The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1870-10-01
StraSburg.

to the Germans by General Uhrtch on
Monday afternoon. The event Is regard
cd by all Germany as the return Of q long
exiled city OF their own 10 permanent
union with themselves; and not as q cap
turc Of hostile fortress. So lar Ns the
future can be foresecn, 1t will be long be-
fore the French flag will be seen upon dts
citadel again. l,.s
No city. in France, save Paris, has
greater interest, for the traveller or
The student Of history than the capital ol
Alsacc. -r1n" ID glA in
Tho glorics Of Strasburg associate it
closely with Germany. Its greatest trea-
sure is the noble Dom or Cathedral, in
which services have been conducted in
tho German language almost every Sum
day for eight hundred years. 1t was
built by Erwin Won stein6acl In lOl0,
and the tower was crowned Dy johann
Hultz in 1413. All its architects and
builders were Germans and though 1t has
been repeatedly struck by lightning, and
the height of the spire sOmewht reduced,
and though in the siege tho woodwork
has been burned, the nave broken In and
tho famous clock, the most complete in
the world, perhaps destroyed, itystill
stands, the loitieSt work of human hands
on earth, rising twenty-five feet higher
than the great Pyramid Of Egypt and
one OF the chief artistic glories OF the
German people. .'
Gutenberg and ScholIer, tho inventors
Of printing, werc natives OF Strasburg,
and they practised their new art together,
in rude form, before they parted and RI
vailed one another in striving TO perfect
II. The depositions taken in tho famous
lawsuit between Gutenberg and Faust in
which the origin Of the most important
invention ever mado was disputed, were
contained in a manuscript volume OF tho
time, which lay, until a few weeks age, IN
Strasburg City Library; but the library,
like most Of the city, IS utterly destroyed,
and this unique book, ono Of the chief an
tiuuariau treasures of its kind in the
world, has probably disappeared, together
with an immense collection, no less than
four thousand volumes, Of books printed
in the fifteenth century. = litlHti
It is now nearly two hundred years
since Louis XIV. seized Strasburg, then a
free city Of tho German empire. He
marched into it in 1881, while avowedly
at peace with the whole world, and immeo-
diatCly. employed Nauban, the first cngi-
neer Of his age, to make it impregnable.
He built the famous citadel, and sur
rounded itwithw works so strong that It has
ever since been regarded las one OF the
chief strongholds Of France: 1t IS, except
Paris, her most important depot Of Mill
tary stores and mandatory OF artillery,
and has been strengthened and supplied
from year 70 year by Napoleon LII, as n
menace against Germany. y
The siege Of Strasburg since the French
occupation has but one important event
to record; before tho siege kOf 1870, and
that NOT one of such dignity Ns the COM.
rletion Of the cathedral or the invention
Of printing. On October 30th, 1896, Louis
Napoleon Bonaparte dressed himself up
with care in imitation Of the well-known
figure Of Napoleon I; and, with q colonel
Of tho garrison, whom he had hired to
betray lis trust, presented himself to the
soldiers Of the garrison OF Strasburg.
They tried to win the troops over by q
curious set Of falsehoods, asserting that
Louis Philippe was dead, and that Napo-
leon II. (not Ill, as afterwards) had been
proclaimed in Paris. But, General Voirot,
being awakened by the noise, coolly shut
up the young would be emperor in prison,
and in November the citizen king, con.
sidering such a hair-brained adveturer rs
too contemplate. to treat seriously, ship.
ped him fito America. I Giigtd'' .
O,,1 fffNFNRtnnnn
than the exploit ofLouis Napoleon, how.
ever, is the ,Strasburg pie, known as Pato
do toe gruS.5 Since the French flag has
waved over tue city, its hiefmanutacture,
next to heavy guns, has been goose liver
pic. To produce this delicacy, the geese
must be tattened in damp and dark eel
lars; and their food regulated so rs to pro-
duce the disease which swcllS tho liver to
enormous size. Nearly all the cellars in
Strasburg are said to have been used for
this purpose and tho numbers Of these
pies shipped to other places, as well MS
Of those consumed by the Inhabitants, arc
enormous. They wero SO, at least, before
the siege; but this has long since reduced
StrasburE to extreme want, not Of luxu-
rious pates so much as of rye bread, hard
tack and salt bacon.
For strasburg has been defended with
q persistence and devotion, in the face Of
inevitable ruin, which have wonpthc ap-
plause Of admirers Of heroisln every.
where, and have given strong moral
support 10 the resistance Of France at oil
assaiIed points, and especially at Paris.
General thrich has continued his obsti;
nate defence long after he was himself
badly wounded, his works ruined, his
guns nearly silenccd, the city mostly burn
ed, and his garrison half Of it slaughter
ed and the rest halt starved. To do this
merely as q Quixotic sacrifice to point
OF honor, would have been unjustifable,
but II General Uhrick, as we suppose, has
done It deliberately, with o view to afford
to suffering and bewildcred France n
point ofmoral support; while preparing
further resistance to tho invaders, he has
nobly done his duty MS soldier, and Is
entitled to the same honor as il he had
laid down his life in leading a storming
"a ,t,, "a a INrho n, In n n annD1V'p tOFfFpSS