Sedan. Tim result
was a 1,01111,1 in the leg, from which he had not yet recovered,
and a hlch ebliged him to r, stints limb on the cushion of the
caret -'go A young traveller, apparently not more than two.
and twenty, was also an officer; hut his batile.flehle had still
to come. A third was a middle-aged army aurgeon, who hal
. been in the Crimea, and wore the medal of Sebastopol. A
fourth was a noisy civilian critic, who lent the enineenation
on the everts cf the day, and dealt out summary juogment
to the stetipmeo and the colliers of France The nice who
had been atSenisu knew nothing particular about the battle—
no more, at least, than is known' by any one who has read the .
London nt, eepapers. Men who are thenmelvea °pegged in bat- '
ties hate, innleonl, no opportunity of aunts the fight untie seen
by epode cornespouelente. Seeing only eontumed move-
ments, and hearing oily a frightful cannonade, they sum
up the experience of the light by a dint memory of some-
thing which made either themselves or their enemies runt
away, and left them either the victims of a Sedan or the
heroes ml an Auderlitz Such seemed to Inc OA SIMI of the
knowledge left by Sedan on the mind of my travelling von-
nanion. Ills 1111,4 vied remembrance wee of the fact that
the fire of the Germans was like hall so that in some ports
of the fold It emote down the men, ste a storm might strip off
the leaves of trees. And the brave officer was certain that,
it MaeMahon had not been driven into a corner, at ',stilly had I
not been either • knave or • tool, if the French had been
better led, if the artillery had been better Arend, and if

BMW(' bed beenable to attack the Pruitalsine he the mar,
while el &elf ahoti was .triking them in front, the fortunes of
the day would have been very different, and Paris saved from
the horrors of • siege. That string of " ifs wu quite familiar
to English readers before heft London. When the converse-
Mon turned upon the siege of Paris, all the epeekeru showed
them.elves to be typical Frenchmen, by settler aside the very
Idea of turrender ad too absurd even for debate. Nothing, In-
deed, can be more unmistakeable than the conviction of the
French that Paris must not only fight, but fleht to the bitter
end. The beauty of her boulevards, the lines of trees which
the fire may consume, the stately erections which the shells
may testae*, the belt Of woods which must be burnt in order
to withhold • shelter trout the enemy, and the priceless
treasures of art which most be exposed to the risk of
destruction—ell this is totally forgotten in presence of the
evermuterlog fact that Paris must not fall into the heeds of
the Prussisua or must undergo such • degradation only
after • light which, by comparison, shall make the burning
of Moscow seem tame. In the language of gesticulation,
the general feeling of determination was expressed by one
of my travelling compassions with all the energy of speech-
less grimace. net, lee Implied, the forte mast be defended
So long as a stone of the walls could give shelter to the
garrison ; then the ramparts must be held to the like
extremity; and, at the worst, than wcuid still remain •
system of defence which be deemed impregnable and the ag-
gressive force of which& copious command of words felled to
deacribe. Tnere would remain Boidwi in and the cry ef
ri is barricade. At the mention of these words the eloquent
commentator became speechless; and, s, if confronted with
Bismsrek, he slowly, gravely, solemnly made the most con-
temptuous gesture at his commend. Perhaps Paris may
have already attested the truth of Alphonse Karr's prediction,
that she would Icy down her arms if deprived of fresh straw-
berries for a ff.). morning. Yet the fact remains tint, on
every side the French people—women no lens than men—
declare, riot with boastirig or vulgar loudners. but with •
quiet, grim, almost religioue Hastening, that France mutt
now fight Untll the bitter end. Whatever may have been the
case at first, the French peoplese. eow thoroughly in earnest,
and are throwing their whet, o,,ci into the war. Tirelr
earnestnees fille them with euwouted sadness. loft hoar
little martial music, no cheer ire. little boasting, no attempt
to uudervalue the foe, or to dlegaise the Irernendow seeff-
lice that await the country lire only signs ej : riment or
noisy petrMtism COM 3 (rem the told!. r :„ , eeter the
railway stations in the military ti , -iron the eve of
battle the soldier of e nation it rewayr the -ct lealtleill
citizen. The civilian, of F-1411Ce Ar, the greet
grim silence which Irelts men wire • meal. ..e.rt, and know
whet Ilightiug mem..
Tire Chemin de Fey de teemed v:rtu .ay ceased lobe
anything else tha a ...At ereilito highway. Train sfeer
train dashes past filled whei reps and blue coata.
The goods waggons have leteu ee -with seats, so as to
Increase the appliences for transe :leg the troops from
point to point. The covered var,, e-ed to carry ammuni-
tion Forage waggerns which have lea sides acne to carry
cannon knit the other appliances in the trains of artillery.
The cattle trucks are filled with the horses of the cavalry.
Throughout day and night, at short intervals, coins the
military trains in grim procession, and on reaching a station,
or in teeming another train, the occupants take care to pro-
claim their pretence and their political sympathies with
all the emphasis of breech soldier. Last night, in
the dim averring light, when a long strieg of carriages
dulled up to one of tire stations, the " Mansell-
Übe " was Bung, or rather shouted, by • hundred
hoarse voices, wita such v, defiance of time and tune, such
prosaic accompaniments of rive to Republieve, and Lech In-
harmonious interruptions from the snorting of the engiue as
would have driven a music-master mad, but, at the same
time, with a ravage vigour which made the chant nose the
tees interesting politically. It Is pathetic to see the response
made by the non-combatants to such tokens of military
spirit. At many of the stations a crowd of old men, women,
and boys await the trains with lags jeers of wine, seri also
with baskets of bread, and of such fruit as grapes, pears,
peaches, and apples. At one of the stations this morning
the curd of the neighbouring village, in his long bleck casseck,
and with bare heed, was running in a state of frsuric eager.
nets to adrainieter cordials to the wounded soldiew The
men, women, and children joined with equal eagerness in
the struggle to fill the canvas poaches of the soldiers
with bread and grapes, and their flasks with wine. By aught
as well as by day the soldiers benefit by this rural commis-
tsarist A. our Ugh dulted into a station after twelve
o'clock last night there was a rush of /MUM] and lads to the
windows of the carriages with the baskets of fruit and bread.
In their eagerness to serve, they did not in every case die-
tinguish civilians from soldiers. At least, grapes and pears
were willingly pushed into the window of oar carriage and it
was with dithutty that we could persuade the given to take
money in exchange. May we be pardoned if no robbed the
poor soldiers; for our only excuse is as insufficient nail is
old—the woman tempted us, and we did eat.
One melt of the war has been to draw a vast number of
peopes away from Paris, arid proportionately to it cod such
towns as i.e Mans and 'lours with strangers. Worn our
train reached Le Maus this morning at half-part one o'clock,
an inconvenience that must ace 'merely each su exodus was
experts. el by the party with which I travelled. Inn Con-
ductor of our omnibus drove us lint to one hotel, and then
to along series of others—beginning at the La Maus eqedva-
le. for the Loud on West-end, cud taking us down by slow
degrees to the local Shoreditch, orcl,il, 'ming the rascally
look of thestreets and the dingy appears.ce of the sins, one
almost feared to hear that rooms were at our reice. But
no such message did we get, even at the lowest of the low.
All, even the most beggarly, were fall from fl rear V, ceiling
with, of course, the fugitives from the capital. We had
therefore to come back to the railway station, end
spend the night in the waiting reams until the
train should start for Tours. If the experience
was not altogether pleasant, amp'e compensation was
merle, however, by the extraordinary siget of the vallev
Wet lode, and, indeed, by every part of the building. The
space allotted to passengers, which Is large, is divided Into
a specking entrance hail and three waltieg rooms—one for
the first, one for the second, and one for the third chins
Every part was filled with • motley erewd of behiglited
travellers. Soldiers of the line, Garde. Mobiles, kranes-
tireurs, Uri conscript., peuents and workmen, men, women,
and children, richly-dreued ladies, wounded Men, stater. of
Mercy, priests, tourists, babies, luggage, bottles of vine,,
Chassepots, newspaper., poodle dogs, were ell huddled
together In indescribable confusion The soldters and the
, Gerdes Mobiles had taken posseetion of the large entrmice
'hell and the peewee, and had isin down to sleep in groups
of three or four some lying on their face., others
on their becks, others in so twisted • fashion
that it wee difficult to dietinguish their heed
. from their feet, and others—brothers It might be—
looked in each other. arms. Some were covered •ith their
great coats or with rugs, aud a few had contrived to spread
' • bit of brown paper over telt part of the floor on which
they were lying; but the great majority had no covering
I save their bloures At one comer lay a family group, the
, mother feat asleep, and her baby, tin wakened by all the din
, of voices and the tramp of feet. In some places the crowd
of thirigs and beings was so dense that it was difficult to
move without *tamping on a tobacco pipe or a Garde ef obile.
• 1 sby, or a bottle of wine. Tee second-class weitingroom
had, for the night, boon converted into an hermit.. On
the long tablee had been placed rough mat:reales, and on
these wire calmly sleepireg a number of meu who hail been
struck down at Sedan, and were now sufficiently recovered
to bear carriage by mushy. In • spirit of rough, mnamaine
' kindnen the poor fellows Burned to be watched by sillier
nurses. In order, perhaps, to take sway all see. orneriness,
two men were amusing theruselven beside the wounded
soldiers by a vigorous game at cards. The fleet class
wnittne-room was hardly leas densely crowded than
the intrancehall, and It eresented • still more motley
throng. The sot., the table, the chairs, the fib C, ovary
pl.cs was covered by aleeplog or waking wemen, and
children Two luxuriant soldiers had captured the eest part
el the table, had Wu down at full leegth, and, covered with
• end rug, had gore feet to sleep. Bencel ladle, tried to
sleep reclinieg retrainee sofas or chairs. Some officers, the
more vigorous men of the party. and a beeevolent lurking
priest made the best of the situation by wandering about tho
station, emoting occesioual weeds, grumbling at the get eau
of the butf et for not being at hand to enpply or
and diecuesing the probable fate of Marshal Ilusiue.
, The happiest members of the motley throng seemed to be
two testers of Mercy, whose spotlessly white caps arid hand-
kerchiefs set oft-their round rosy faces, and whose I.,ks of
studied demunneu manifestly coacealrd • fund of ben...
lent hummer, arid a rich capacity for breaking vows of silence
Toe wounded soldiers on whom they Walt will no cheered by
their merry faces more than by soy sublimity of pietistic
gloom.