Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-12-03
WOFUL WANT.
The Last and Saddest Period of the
Siege of Paris

Siege of Paris.
An Englishman writing from the French
capital, November s, thus pictures the
prospect:
The remainder of the siege will be
bitter time. Hitherto real privations have
hardly been widely felt Henceforward
we shall be rudely taught the realities of
an actual blockade. When once any ar
ticle of food is really wanting, it becomes
instantly and absolutely unsttainable.
Dishes vanish suddenly at an hours no.
tice. A week ago you might get Liebig
or pate de tOte !grGs by paying for it;
now you might offer a gold bracelet for
it in vain. Meat must fail as utterly in a
day or two. The rationS must long since
have been a mere mockery. They are
not worth the trouble of sending for
an ounce day; and might much more
reasonably have been suspended alto
gether. They are not only kept as pre-
text TO meet an outry of the populace.
There is one straw of comfort amid the
thought of this starvation and wretched-
ness, and that is that it will partly, per-
haps, cure the Parisians of their despe-
rately gluttenous and luxurious habits.
But it is not the luxurious Parisi9ns who
are the real sufferers as yet. For few
days these people look all the better for q
little lowering of diet. But the sick and
the delicate have terrible kme of it.
Funerals are as common in the streets as
cabs. Once attacked by any lowering
fever or disorder, there is very little
chance for you. And this mischief will
fatally increase. As the rich and the luxu-
rious begin to really feel the famine, their
frames will sink very rapidly under the
attacks of fatigue and cold and bad
weather. Fertilization duty on a rainy
night is not so bad after a tolerable din
ner, but when it is accompanied by diet
of dry bread and yin Ordiadire, it is sure
to make its victims.
There will be dreadful sights in Psris
before many days are past Even fort
night ahead of us is now impossible to
answer for. We know what a qucksand
we stand upon with Belleville and La
VI cite smoldering like volcano at our
feet. We know what hunger will do with
a Partisan populace. 1t was famine that
evoked the fiends of 1892. Famine made
even the Grand Monsrque almost tremble
on his throne This is the weapon that
Bismarck has unsheathed against US
more terrible than all his Krupps or
needle-guns. OF one thing we may now
feel confidently assured-;hat a great
sortie must be made. We shall not sit
here like prisoners to be coollystarved out
by inches in our pretty cages. Paris is
thrown on her own resources; che must
go out, beat the enemy, or despair and
die. Let us hope that the people aud
their governors Will have the sense, the
honesty, the msgnanimity to accept the
issue of one more struggle as conclusive,
and not protract for the mere qualification
of false and foolish pride the sufferings
of this wretched people. If we were TO
believe the talk of clubs and tables d'hote
and the boasts and hsrsngues of editors,
one would suppose that Paris would erd
by dying after the last Biscuit chad been
consumed. But hope that great battle
may decide this melancholy struggle, and
that the battle. may be decisive enough to
leave no hope to the defeated party"