The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-06-17 00:00:00

HORRIBLE STORIES,

The Parie Correepondont of the Daily NeV'S Writo9

" I am informed that it Is very fez Indeed from being true
that summary executions have been put a atop to in Carts.
Cutest I am rnieleformed—and I have every reason to think
lam not—they are even yet of daily occurrences in the Fan-
boars St. Antoine. Mere is a story so horrible that! should
hesitate to repeat It had! not been told it by an eye-witntrs.
A woman was arrested in the limo de In Itn,mette, accused of
arson, and led off to execution; her child, a tittle girl of three
or four, followed, clinging to her mother's pettlooats No
sooner had the unfortunate woman been taken into • court
—from a window locking on to which my Infornuntlaw what
followea--than sloe was placod analyst • wall and shot.
The child, which had been dragge4 away from its mother
when thy latter was led out to be shot, fled screaming with
fright at the reporte of the muskets. An cheer thereupon
etrew his revolver and shot the child through the back as it
ran, killing It Instantly. This sounds gamut incredible, but
alter what I have heard Ido not doubt that it is true. A
staff deur who in ordinary times Is one of the kindest-
hearted men I have over met, told me a day or two ago that
some hours after the regular array had got pouesslon of the
Chateau de la Muette, a mysterious rapping was heard In •
cupboard. march was made, and two untztunate National
Guard. were dragged forth. They had been locked
up by Domhrowekl's orders for having got drunk on
duty • very common crime under the C =mune.
'Ate! what did you do to them I' I naked. '1)0
to them/ ' was the answer, 'why, shoe them, of
nouns.' The Srecle contain. • most horrible story of an
unfortunate man, named Conetant, who wes murdered at the
Y,coie Militate, because some foolish people had denounced
him to the soldiers as being Billioray, • member of the
Commune. to spite of hie protestations, he was shot, and It
hu Uncap teen proved thnt he was a hostler in a neighbouring
street. The real 13.111oray is at Versailles awaiting hie trial.
"i I have spoken with no one out °lithe ranks of the Lour-
oscine who has not some story to tell, and, however large an
allowance we may make for exaggeration, not only is it
proved that great brutality has been shown in many cues,
but the fact that such stories are widely 'Tread among the
working classes Is significant Legends are often none the
Ins powerful for being founded on a very small substratum
of fact ; and 1 fear the exariare of to-day will hens long
In forgetting the daye of M .y, 11, as their fathers were
those of June, '43 IV,fen the Versailles troops trot
posectelon of the Roe du Helder one of their first acts
leas to arrest .11 the compositors emplo, ed in the printing-
office of the I",rttr newspaper. These unf urtunate men, 51.0
were no- St hostile to the Commune, in common with all the
mena'zrs of their craft, on account of Its .uppretsion of
Journals, w,re, nevertheless, marched off to flatory, and
from there have been sent, some to pontoons at Bruit, and
some to the fortress of the Ille Pelee. In spite of all M.
Fortelle, the editor of the Vrrite's efforts, h:s un•
fortunate printer. are still kept in prison in company
with returned convisto and the like. I wonder
if these men are likely to haw, any particular
affection for 11. Thiers and his covernment when
they are liberated from their totally unjust eotline-
I ment. Tao oomic side of the matter isthat the Wersb, couttnuee
to appear just a.. usual, and that no accutation whatever has
been brought against the paperer its editors, cone would
like to know of what the competitors can be guilty when
the writers of a newinutter are allowed to go .cot-iree."

Doutou a Ditent. According to the
Gaulois, information was given to the military autho-
rities in Paris that although the fiery Communist
leader Delescluze was dead, his name was to be used
as an incentive to a renewed outbreak, and that a plan
was in contemplation for exhuming his body, which
was to be ...alined through Paris as the remains of a
popular martyr. Private information was sent to
General Vinoy that although the body of Delescluze
had been buried hastily, a mean/ of identificatiou had
been adopted—a leaden ring round one leg. Soldiers
were immediately set to work to exhume the bodies
which had been found at the barricade of the Barracks
of Prince Eugene, and one bearing the distinguished
mark mentioned was found. It was at once removed
and buried secretly in another place.

ALEXANDRE DUMAS'S ADVICE TO
FRENCHMEN.

The l'<garocontaina a long and elorineet letter dated
the Bth instant, from Alexandre Dumas, junior, to the
editor of the Nwicellistc de Bourn. The writer de-
scribes the impressions produced upon him by his stay
at Versailles. He severely condemns the brutal,
blind, and impatient clashing of private interests, and
ambitions party calculations of men who quarrel over
France like dogs over a half.gnawed bone; as well as
the cowardly cruelty of the people in their displays
against the Communist prisoners, as contrasted with
the devotion, dignity, and impassibility of the soldiers
and gendarmes. M. Dumas expresses the greatest
admiration and respect for M. Thiers, his capacity for
work, his intelligence and loyalty, and the straight-
forward moaner iii which he pursues his courae
without regard for the injustice, iner.,titude, and
calumny heaped upon him, lie declares himself cn.
&dent that M. Thirre will succeed in restoring order
and national activity, and that when the public mind
feels once more in security, he will leave the country
to choose freely its on u Government, and appoint
whom it will, so long as he Lima If is not the person
selected. M. Dumas thinks that M. Thiers will do
what 51irabeau had not the time, E ibespierre the
power, nor Bonaparte the genius to effect—namely,
found a Republic ; he will leave an a legacy to the
country an anonymous but definitive form of Govern-
ment to which France has always instinctively reverted
notwithstanding the blunders, crimes, and excesses of
'93, '4B, and 71, for Frenchmen always remain more
or less Republicans at the bottom of their hearts. M.
Alexandre Dumas understands the discouragement
Produced by these three experiments, and the desire
of a large numba of persons to seek for safety in
monarchical forms, but he opposes these tendencies as
fatal to the country, and says for the last seventy years
France has lived on mere fictions and vain words. ire
enumerates the result as follows :—" The liberty
proclaimed in 'B9 was strangled in 1804 ; the
military glory of twenty years vanished in a day ; the
charter inaugurated by a clever King was violated by
a King who was a devotee, and torn to shreds by the
Parisians in revolt. The parliamentary and con-
stitutional Government, the Kepnldic of 1848, universal
suffrage, the Empire is peace—all these things were •
fiction, which subordinated 37 millions of people to
150 000 Parisians who were always discontented. The
policy of diplomacy, the alliances, the sympathies of
nations, and the Emperor with his grand generals,
his invincible army, and his Marstillaise —all wee
fictioins."—Tha letter proceeds to draw a strfking
picture of the flier:mot contradictions and incom
sietencies manifested in the acts of the French people
during the last seventy years. The cry, says I.
Duman, is now for a icon; but, he maintains, France
must not look for a man. "Let us," he adds, "all be
men, for that Frenohmen must abandon the cus-
toms and manners they have adopted. There
must be a God, morality, society, family, and human
solidarity. Men must work and learn how to
make progress women must be respected; truth
must be the end, and justice the means. With the
pramice of these principles, Frenchmen ten years henee
will have paid their milliards, taken bock Alsace and
Lorraine, and become the first people of the universe.
The form of government will be of no Importance-
when
a nation is strong and knows what it wants, all
Goveraments are good; by none can it be oppressed;
any government will do to express its will. I appeal
to all my fellow-countrymen to work unceasingly,. to
be inspired with one sole continuous ail-absorbing
thought, to pay what France owes, to take back what
has been taken from her, to clear off her liabilities
abroad, and regenerate her at home.
The letter concludes as follows:

Have thie twinge for ten yesra and an eternity will he
yours. If you no longer feel the necessary strength of
If you prefer to rely upon an eagle or a Illy, then It Is the
deluge. I warn you."