The Republican journal., 1870-09-22
sTRAsBOURG.

by the bombardment We read of these
things at safe distance, but can scarcely
conceive the horrors of the raining down day
and night of exploding shells upon q crowd
ed city of a hundred thousand inhabitants
the missiles falling in the warehouses, manu-
factories, and dwelling houses. One she'll
fell in a school room, killing several young
girls. The miserable inhabitants are report
ed as crowding the sewers, and even fighting
for places there as shelter from destruction.
Antiquarans and architects will lament the
destruction of the venerable and noble cathe-
dral, which was the pride and boast Of the
city. The Hartford Times says that it
was founded A. D. 504 The choir was
built by Charlemagne; probably about
A. d. 8OO-though 1t was not completed until
1889 The material of which the cathedral
is built is a brown-stone very much resemb-
ling our Portland freestone. 1t was obtained,
we find upon inquiry, from quarry at Was
sebonne, in the valley of Couronne, a few
miles from Strasbourg. The architect of the
existing edifice was Erwin Won Steinbach, Of
Baden One John Huells Of Cologne, was
the architect of the peerless tower. We state
these facts because they have never before
been seen in print. Its spire is the loftiest in
the world. Its height, AGO feet, surpasses ST.
Peters, and is about equal to that Of the
Great Pyramid. The greater part of the en-
tire structure was destroyed by lightning in
A. l,l
1915 and completed in 1889 The cathedral
is in every part richly decorated with sculp-
lures; and the western front, rising to q
height of $50 feet, is or was, particularly fine
with its wealth of statues, ornamental cary
ings, and bas-reliefs. 1t has circular Win
dow 4s feet in diameter. The Prussian heavy
artillery has made it is said, a ruin of a part
of the vast building
The astronomical clock, the product of a
German clockmaker. in about the year 1850,
is marvel of ingenuity and mechanical
| skill, and has no counterpart. 1t performs
not only the ordinary service of a clock, but
exhibits the days, and the months and the
years; the process Of the seasons; the signs
of the zodiac and the names and movements
of the heavenly bodies At each quarter
hour an angel comes out and strikes one
| stroke on bell at every hour another angel
comes and strikes twice. and at -, meridian,
a figure of Christ appears, accompanied by
the twelve apostles, all of whom move around
a central point and pass in, out of sight, by
no or ha;p
given, and a cock flaps his wings and crows.
The clock is enormous in size, like everything
else connected with the vast cathedral and is
invisible from the outside street.-the specta-
dral to see it. 1t has suffered from fire and
violence before the present year, having been
out OF repair and motonless since the revolu-
ton of 1898, until the year 1912, when it was
repaired by a matchmaker of Bas -Rhin and
has been in operation since. 1t is to be
hoped that this ingenious piece of mechanism
has not been irreparably injured by the pre-
sent Commandment.
| The loss of the Strasbourg library-a vast
couectivs of ooovuu volumes, including
many collections Of rare and curious monkish
parchments- is total and irreparable. 1t can
never be replaced by any collection hereafter
made 1t was the slow result of q thousand
years. and its destruction by fire. caused by
the Prussian hot-shot is like the burning OF
the Alexandrian library in this, that of a
great number of the works destroyed no dl-
plicates can ever be obtained
To the remarks of the Prog. Age about the
Sawyer letter, we have but brief rejoinder to
make. That letter was written by soldier
in the field, to vindicate his name and fame
from the aspersions Of the coward whose
place he took. 1t was written that the true
story might be on record in case he never
came back. He was killed in battle, while
his traducer lives to repeat his ISLANDERS. But
there is more of truth and weight in one
word written by the hand of that dead sol
der and honest man than in all the wordy
and windy columns that can be written in
the Age. The man was cheated and shame
fully abused by the editor of the Age, and it
is a piece of rare good luck for him that
John X. Sawyer is in his grave.
A statue of Lincoln has just been erected
in Union Square, New York, by the Union
League In his right hand is the emancipa
ton proclamation. But nowhere about the
figure is to be seen the declaration of his in
augural Il believe | have no right and
know l have no intention to interfere with
slavery"
One of the saddest sights we remember to have
seen, was that of boy belonging in this town
who, one day this week, was lying in yard in /;
state of heastly drunkenness. The boy not
more than twelve years old, and this is not the first
time he has been in that condition, and fear it
will not be the last There was another boy about
the same age who was in the same condition OH
the same day. Can nothing be done to save this
class of boys! Can no moral influence be thrown
around them to save them from the DESTROYER:
Machias Republican.
Would it be proper to ask if there is not
such a thing as the Maine liquor law, war;
ranted by the inventors to keep everybody
sober, and drive rum out of the State? Is it
known to our Machias friend, and is this the
testimony he offers to prove its efficacy?
The Machias Republican is terribly ex-
ercised oyer the Democratic triumph in Ban