The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-07-23 00:00:00

SCENES IN PARIS.

A correspondent thns grsphically describes the exciting
Scenes he witnessed in Pin.:—

I have seen Paris under rosily aspects, but never in
the course of my residence in Paris, which DOW extends
to nearly quarter of a century, did I ever witness
such a night as the boulevards—the main artary where
the pulse of the great city can be most distinctly felt—
offered on Friday night. The heat WM sutfocating„
the attnespherai was lurid and laden with minute par-
ticles of du•t, and not a breath of air was stirring. The
broad footpaths on either tide of the carriage way were
thronged with crowds so dense that progress was
next to impossible the huge mass swayed to and
fro like the surge of the sea. Newspaper stalls were
besieged. The cafes were filled. Every now and then
a band passed shouting " Vies in Goierre," "A
Berlin!" and singing the " Marseillaiee." Then
another hand would pass by shouting, to my amaze-
ment, "Viva la Pair !" On the Boulevard tee
Italions, where I had taken up my station when
this startling departure from the war enthusiasm
first caught roy ear, was evidently the bra Pipotr.
ten of the war party, so I walked down towable
the Chateau &Eau. I found tne peace party very
numerous indeed between the Faubourg Poi...
mere and Bt. Martin, where the bands who aliouted
for war were violently hooted, awl the peaceful ones
(pally violently applauded. As the night wore on
groupg formed all along the line of the Boulevards, in
which the respective merits of peace and war were ad-
vocated with great warmth and an occasional exchange
of blows. But considerieg the heat, the excitement,
and the enormous corms:option of hocks, the huge mass
was quiet enough. In England a crowd so large, and
animated by such conflictwg opinions, would have
very soon proceeded to extremities. I inspected the
"manifestation gangs" very closely, and I must con-
fect that they bore s strong family likeness to the
roughs which distinguiahed themselves in June '69 by
emliabing in the kiosks. Among the quieter groups, con-
ni sting most I y of comm. Hal clerks aud id lera, and also of
the better class of workmen, the majoritywere in favour
of war; but the minority was a very large one. I am
happy to say that both of these quieter groups agreed
in blatn:ng the noisy brawlers who cried •' Vire la
Gnerre !" or " Vice la pair !" just as they would cry
" Vice Rochefort !" • a- vice anything for the sake of
making a noise ; and that they expressed sunrise at
the police giving them such unbounded license. At
half-past one this morning, whoa I left the Boulevards
—for OW% correspondents must sleep—the crowds
were as largess ever—the 11010 deafening—the twee

intense—and the odeurs de Para Which ra veiled
almost made one agree, for owe, with M. Louie
Veuillat.

"THE GIRL I LErT EHIND MI

Around the various horr.ces the scene was a
sad one. French 'midi< r. net not as a rule
allowed to marry, but the, sot many ties bohind
hem, and the sobs and cryi i tte women Rb ~,t the
barrack sates were not pl ti hear. Frc a an
early hour in the morning the t Majestic classes, mean-
ing those who have little end meek sensation,
thronged to the terminus of . a. ra+terti Rails ay to
eitness the departure of chi tro.ne for the re et of
war." I went with theerard,aUti was preient ate cene
which, though hrinalul of a melees lie was
poignant at bottom. A I„rge proportion of the
army of Paris—soldiers of the line and not of
the Guard left for destination unknown, per-
haps Strasbourg, but more probably Metz, before five
o'clock in the afternoon. Some ,1 them marched in

from the camp of S-t.-Vanr,-ne-rar Vine-en-un-; ajenenTe
from the outlying forts. The former were "dead
brat," to use an expressive English idiom, after their
dusty trudge with the weary load of knapsack,
tente d'abri, and pouches crammed with cartridge;
under the hot nun; but the couple of battalions of
Chasseure I saw pass-handsome, fresh-faced, clean
young fellows-had a spirited air, and looked soldiers
every inch.
Mobs of sympathisers bearing tricolours preceded
the bands of every regiment, and intoned the refrain
of the "Marseillaise," while many of them mingled in
the ranks, and insisted on carrying the chaesepots,
or anything else of which they amid easily disem-
barrass the soldiers. Shouts of " Vive la France !"
"Vice Penn& !" ran along the line, and not a few of
the multitude embraced the noetrils of the staff
offieera' horses, in the lack of opportunity to
embrace the officers thems.lves in their patriotic
fervour. The enthusiasm was excessive; in the
face of it no one could deny that this war id popular.
" Nous sommes tons elntents" was the ;viewer I
heard from a tired conscript to a bystander, who asked
him was he not pleased to he going against the Cos-
sacks (sic.) Ileetileeely they filed into the yard of the
station, after a last kiss with a weeping relative or a
stirrup-cup with a friend of five minutes creation,
those poor boys, true Mai- a cotton, food for powder,
marching gaily to death, how many of them they knew
not where, for • cause of which they had not the
remotest idea. Amongst the corps which went I
noticed partiffilarly the Chaelettes, which came up in
apple-pie order, In kieg tidy cad ep to any work ; and
the 814 and Ildth of the line. It they are sent into
action with the impedimenta I saw on many of them-
canteens, el.okimr utensil., two pouches, pack, blanket,
havresack, mid share of tent materials. I fear vary
much many of them will sink under the heat and
burden of the day before any enemy is encountered.
The officers, most of whom were dec rated, looked
grave but confident. On the arms of many of them
hung wet-eyed wives or elsters, who were not, assuredly,
amongst those who hailed the war as glorious or a
bleeelo.,••
As the troops were kept waiting before being ad-
mitted to the carnage; liquor wan plentifully pressed
upon them by the spectators, and accepted in fashion
nowise loath, while the eternal " Marseillaise " was
sung, and cheers raised for the "nation" and the
"line," and one sedulous colportsur went round with
copies of the Gospel of St. Matthew, in near, pink hind-
ing,s, from the premien of some London Bible society,
which he distributed gratuitously to the "passengers
for Berlin." They took them politely, but appeared
as if they would have much rather preferred some-
tning good to drink. There was no outward
melancholy in the proceedings, but these light-
hearted Frenchmen di I bear themselves wish a
certain thoughtfulness as if they felt the gravity
of the occasion. Even among the lookers-on there
wan a section, and that by no meane contemptible, that
regarded the scene with sadness, and freely expressed
their opinion that a conflict with such a power a.
Prussia was no frivolous affair, "We have the mitral.
/ruse, it is true," they raid ; " but who knows what
they have /a bac ;" but three thoughts were forgotten
when " Vice In cantiniere" was cried, an some plump
daughter of the regiment, in uniform, smilingly went
by, and humanltarlanism forgot itself and j oiled lustily
in the chorus " France for ever !" 89 the last men of
the first legion from Paris dieappeand behind the har-
riers of the terminus on their road to glory--or
loath!