The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-10-15 00:00:00

A VISIT TO STRASBURG.

We (Times) have been favoured with the following
letter, describing the present aspect of the city :
" I rtartial on Sunday, and, after travelling all day, ar-
rived, late at night, at ilifonbuig, a small town, some 15
miles fr, m Strasburg, and on arriving there fortunately
found that the town bad been thut day opened, so that we
should hove no difficulty in examining It the next day. There
was no means of conveyance to be bad, and the trains could
not be trusted, so the next morning we breakfasted early and
set elf to walk. We passed through a charming country,
where the peasant. were busy at work, but I was struck by
the entire absence of young num. We saw nothing but wo-
men and old men In the fields.
"At length we arrived at Kehl, and shortly the woik of
the shells became visible ; here a window knocked in, and
all the glass smashed throughout the house, there a roof
knocked to pious Every step we took the destruction was
greater and greater, till, perhaps a hundred yards from the
first marks, we came to a house gutted, then another, a
third, till finally every house on either side of the way wu
completely destroyed, but the walls were In most Instances
standing. Au earthenware stove, ahining and clean, standing
alone in the middle of the ruins of the home It belonged to,
had a embroil effect. We were astonished arel shocked at
this destruction, but we had worse in store for us,

"We walked on through throngs of Prussian soldiers,
great, sunburnt, brawny, determined locking fellows, till we
came to the bridge of boats, which was luckily Just finished
about five minutes before, and opened. So over it we went,
lookiog as we passed at the beautiful railway bridge, which
has not, I am glad to say, ruifered very much; one end
of It, the German side, has been destroyed mid the Iron-
work Is somewhat knocked about, where a round shot has
struck or a shell burst, but the bridge can be repaired. Oa
the other side of the river, from the Rhine to Strasburg, a
distance of about two miles and a half, the road was for.
nutty shaded on either aide by a magnificent avenue of
planes, trees from fifty to 120 years growth, splendid timber.
All these are cut down (by the French), and are lying In dis-
order by the side of the road, which was bordered who by
wood on each side, of whiqi nuts tree Is left Standing ; they
are lying there In heaps of withering leaves and broken
boughs. lifers were few that did not bear marks of bullets
or cannon balls, for, though Strasburg was not bombarded
from that side, there was a great deal of Monitory cannon-
ading and skirmishing. Nothing that I can say can give you
an Idea of the desolation of the scene.

"Al we got nearer the town we passed the Botanical
Garden, a perfect wilderness. Every summerhouse was in
ruins, and the timbers, charred and broken, lying strewed
about among what had been beautiful flower-beds,
all the shrubs tarn up, or standing withered and crushed by
the falling timber or masonry. Os one side of the way the
Tea Gardens were entirely destroyed, the palings smashed,
here and there a board lying about with ' Restaurant,' ate.,
on it, woodwork, bricks, trees, creepers, all mused toge-
ther in an indescribable coninsion and ruin. It will be many
years before the Strasburg citizens can again ally their
afternoon cup of tea and glass of absinthe In their pleasant
out-of door restaurant, We passed a cemetery which had
shared the general ruin,—gravestones knocked down, tombs
smashed, and felled trees lying among the graves.
'All this on one side. On the other there was an inunda-
tion, is the French bad closed the sluices, and whatever
ruin there was was under water. This was a fitting prelude
for what was to follow, and I am not sure that the ruins of
the vegetation, gardens, villas, and woods was not as striking
as the destruction of the town. We entered the side which
had uttered least, over the drawbridge, and came into the
town, which was thronged with Prussian, or rather Ger-
man, soldiery, and inhabitants returning with cartd loaded
with furniture, lenge°. of mat jriel tie gturre, French
prisoners, ambulances, itc., in a most motley throng ; but
overythipg ieemed in perfect order, end the soldiers, French
and (finnan, woe, lounging easily about as one sees them In
any garrison town. Most of the latter were middle-aged
men the former looked rather down in the mouth, but did
not appear to have suffered from want of food ; those that
I saw were chiefly wounded, and it was extraordinary, when
groups of the two races were mixed, to see the superiority
Is physique of the Germans; in comparison, the French
were lasignificent, under-sized looking men. lees In this
qttarter, welch had outs suffered from She Oath fired from

the other side of the town, there were Many Ileum knocked
about and buret and se we got further in the destruction
became more general. In the great square most of the large
buildings were beret; the Prefecture rod the Maine are de-
stroyed, so is the theatre. Few houses In the centre of the
town that exist have not the mark of shot or shell on them.
Later on I counted the holes in the Walle of two house.
nearer the ramparts, that were alongside of one another, and
not knocked down; one had been struck by 15, the other im
16 shot. This only from one idde, and many houses had flat-
tered far more than these.
"By the time we reached the centre Of the town we were
hungry after our 15 mile walk, no we went to the llOel de
Paris, which is still standing, having had only five shells
explode 111 it, and Is now the head-quarters of the Ger-
man army. There were sentries at the door, but on our
producing a letter, which I fortunately had with me, to the
landlord frem the host of our hotel at Offenburg, we were let
paean.' went Into the dinlng-roona,when we ordered and dis-
oriend a beef-steak and • very decant bottle of wine which had
escaped the siege, amusing ourselves meanwhile by observing
the Premise cffieers,of whom there were many dining Every
minute or two an officer on duty came in, naade a report and
bustled out again. They evidently thought that, being in
France, It was the correct thing, even though the waiters
were Germans, to address them in the language of polite
society; so,'gm-cony' resounded frequently through, the
room. I was tickled by one fine young fellow, who beteg
in Strasburg, thought it de rigueur to order pate de jou grad
which he procured—so you may understand they
were not very hard up for food—and washed down
with a pint of champagne. The officers paid for everything
they had, those at least that were not quartered there. The
latter by order of the Commandant. receive coffee in the
morning, a good meal In the middle of the day, another in
the evening, consisting of soup, two courses of meat, vege-
tables, two litres of wine, added to which they can have live
good dearth This is the Case throughout the town. The
soldiers have alma their allowance, which is r at all exorbi-
tant. While we were at tab,. 'he street In front was filled
by Moops marching on to Paris ; .0.000 sent off that day,
leaving 10,000 to guard the town.
"After lunch we went o far he the .a.et, ane one was
struck on every tide by sr, a 'testa Inert eh .ae power of
shot. We went to the lo.rary, which was an ex .raordinary
sight, completely destroyed, only hate beet walla left stand-
ing. It was a and Oleg to eet -nch re ell destruction.
There was • French°. the, ;..at t-t bead when he
saw it, and began to u In soul, I terms a let of Prussian
soldiers who were fler.llow Is limy took it very good-
humouredly and qu eel v. The, •ertaMM are extraordinarily
well behaved. Tic • :moillgera, rosa thong who were there
through the siege t.. I have eoll'ers quartered on them,
now say that 'a, on qtall, *Meet nos er newts. Us soot des
hommes tres cor -nobles, rOaat y• de plus comma il
faut,' as a Strafe .re !kik ',la' 5,•,,a. After the library we
went to the Cethedral, • the whole, escaped
wonderfully. The stonewe. • Imaged, but many of
the windows are a great deal about from splinters of
shells, and the roof Is full of 1., from the same cause,
though hots sheet came through it Those that entered cause
through the wall and burst inside; one pierced the organ
right through the centre; built rosily is surprising how the
Premien, could In such • fru ereaft r as they poured upon
Strasburg have avoided injuring more eo prominent a mark as
the Cathedral. We were greeted by the eriginal ' Bumble,'
who did net appear to have suffered from the privations of
the siege, and whose countenance instantly lighted up awl
glistened when he saw his old friend the 'British tourist,'
from whose pleasant and lucrative society be had been de-
barred so long. Ins heart warmed towards him, and agatn
bright Malone of f eters francs, which latterly I dare Say he
had Considered as lost to him for ever, roes before his eye..
if. took us reared the Cathedral as if nothing had happened,
with his broken English Jargon about the dates of the
carving, &c—the old story, in fact, which, however, seemed
to be rather rusty from neglect ; and he interspersed this
from time tattoos with incidents of the siege connected with
the Cathedral.. . •
" We, after having secured • piece of shell burst in the
Cathedral, went towards the fortifications, and every eao•
ment the destrect'on became more and more terrible. We
passed what must have been a magnificent home, completely
gutted. It was almost • pollee. We then walked along the
road which was separated from the ramparts by • canal, in
which most of the boats were sunk h) shot, and, to give you
an idea of the severity of the flee, there Was hardly a post of
the iron rails that separated the road from the river that
was not marked. Passing a statue of the Marquis of Lesley,
who had been a Prefect of the town, and which, though
only life-s,m, was covered with marks of shot and shell holes
in the bronze of the legs, head, and body, we came to the
Quartler Faubourg St. Pierre and Quartier Nationale.
"We had already been on the rampart., after having been
turned back by several gentiles, sane one was allowed there;
nor was any one allowed in these quartere However, Eri-
COI pertinacity was • match h r Prussian vigilance, and we
dodged the sentries into the Faubourg St. Pierre Nothing
that I can weite, nothiug that you care imagine, nothieg that
you have ever seen, can give you an idea of the fearful
destruction and ruin of this part of the then. Ima-
gine some 200 acres or more of houses formerly prosperous
and busy streets, entirely levelled with the ground—not one
stone left standing on the other—a wildemees of broken
masonry; nothing to mark where were the streets, where
were the houses, churches, dwelling., stables, all mingled
in one vast destruction. Mere and there splinters of
shot anal shell lying about, and the reins still smoking
In some parts. To give you an idea of the beef eel hail
of balls that must have come scrams this space, there
were a few young trees, cut to pieces by the bombard
ment, standing still where there had evidently been a
garden, thou eh, save these tree., there were no signs of it;
they were literally stripped of their leaves, which were not
burnt, as the few that remained were quite green, but
simply torn away by the hall of balls. Hera and there
were people who had special permission, trying to find out
Where their houses had stood. It was indeed a melancholy
sight; the horrors 111 war were brought forcibly home to one.
Alter searching some time they generally gave it up in
despair, but we came amass some women who had
found iheirs. They took In very philosophically, and when
we consoled them, said, 'Thank God we have not lost our
limbs as well.' We walked across the ruins on to the ram-
parts, close to where the breach was mule. They were all
cut abaut and torn up, but not, I should think, materially
Limed for defence. Even the breach did net strike me as
at all practicable, though many yards of what had been
strong masonry was oraly rubble. There was always a deep
ditch full of water, and two or three strong outer lines of
fortifications before it. I cannot see how they could possibly
have stormed it.

" From the ramparts we had an admirable view of the
French lines and the whole of the Lai...Mons of that side
of Strasburg, which there had approached very near to each
other. In the distance, to the left, we could see the long
lines of men marching to Faris, their rifle barrels glistening
In the sun, with a column of dust above their head.; behind
us were the ruins of the town. It was altogether a most
striking scene—one that I shall never forget. Close to
us • fatigue party were occupied in taking the
last gun, very much knocked about, from the ramparts In
the casemate underneath was stills queutity of the French
ammunition—shell, what seemed to be shrapnel], and round
shot. We stayed there as long aa we could, and then had to
hurry lf to get back scrum the ruins again into the southern
part of the town, which in many places was hardly worse
than what we had left
" We got home very cold and very hungry, and thus ended,
withwt exception, the most interesting day I ever spent in
my life. Nobody who had not seen it can understand what
a bombardment means, but I suppose since history exists
there has never been such a bombardment as this. On the other
hand, had there been a chance of succour hoe no re Leon why
the place could not have hell out for months longer. The
fortifications were to my mind, impregnable : and thsy had
abundance of provisions so much so that they were com-
plaining of not having enoegh milk and vegetables. One part
of the town was still pre'sy habitable, and the loss of life was
not enormous. Most people lived in theft. celery."