The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-09 00:00:00

£7OO DAMAGES FOR RAILWAY ACCIDENT.

At the Manchester Assizes yesterday, a clerk named
Ashton obtained £7OO damages from the Lancashire and
Yorkshire Railway Company for injuries sustained at
a collision at Miles Platting Station in May last. The
medical evidence sheaved that the plaintiff would not be
able to resume work for a year or eighteen months to
come.

THE SUN, LONDON, .ARID.

THE GERMANS BEFORE PARIS.

The correspondent of the Daily News writes from
Versailles on the sth December, as follows :—The -second
capture of Orleans by the Germans has been a ruinous
affair for the army of the Loire. If we make every
allowance for the elastic energy of M. Gambetta, and
for the zeal of the provinces, we have still an end for the
time to all hope that Paris can be relieved. The
Parisians must fight their own battle through the bitter
winter weather, and must be quick in • fighting
it, too, or the besiegers will be reinforced by some
of the German troops now on the Loire. We have been
watching daily for a sortie such as has not been yet
attempted, for a coming out en masse of all who wish to
leave the city, and for the decisive battle of the siege
somewhere near Boisy St. Leger. We have seen the
the weak point of the German line gradually
strengthened until it has become_ the strongest
point of all ; have seen Trochu waited for with
astounding completeness of preparation. He had
a chance on the night of the 30th ultimo of breaking
through towards the south-east, and getting away from
Paris with some of his army. On the Ist inst. there was
still a possibility of bearing down the Wurtembergers and
their supports, for I do not think that the French in
escaping on that day would have had to deal with one-
half the number of Germans who now bar their pas-
sage. The delay may have arisen from internal causes,
depending I mean on the state of Paris. But if it
arose from a wish to hear the guns of D'Aurelle de Pala-
dine thundering in the distance before the blow was
struck from the capital, it was a fatal delay. Events
have supplied us with a whole battery of after wisdom on
the subject, and a glance at the line of country to be
passed over when the French shall finally come
forth would discourage the stoutest of them. In
the bright hard weather which we have had
for some days, it is not disagreeable to ride and
walk about at noon, or even to walk briskly after the sun
has set ; but to bivouac on the frozen ground must be
chilly work indeed. The ruined villages to the south-
east of Paris are full of armed men, the roads are blocked
with waggon trains that supply food and forage, whilst
long columns of cavalry may be seen winding towards
the threatened spot. It is easy to go and easy to
return on thie hard ringing horse-tracks through the
fields, though the roads themselves are more
like petrified furrows than anything else. It is easy to
move over the ground now, but not easy to live on the
probable scene of action. There is a scarcity of accom-
modation even for the wounded, and a difficulty about
stabling which presses much more in winter time,
as you may well suppose. Horses are brought
into deserted parlours and window curtains torn
down to form coverlets for the men. Furniture is
obliged to be used as fuel where it is of combustible stuff,
and, in a word, this concentration of troops makes the
besiegers suffer a good deal. They are tough fellows,
accustomed to cold weather at home, and they have no
lack of food, or it would go hard with them. One of the
defects of the system of campaigning without tents and
trusting to village quarters is that when troops
must crowd together there is, naturally, no place
for the extra regiments, and they have to bivouac.
What surprises me with the Prussians is not that so many
sleep under the wintry sky, but that such a number of
them are stowed away in every possible and impossible
hole and corner of a village. They have a talent f
quartering themselves which cannot be surpassed.
And now that relief is hurled back beyond the
Loire, if not rendered utterly hopeless, Paris
stands once more alone, as she stood in September
and October last. The great city and the great
army round it are waiting for the end of the food
on which the city lives. There is a probability of despe-
rate fighting, but very little probability that the garrison
will cut its way through. If it did there would be then
only a question of political consequences, not of military
honour, to decide. Paris might surrender the next day
with perfect satisfaction, and the war might become all
the fiercer to the southward. This is what the Ger-
mans wish to prevent. They are so sure of victory
that they desire to catch as many Frenchmen as pos-
sible. Things have been quiet to-day, save for stray
cannon shots along the front. The French are said to
have massed a large force on the oval within the great
bend of the Marne, at and behind La Varenne, and they
still hold Champigny, which was supposed to have been
recovered on Friday morning. The fact is that, though
driven in from some of the ground they had seized on the
30th ult., they yet maintain two or three important
points. Champigny, for instance, is a species of tete de
pont to the position on the oval of La Varenne'

TOURS AFTER THE DISASTER.

The special correspondent of the Telegraph, writing from
Tours, December 5, says:—Matters are looking very black
indeed for the cause of France to-day. I have mentioned
before that the Government of Defence has, with strange
tenacity, persisted in the suicidal policy of keep-
ing in the background anything like bad news
that may arrive from the front, and exaggerating
to the utmost even the most partial success.
As with every other crooked path in life, a time inevi-
tably arrives when facts can no longer be concealed, and
fiction will no longer be believed. In Tours the day of
retribution in the cause of truth has come. We—that is
some of us, for even at the hour when I write no offi-
cial proclamation has been published, and until that
appears the great mass of the people will not believe that
any real reverse has happened to the Army of
the Loire—aro now convinced' that the authori-
ties have been concealing from us what they must
have known, and telling us what they could not them-
selves have believed. The defeat which yesterday and
the day before we were told was merely partial, proves to
have been a crushing blow upon General D'Aurelles de
Paladine's army. Orleans was evacuated last night ; the
French are in full retreat upon Vierzon and Bourges ;
and the cause is, for the present at any rate, almost hope-
less. Of course there are optimists as well as pessimists
in the town, and some of them try hard to make
out that only the left wing, consisting of the 17th and
18th Corps, has been defeated. But the context of the
news which we have received gives a flat negative to this
supposition. If the main Army of the Loire had not
sustained a most severe blow, and if the Prussian Army
had not really turned its left flank at Patay, is it likely
that D'Aurelles would have abandoned not only
the entrenched field works which took so much
time to construct, but also the town of Orleans,
one of the finest in France—one besides the occupation of
which by the enemy must be a severe moral blow both to
the army and people of this country ? But, snore than
this, as I have gobd reason to know, a Prussian corps is
now between Blois and Orleans, and is .preparing to cross
the Loire somewhere near Beaugency, so as to cut off
the rear of the French .army and separate it from
Tours and well as from Vierzon. Fortunately
D'Aurelles has been too quick for the enemy,
and the fear that he was cut off from communication with
Gien and Nevers is unfounded- The worst feature in the
whole story has, however, yet to be told : it is that the
Government has determined upon leaving Tours either
to-night or to-morrow morning, without beat of drum,
and betaking itself either to Bordeaux or, as some say,
to Angers. The effect of this movement, when it
becomes known, I need hardly tell you. There
will no doubt be a regular panic in the town ; and how
the twenty thousand people, in a greater or less degree
connected with the Government, who are said to be here
—to say nothing of the troops, the strangers, and others
who would like to get. away before the Prussians arrive—
are to make their escape, the railway people alone know.
As yet the bad news is but partially known in Tours.
The people do not like to believe, and will not credit what
they do not wish to hear.

AN "AUTHENTICATED" YANKEE STORY. A
terrible affair is reported to have taken place near
Lowell, Kansas. A party of four herdsmen,
named Joe and Charley Bigger (brothers), Norton,
and Jackson, were camping on a small stream on
the Indian territory on their way home, each being
possessed of a considerable amount of money, the
proceeds of the sale of their cattle. They were
joined by three notorious New Orleans gamblers
named Watrons, Allison, and Bradfoid, who were on a
" professional tour." A game of poker was proposed '
by the " legs," and accepted by the travellers,
and soon after the commencement of the game
Joe Bigger detected Watrons cheating. A row
ensued, and was agreed that Bigger and
Watrons should fight it out on horseback with bowie
knives. The two men stipped to the waist, and their
knives were bound to their right hands. Both were well
mounted, and both were fine horsemen. • They were
placed sixty yards apart, with orders to ride at each other
at full speed. Several " jousts" were written, in the
course of which both horses were horribly wounded. At
last Bigger struck Watrons. with his left hand in the.face,
at the same time inflicting fearful gash in the thigh,
Watrons at the same time driving his knife into Bigger's
shoulder. After the fight had lasted half an hour,
both horses were exhausted from loss of blood, and
fell. Bigger then threw himself upon Watrons and
stabbed him to the heart. Bradford, seeing the fate of
his friend, fired and killed the other combatant, and
a free fight then ensued, Bradford being killed in the
llgiee, while each of the others received fearful wounds.
The authenticity of this astounding narrative is vouched
for by Dr. V. C. Lawrence, recently of Philadelphia,
' who arrived on the spot in time to witness the catas-
trophe, and dress the wounds of the survivors.—New York
Herald.