The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-05-27 00:00:00

SCENES AND INCIDENTS IN THE
STREETS OF PARIS.

The Special C wresponitent of the Daily New., writing on
Monday everlng, has sent the following very Interesting
Sketch of the scenes In the streets of Psrls

The tidings were unpleasant which greeted Dom-
browski when he rode into the Institution de Ste.
P rine which Wa4 occupied an a kind of minor Etat-
Major. It was the Commandant of the Wed National
Guard Blttalion who had come to us in the Chateau
de la Muette, to tell Dombrowrki bow his men had
been driven from the gate of Billancourt at five in
the afternoon. From what I could hurriedly
gather there had been a kind of rally. National
Gusrds had crowded the shattered banquette of the
enceinte, and lined the smashed cassmatee between
the gate of Billancourt and the Point du Jour, and
further northward to and beyond the gate of St. Cloud.
They had held to the position with considerable
tenacity under a terrible fire, hut had been driven hack
with heavy loss mainly by the close and steady
shooting of the Versaillist artillery in the breaching
batteries about Boulogne, and the battt ries at Brim-
borion. . .

Dombrowski and his staff were very active and
daring, and the heart of the troops seemed good.
There was some cheering at the order to advance, and
the troope—censiating chiefly of Franc-tiretars and
men dreered in a Zousve dreg., no far an I coot! see
in the gloom—were moved briskly up into the Rue de
la Municipalite. A couple of guns—tied guns I fear
—were got into position on the Ceinture Railway to the
left of the Rue de In Municipalite, and under their
elver the infantry debauched with a mill. I saw of
cavalry only a few mattered pick-ta. S ion there wan a
poreialt-q.organization. the renult of a hot and close in -
fantry fire that came seemingly from over a wail which
I learned bounded the Cimetil-re des Pativree. The
Federate broke right and left. Some made aimed the
earner of the Rue de ad ich• I-Any e, which balm& the
cemetery on the right, under tire panionate leaderehip
of a young staff officer whom I had noticed In the Cha-
teen de In Initiate at dinner time. There was a close
fusilade and I believe an attempt, which was partly
euccesaful, to storm the cemetery, taking it on three
sides. It woe said that Dromfrowski himself
headed the direct attack, but the locality wan too
warm for me to satisfy myself quite fully • n this
point. Meanwhile there seemed to be almont hand to
hand fighting going on all around in the space between
the enceinte and the railway. I could hear the inces-
sant whistle and patrer of the bullets and the pule and
earning of the men, not a few of whom owed what
voltage they dieplayed to profune libati •ne. Every now
and then there was a cheer and a rush, then a volley
which seemed to stay the rush, and then a stam-
pede back under cover. By half-pant ten it was obvious
that the fight wan nearly outof the Communieta. Dem-
brow-ki I had long lost sight of. Ore officer fold me
he had been killed in the churchyard, anther that his
horse had been abet uneer him, and that the last he
had seen of the daring kttle fellow was fighting with
his sword a Versailles marine. There came a panic, in
the thick of which I made good my retreat behind
"the second line of defence," which was not easily
recognisable as a line of defence at
We could hear in the dietance in our rear the
0,6r01e being beaten in the streets of Paris. A staff
officer who spoke English like • native, and who was SA
black as a nigger from powder smoke, came to where I
lurked, and teld me ... that the supreme hour bad
come at last. The supreme hour had come. It was two
o'clock in the morning. Suddenly a tremend• rim fire
opened on the railway, Shell after shell, at:ow,r, •.f• It -II
poured uproi it and the vicinity ; a hail of musk, try
lire pattered upon it. The Commnuiste &el e.iy
a reply, I will do them the juatice to any that, but it
was terribly weak and casual. Then there suddenly
cann roi the wind the close din of heavy firing from
the north. I heard some snout We are surrounded,
the Versaillieta are touring in by the gates of Auteuil,
Pagey, and La Muette ?" This was enough. A mad
panic set in. The cry rose of "Sauce qui pent I'. I
mingled with other shouts, "None nominee trahis !"
Arms and packs were thrown down and everyone
bolted at the top of his speed, the officers leading to
all meeming. I came on one party—• little detachment
of Francs-tireurs—standing fait behind the projection
of a house, and calling out that all the chief. had run

away And left them. W—hether deb WM the
regards the the higher commands I cannot tel I
don't think Dombrowski was the man to run nor
any of his staff. Bnt certainly none of them were to
be Keen. There was a cry, too, that there wee an in-
t 0-i n trim the south, en,' 80 men sureed and ist niggled
sad blasphemed confusedly up the eleai in dire con.
fusion, shot and ehell ever chasing them as they went.
In the extremity of panic,
.mingled with rage, men
blazed off their piecee indiscriminately, and etruek each
other with the clubbed ends. Then battalions or
detachments were met coming up, upon which surged
the tide of fugitives, imparted to them their panic, and
carr:ed them away in their rush.
I can hardly tell how Cr why I found myself on the
Place do Roi de Rome, as nearly as possible as I could
guess, at half•parit five in the morning— my watch had
run down. The battery was silent and detected; the
rune had been carried off, booking down the
Boulevard de l'Empereur I saw a battery of
hone artillery coming up It at a walk, with
detachments of sailors on the side walks. A few
Communiet eorpses were lying about the battery.
Whet were these troops advancing with a deliberation
I so equeble ? Not, surely, the beaten and panicstricken
men of the Commune. No, that c and not ; they
were MacMallon's men cowing on to the Trocadero. I
did not wait for them, hat made for a side street
towards the Champs Ely erlee. I came out on the
beautiful avenue, about midway betwee u the Arth, of
Triumph and the Road Point; and, lo ! round the
noble pile which commemorates French valour hood
several battalions of men in red beeches. They were
packed there seemingly as densely as had been the
Bavarians on the let of March, but they were not so
pacific. There was no fire being delivered from the big
barricade at the Place dela Concorde end of the Tuileries
gardener, but National inertia were showing about it, and
now and then making A pot at the dense 1111iMe4 of the
Versailliste. They, for their part, seemed to take
things very deliberately, and to make quite sure of
their ground before advancing. They had a field
battery in action just below the Arch, which swept
the Champs Elye&te very neatly. I saw several shells
explecle about the Place de Is Concorde, and wan very
glad when I had run the gauntlet, and was on the
further side of the avenue of the Elysian yields.
Penetrating caually in a north- weatetly direction, I
Camel danger again in the Rue Billault—a side street,
nearly parallel to the Avenue de la Reins Hortense,
which extends away from the Arai of Triumph, nearly
at right angles to the Champs Elyseep. . There I
got very nearly shut in, for as I talked there was a
thous, and here were the Vergailliate, even with artillery
at their head, coming marching down the Avenue
Frit Mend toward the Boulevard ileum:tam . Here
was a noble position and no mistake. From it they
• could sweep the Boulevard Malesherbee straight down
to the Madeleine, and so open up their way into the
Rue Royale, and down it into the back of the barricade
at Its end facing the Place de Is Concorde. There, too,
they could sweep the Boulevard Haussniann slung its
whole length, and by a steady fire along these thorough-
fares so far prevent cencentration, and cut that part
of Peris practically into three slices. Re-crossing the
Boulevard Hauhanann I made my way by devious
paths towards the Palais Royal. Shells seemed to be
burs' ing all over the city. They were time-fuse shells ;
and I could see many of them buret in a white puff
of smoke in high air. Several fell on and about the
Boum as I was passing, arid the neighbourhood
was silent and deserted, save for National Guards
in small pettier., or singly, hurrying backwards
and forwards. I could not tell whether they were
advancing or retreating. Everywhere barricades were
being hastily thrown up, but I dodged them all till I
got to the Place du Pelaie Royal. Here two barri-
cades were being constructed, one across the neck of
the Ree St. Honore, another across the neck of the
Rue de Riven. For the latter the material was chiefly
furnished by • great number of articles not unknown in
England under the name of 89nonier Tucker, which
were hurriedly pitched out of the windows of the esta-
blishment, and of m atregges from the Guards barracks
at the Tuileries. The Rue St. Honor,' barricade was
formed of paving 'donee, cabs, and carriages, and
I was compelled, coleus voitlis, to assist in the con-
struction of it. It is pleasant even if you are forced
to do a thing, is attempt doing it in a satisfactory
manner ; and, observing that an embrasure had been
neglected in the construction of the barricade, I
devoted nay energies to rem dying this defect. I was
not sorry, however, to be released frost my task after
a quarter of an hour's work, the more so as the shell
fire was increasing in warmth and proximity. . .
By helf-pwit nine the Versaillieta had advanced con-
eiderahly down the Boulevard Haussmann, which
they swept with a heavy musketry fire. Two lads
were shot down close to me at the end of the Rue de
Lafayette. there was no return fire of any a^count.
Mmy Communists mimed, falling back, declaring as
metal that they had been betrayed. As I stood,
there was a scrinamege at a rough, hastily thrown•np
barricade in the Boulevard Haussmaim, about 100
:erste nearer Pepinibre than the lips de Lafayette.
It was carried ley the Versailliet marines. I could
see them jumping up on the berricadea. Every-
where, as I learn, the Versaillista wtre led by
gendarmee and sailors or marines. The National
Guards fe:l back, dodging behind lamp-poets and in
doorways, and firing wildly as they retreates,. This
drew a still heavier fire from the Versants barricade.
A ballet struck the front of a lamp-pe et, behind which
I stood, and fell flattened in the road. Would you
believe it, that a worral stepped out from the gable of
the Rue de Lafayette, picked up the bullet, and walked
coolly back, clapping her hands with glee?
What curious Misch ceremony is this going on at
the corm rof the Rees Lafayette and Lafitte ? There
it a waggon, • mounted Spahi, neatly as black as night,
and an elfieer. A crowd Mall round, and in the centre
is a blazing fire of papers. Are they burring the
ledgers of the Bank, or the tills-deeds of the surround.
lag property? No. It is the papers of the battalion
which are being thus formally burnt, that they might
not bear witness against its members, I suppose. A
sign, surely, of the beginning of the end. . . .
The Communists retreated ever, throwing up barb
cedes everywhere, so that circulation became &Imola
impi ssible. They seemed to be heading toward Mont-
ntartre, which had opened fire on the Trocadero, from
which the chief Mere of the Versailliat artillery fire
appeared to come. The Versailliets seemed to under-
, stand this policy, aid made souse haae to obviate it.
IBy twelve they hat gained the Place de l'Europe,
I near the Westcra Terminate, on their way to Mont-
martre, thus completing a definite sad well ra irked
I line from the western terminus riverward by the Made.
Leine and the Place de la Concorde....
At &beta two o'clock the Vereailliete had fairly
established themselves in the line I have de-
scribed, and were making the Boulevard Hausmann
terribly hot quarters down to the very end. At the
. tame hour they began tu shell from their battery at
the Madeleine the Communist barricade on the Br nle-
yard des Capucinee, at the top of the Rue de la Path.
This was • crushing tire, and the barricade was soon
shattered.

COSTERS AND CHIGNON.
gee that there Chignon on a•heeni ? "
A man on an ass to ht. fellow said—
" I calls that the mane of • thoroughbred. '
" Slane " qooth the other; " What, that had :
immtt more like it r-grorrio' elsewhere
You'd sometimes are at • country fair—

" The tall rI a Boss plaited up ith straw
'd the nlshmt thing to It a. I ever saw "
The two men burst Into at ad guffaw —Punch.