The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-14
THE METROPOLITAN UNDERWORLD.
The Paris Sewers and CatacOmbs-A Possible
fleans Of Enterina the City.

fleans OF Enterins the City.
The Paris correspondent of the Daiv Ne,os writes
S under date dat .to of August rs as foows;.Yo1
Dumbledownderry" come up, armed cap-a-pie
thirsting for. the abduction of madens and
the blood OF the innocent. You have seen,
too, mysterious men clad as divers or colers, ia
huge stiff boots and blue jerseys emerge from the
have said to yourself placidly "sewers." Combine
these experiences as Count Smorltork did "Chi-
nese ana f,r 1,o sna yo1 will arrive at
you of the enemy entering a modern city by its
subterranean ways, and at given signal appearing
above ground The chance Of the Prussans ettempt-
ing this in Paris is actually being canvassed, and the
few people who have been at the pains to ascertain
rience what the sewers OF a wel-draned capital are
like, what it is to walk in them and to follow their
courses will admit the possibility of vast force
finding its way below ground to any portion of a
city. For example, every street in the City OF Lon
don has its hidden counterpart below. The sewer
map of the engineer to the corporation, Mr. Hay-
ward, is as complete in its general outline as map
OF the city ITSELF and beneath all thelarger thorough
or four abreast. The subterranean works of Paris
are moIe wonderful still, and admitted to
Of Asnieres to the Place de la Concorde
an enormous sub way runs, which is sixteen feet
and half high, eighteen feet broad, and more
than three miles long. Besides this are below the
city three spacious galleries running on each side of
the Seine, the whole being provided with air-traps
at regular intervals, and lighted with oil-lamps.
Descend into either of these, and you find them to
be as well built those beneath the city OF London
and with facilities for cleansing them which are ex.
tremely suggestive OF their value for strategcal
purposes. The subterranean dralns galleries,
are furnished with iron tramways, along which
small carts run, which are pushed by three men
and furnished with dropplank, which fits
exactly into the drain, and pushes the
tubid waters Of Of the great collector, bstween zen
Asnieres and the Place de la ConcOrde good-sized
boat is navgated and the widest stories abroad
respecting its possible uses to the enemy. Most of
these may be dismissed as idle, but / am in posi-
ton to affirm that careful inspection Of these sub
terraDean works has been made, and that Paris is
preparing itself, down even to the waters under the
earth for the possible reception of its foe. II gun
powder Will blow up iron traps, water will spoil gun
POWDER and the sanitary rite known flushing the
sewers would eectuaydlspose OF an intrudng force.
The catacombs again. into which seventy different
staircases lead and which extend not merely under
the Faubourgs St. German, ST. Jacques and St
Marcel, but under such important buildings as the
Palace of the Luxembourg and the Pantheon have
had more attentian paid them within the last two
days than has been the case for years. Their uses
under contingencies, which 1t is ineXpedent to
name, their size an value repositories, are all
canvassed eagerly, and nothing shows more plainly
the anticipations OF the people OF Paris than the
keen interest they display in such topics these.