Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-09-16
WAR SPLINTERS.

Inc 1OllOWlnG is Sample OF tne stories
which the French. up to the date of the
present war, have been fond OF telling
about the Prussians: always. when the
Prussian troops go into action, there is n
special corps of gems d'armes stationed
behind the lines. Each one Of these car
ries IN his right hand a carbine and in his
any man from falling back during the at
tack. Whoever attempts to do so is either
forced into the ranks again or cut down
without mercy. And adds the French
narrator, with the Landwehr this some
what savage custom is a downright neces-
sity; for, as they are either towards or
heads of families, they are apt to become
panic-stricken and throw down their arms
| at the first onset. During the war of 1866
| saw scores of such fellows. whom these
gems d'armes had sabered, hanging from
| the trees"
A correspondent of the New York Post
saws: II am sorry to have to acknowledge
that all through the campaign the French
have acted much more like a conquering
army in hostile country than the Prus-
slams. All the annoyances have expert
enced personally came fiom my own
countrymen from the peasants who,
above all, saw spy in every stranger.
When fell into the hands of the Prussians,
| found them courtesy itself On leaving
Sedan and thence to the frontier, in pass
ing through tie Prussian posts, | was
stopped often. | had but to say, Il am
the correspondent of an American Journal
and was at once sent kindly forward.
On the back of my French military pass
the Prussian staff had endorsed a Prussian
safe-conduct Often / was not obliged
even to show my papers. my word was
taken; and once out of Sedan l was speed
lily through"
The war correspondent of the Pail Mall
Gazette is not complimentary to the French
ladies. He says: wherever you go,
over France, the disturbances and the
greatest mischief are done by the ladies.
The greatest panic is spread by Them Nc
one has ever supposed of MacMahon that
he was anything else than brave soldier,
or that he was not General ready to use
all imaginable means with the view of ex-
terminating the enemy. passed through
the School of Algeria, and it is certainly
not humanity that one learns there.
French ladies', however, found that Mac
Mahon was too delicate. There was
forest somewhere near Hagenau or Worth
where 10000 Germans were reported tc
have hidden themselves. How far this
was true is not ascertained even now, bu
all the ladies. OF France reproached Mac
Mahon for not having set fire to the woo'
and roasted the whole 40, 900 Prussians an,
Bavarians concealed therein. How wa
! the wood to be set on fire ? How lont
would it take to burn? How were tn,
Prussians to be kept in it ? Nothing of this
+ was enquired into. but the ladies of France
wished the wood to be burned and thu
Prussians to be roasted in it. And they
talked so long on the subject that a great
part of the male population of Eastern
France began to repeat the same thing
| saw lots of young and old women who
had fled from Forbach and Saverne, and
all of them described atrocities of the
Prussians which | am sure were never
perpetrated (and sufferings of the French
troops which would not be possible under
any circumstances whatever) A few
killed or wounded soldiers raised theil
imagination into something quite mon
strous. and in the comparatively quiet
places to which they fled for shelter
they spread the unintelligible panic Gun
der which they themselves labored.) With
reference to spies, again, the men have
never attempted to arrest so great a
number of English, and even French citi-
zens as the women have done, and while
the former have invariably insisted upon
a suspicious person being examined as to
his personality. or elected from the
country. the latter have constantly
excited the mob by demanding that the
person should be Immediately torn to
pieces. In speaking thus, l refer, OF
course, more particularly. to the lower
classes of French women; but in the edu.
Gated circles things We're hardly standing
better. While few honest and kind
hearted ladies did give themselve up tC
the hospitals and ambulances, the grea
body of them ran cowardly away, think
ing only about carrying with them all thu
dresses. the jewelry, and money, the.
could possibly scrape together"