The Portland daily press., 1870-10-24
DAILY PRESS.
Monday Morning, Ocsob,r "a, 1870.
Strasbour. During z the Siege
CORTLAND

Berlin Correspondence London Times.
The horrors to which Strasbourg was SUBJ
Jected during the siege transport one back to
the Middle Ages. There was certainly no
stabbing and looting, but their equivalent. If
civilians were not actually put to the sword
as in the good old times, they were shelled,
bombed, and grenaded, which, as far as the
victims sensations are concerned, comes, l
should say, very much to the same thing.
However, we must not be blind to the advan-
taSes of the age. There was one thing to
distinguish the present misery from suferings
sustained in former days: The modern vic
tins had Press to record their troubles.
The journals published in the sorely tested
town during the siege give a melancholy ac-
count of what the city went through in the
last two months. In the exact details they
convey, they ale, perhaps, a unique chronicle
OF the effects OF a bOmbardment upon large
and flOurshing place. To enable wider cir
cles to realize what war actually is, an ac-
quaiDtance with their shocking contents
ought not to remain confined to Alsace and
Lorraine, the area to which the circulation of
the Strasbourg press is limited. Just to give
you an idea of these gloomy paragraphs, 1
will make few extracts. On the 22d of Sept.
the Nieder Rheinische Curier relates the
death of ten civilians by cannon ball. The
fatal list begins with Mary Salome Lux, aged
53, wife of Alexander Ley, Brewer. To the
name is added, in brackets, the single but ex-
haustive word "howitzer." The issue of the
same paper of the 23d of September contains
the following passage: Not day passes with
out swelling the number of victims. Again
xx,o have 90 ~ -,
the number of the 26th of September we read:
"Once more fifteen persons have fallen vic
tins to the bombardment, One of them, EN-
lily Muhl, was only 13 years old" In the list
OF the 21th we find two more young girls, Al
bertine Eckert and Magdalena Roos, the one
10, the other IL years of age, both killed by
grenades. The events of the proceeding day
are thus described:
"Fires, ruins, deal and wounded-such were
the melancholy items of yesterdays history.
We had fresh confagration in the Stein
Strasse, The last remaining house was burnt
down in the Flnkenmatt. A howitzer bullet
penetrated the wall of the house at the cor
ner of the Johannesstadt and National Vors-
tadt. The fragments of the falling wall killed
a child in his cradle, while the bullet itself hOr--
rib!y mutilated man, who, it is said, has al
ready lccumbed to his wounds
In another Strasbourg paper, the Local
Ne,cs of the 26th of September, we come
across these suggestive lines:
"Kuns and victims are increasing at a
frightful rate. The enemy's batteries are ap-
preaching our walls, and their fire is more ve-
hement than ever. The bombs, which a. first
infested only the ramparts and suburbs, now
begin to touch the interior of the town ITSELF
The last two days the Meistergasse has been
badly set upon. Whole houses have been
riddled from roof to cellar by bombs penetrat-
ing right through them. The coffe-house
Zun Tannezapfen has been almost DESTROYED
by single ball. Hundreds of grenades have
been exploding over our heads, and there is
not much exaggeration in saying that we can
almost reckon our wounded as one per min
ute"
On the 9th, the day following, things be-
came even worse:
We bad tondly imagined we had expert
enced the worst from the besieging force, but
we were mistaken. Last night they began
throwing new kind of bomb from an i'm
mense distance. This missile is above 100
pounds in weight, and, in addition 10 it's
fearful volume and force, filled with an ignit-
ing substance only too destructive in its ef-
fects. 1t is bomb, and mrst be hurled from
mortars OF truly gigantic size. The Lang
strasse, Pianzbad, Case, Buchengasse, aud
the covered bridges principally suffered from
these artlleristic novelties. The ball is so
large that you can plainly trace its course in
the air. You may see its rise and fall. There
is a sound like thunder when it comes down
upon .he root u a house. The distances
traversed by these projectiles evidently ex-
ceeds everything known In the artillery of
any other nation. When the German papers
fortnight ago spoke of the two giant NOR
tars to be placed before our ramparts we were
prepared for something terrible, but scarcely
anticipated anything like the reality. Such a
day as yesterday could not pass by without
flesh casualties in it's wake. One of the
worst disasters occurred in the Kageneck
Bruch. In the House Mehl, near the Krone
burg brrracks, two bombs, falling almost ST.
multaneousiy, killed six persons and wounded
twelve. In the Pfanzbad four persons were
wounded in one house. The suburbs were
even worse off. What long register of dead
manned and mutilatedw