The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-09-24 00:00:00

THE HORRORS OF WAR BROUGHT
HOME.

Under the startling heading of "The Forests Ablaze
—the Graves Opened," an Occasional Correspondent of
the Daily Nora gives the following description of a
sight which vividly brings home to us the horrors of
war;

From the roof of the house In which I live I have seen the
forests of !,I Dons, Montmorency, St. Prix, and the woods of
Bt. Grattan all in flames unman Ingenulty must have had
• hard struggle with the rain, in trying to set the trees
a-blaze. But vs ',deuce in our time Is pretty nearly sold to
the Devil, the tears which Heaven wept are of no avail in
saving (be sylvan beauties of the etvirotet of Parte Thougb
tt e Ind blows from Ma went, we, who are miles to tbe east
of the blazirg forests, Coo smell the burnt wood. As Mr
smoke Is driven an the direction opposite to us,
by the ahl lield-glaarea we cau witness the f tight-
Int col of many a pretty oltatet or elegant villa to
w..ie:a the names are bang commtuilcited. The crtimable
AI de Villeutessaut, who tor his health's ark a ROW firldi It
expedient to remain atx rang, and hi. Emile de flirardin,
la
who was thought to be at Florence WI his friends, 011ivier
and Prince Napoleon, but who Is in the flesh at Llmogea,
must Inevitably buffer from the vast conflagration to the
north of Paris. But who can pity them 11 their sumptuous
country-houses are licked up by the flames this moment
raging round these abodes of luau) ? They were the fore-
most men in supporting the bands organised by IL Pietrl to
cry .1 &Mit list July.
. _

--
The château of the Princess Mathlide aleo mems destined
to be thrown into the crucible. The woods and copses of
St. Prix, St. Oration, and if entmorency have been fired by
means of petroleum and gas ter, which It would have been
dangerous to leave In a city that In a few days may be ex-

ii;Trred to the yen orrlijer of a boosbordeseut. Dealers In th- se
combuttibtes received notice a few days haek that they must
surrender to the Committee of rational Defence what they
could not take to assort out of the roach eri too enemy.
'the fling eftl at part et Densely visible f on Montan' tre
at sel 0a o'clock last nisht as a still Intro awful spectacle
tan whit. I have jut *Roared from the leads overhead.
The trees were ps tiredly dry, Bo t at the ell sad petroleum
which were split atunt in the brushwocel hail no obet tele to
contesd stith. Isolatrel Columns of dame mad clouds of
smoke suellesily rose, and, bet re half a hoer, were lost Is
or e general Wars, which stool out like ad ry wall asslost
t e sky. In the light if t. ii vu t fartiace hideous objettts
were I Li, r igt t rendered visible en the lidsrlyrs'Aill—yawes
bug gs ayes, dug to hold three or four hundred persons, re-
wind. t t 1 it lookers-on ef the impending de traction of human
life. those common d teltes, into whirls men, women, and
children &lila by Prussian ba Is ara ti be thrown, its-
Vude themselves into the reserved bon Logi-Isms, pur.
clessral it perpeltlN by f settles rich enough to Indulge in
grief for dead relation& I% ar is no respeoter of property Or
of person& of sacred spots or of holy places. It @lays the
young, It pulls down the roof.trea winch shelters are and
infancy; destroys the woods in which poets and pointers
meek to commune with whnt is hest in stature, and tears off
the veil of earth with which we try to hide the pestilent
horrors of mortality from our sight, From the m nods of
clay 6111T001i0104 those hideous trenches which now Intersect
Martyrs-hilt; skulls grin out, remains of smith-dc Ikea
btru te themselves, or rags of black chi. h, once the under-
taker's Tilde, declare the varsity of all human respe.ctabitity
which lies not an uprillat conscience for its substratum.
It seems to me that I have lived snore in the last forty.
eight hours, and gained a deeper Insight into life and its
objects, than in all the years L have hailed,' live-I, and all
the hooks I have hitherto read. Those shin bosses, thigh
bones, arm bones, and vertebue, that were buried A per-
ixtuit..!, but %bids are now mixed up with menials of loose
rattle; those fragments of monunieuts which were unscrupu-
lously knocked down to niake way for et- ' cannon, fabri-
cated for "the Imperial Navy," and Dud . -.a which for
miles screens the country in front of us, Are 'Le 0: striking
sermons that 1 know of.

As the smoke and flame ascend, a cleft mier with an eye to
busineis, or possibly from force Of habit, hooksup the ossuar
remains of past generations. Be is uniortune,
wretch ! to the moral or pleti.ersime Id, of the hsleoolro I
Spectacle. Be does not see Le sublieAty of the judgment I
which is overtaking the dell ietely en :wired and ; :.e
and the muck-rakes who stopped. their ears for I AV Yawn
and upwards to the aria of the poor and needy. Lweennsts
and Victor Dego warm,: modern society about the ROyea over
which it dancet and feasted with creel indiffereuee, hedileas
of the cries of sizory whielt were ntttred ft.; r the depths
below. 111 J chiffonier beienes to modern aoet,y, which, like
him,will need a great dealinore whipping before Rs conscience
will recover from a state of teepee er Ire ,es be opened to
see what is parsing around,
Do not think that my palette is reosely charged with
garish this to catch the e3O of the lei demi. 1 till lu sol,r
earnest, and from no desire to t. pile iii, the agony," of how
women sickened last night when they looked at the burning
leftist, and screamed with terror when they saw at their
feet the wide open maw of death, ravening for human flesh,
, and set round, in lieu of teeth, with the broken up akeletena
of rerpretably buried bourgeois. The esthetic.. which I
heard last night mei I the tombs on the Martyrs' thu. weere,
I should say, about fifteen hundred eireetia had gathered to
witness the burning of the forest to the last, were widely
different from "Ilarvey's Meditations,' or " Young's Night
Th. ughte." 'Ti, the way of Frenchmen to meet the cruel
Irony of destiny with jibes. And, es thi re can be no more
cruel irony than that which spurs on moo to seek glory in
making war on their brothers, Jests were freely uttered by
Houses ant pa:reefs. The female element sighed OW, Dire
que erg pour deur bowmen qu'on a fait tout It teal! But
the sales ware too defiant to indulge in sighs. The mock-Mg
devil was aroused, and they allowed him tile fullest swing in
the face of tint Llazieg ore-t, aid that yawideg grave into
which many of those who fainted, Fomented, wept, jilist, or
made sreeches units brink last night, may be thrown before
the week Is over.