The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-09-10 00:00:00

HORRORS Or THE WAR.

No human power liable to cope with the hereon of the
preeent war (remarks the Lancet ) After actions Inch as
those before Metz the ground for miles is covered with the
dead, the dying, and the disabled the roads and railways
are all occupied with troops, transports, and munitions of
war, and therefore impaaaahle. Let anyone picture to him-
self the temporary ehrorganizetion into which the best re.
gulated of our hospitals word,' be threwa by the sudden up-
pearance before itigatesof tourer live hundred wounded Pert;
and then en,:eavour to realise what it mutt be where twenty
or thirty times that number of bleeding and mar gled human
Nieto; are lying on the ground and in woods, mangled with
the corpse. of hones and all the shattered debris of the
battle. Even If all the ro ids were clear, the means of trans-
port abundant, and the field hospitals innumerable and well
equipped, It would require a perfect army of men with
wheeled vehicles and stretcher, to separate the living from
the dead, bind up their wounds, and remove them from the ,
field. No organisation that human Ingenuity could devise
can 'd r ffeetively cope with such an amount it work. As it I
1,, with all the voluntary help which thousands and
thousands of men and women bring to the regular medical
eery:ices and their attached corps of sick attendants, the
',ended have passed through all the horror, of thirst dur-
ing an exposure for several days to the burning rays of •
midday sun : their pain-stricken frames have been bared to
the chilly dens of night, And tee awful eiacerefart of storm
and heavy Who( rain. Confronted with the terrible resents
which tele war has I.resented, brave men have felt appalled
and paralyied. If Germany had taken into the field every ,
Medical mull, and If they had all worked (met morn till eve,
there would still I sive been an enormous amount of pre-
'ratable misely and suffering that meet pan unrelieved.
We would earnestly exhort everyone tn participate In the
work of mercy and humanity, and aid the !Menu of the ear-
noes and the sick nurses by collecting funds end material
for alleviating the stiffeners of the wounded.

EXCITEMENT OF TIIE FRENCH IN LONDON.

The news from the seat of war has caused the greatest
excitement am, .tigst the French Inhabitants of the metropolis;
and in those quarters in which the French principally reside
exhibition of deep indignation took place. Nearly the whole
of the workshops where they are usually employed were on
Faturday deserted, and dozens of Frenchmen met together
in the streets anti taverns, indulging in deep threata of ven-
geance against those whom they consider to have brought
deep de zradettun upon their country. In the neighberu hood
of Leiceater square, where numbers of the Frenchmen and
other foreigners read e, groups were tube seen talking together
Over the news, some gesticulatqig furiously, others evidently
exulting In the neighbourhood of Tichfleld.street, Gerrard.
street, Newport Market, rko., precautions were taken to
prevent any collision between the French and the German..
Never during the liretime ni the present generation has so
niuch exciteMent been wi:nesscd In Loudon.

ONE OF THE INCIDENTS or WAR!
I darted from c,mp on t e 27t0, at about It PrriV-
Ing et Wore at twelse Writ, th- Coo emondent f tho Daily
!let. graph ; I ; es.llg 11. I.t .1 ..t t:rf v;;;;;;;,, ;
ragoy-aur.Nl; ache where the bane state of thing., %Oh the
exception of sielumaa, existed. 1 called upon the Mayor,
who, after he knew who I mu, at once Invited me Into Ma
Mass, sod paid me the greatest cl,Wty. lam happy to say

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that,W.hilst I weathers, I was the means of protesting
and hts family from Moult. Whilst we were at supper,
a Prussian soldier belonging to the rib Army Corps
knocked at the gate; when it was opened he walked
into the house, and desired to speak to the Mayor. .
Accordingly the Mayor west down, and, after about
five minutes' time, a maid came rushing Into the
room to say that the wilder was going to shoot her
master. I endeavoured to calm the wife's team and pro-
ceeded downstage into the kitchen, where a sufficiently
curious scene presented itself. The soldier—a coarse,
brutahlookMg fellow—stood with his back to the fireplace,
a drawn sword in one hand and a pistol in the other. On
the kitchen table sat M. to Maire, einnitiog a cigarette,
whilst the rest of the d 'meshes tv, CO hoddied into it corner.
Upon my entrance, the soldier turned his pistol upol‘l,rny
suit drITI9./I1:P1 wire !WM.. My 1111• N er was lir ef —that I was
an E glish 0121,r attached to General Poll thMetee bead-
quartere. on my way to the mg's head. qoarters ; that
be should at once put up his sword, and lay Ids pistol
down on the table; and, further, that he should stand
aside, and refrain silent until I asked hint to speak. Toe
man, twinge bully, was at once cow, d, and left the kitchen,
remaining in the hall until I called him in. The Mayor then
stated that he had mime with a requisition for two pgs, i.e
a pig end a cow; that he had procured him the two pigs;
but that he wes not content, and required him to produce
phi sheep atid some wine, aid. dinner for himself. This the
Mayor told him was impossible, inasmuch as there was no
such thing In the village; if he doubted what he said, he
might search for himself. The man then drew a pistol, told
Inn, he woul I give him ten minutes to give hint his ,thiner
and twenty minutes to produce the sheep, and that if they
were not forthcoming he should shoot him through the heart.
Such lathe common state of thing. in all thevillagea, although
I must confess I never before have seen such conduct on the
part of any Prussian sendier. (0, the contrary. their requisitions
&remade, especially by the elllcersin as quiet and inoffensive a
manlier as it is paseible to perform such a duty: hut the
Prussian army is In great want of provisions, and France
most find them. Puling the time I spent at Pagny no less
than forty unfortunate peasants canie to beg for bread, as
they ware starving The "commune' could not receive
them ; money would not buy what existed no longer—
bre.' and meat ! Their cattle have been slaughtered before
their door., their horses bitien trite te,misition, their barns
pillaged of corn and hay, their poen, y killed in the streets,
and their gardens ravaged until there was nothing left.