The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-30
THE GREAT FRENCH SCARE.
widespread UOnstern natIOn In the PrOvInees.

Widespread COnsternatIon In the Provinces.
The London Saturday Re0tep says:-
In justice to the people, we must recollect
the circums stances under which this terrible
experience came upon them. Only few
days before, Saverne had seen the French
regiments marching through its streets with
jaunty step and joyous confidence. Then all
of sudden, without warning, in the twink
ling of an eye, they were back again; but in
what plight !--straggling fragments of
broken battalions, manned, limping, and
famished, whole companies destitute of Off
GERS, carts full of wounded, men and even
officers begging bread from door to door. We
have French evidence that MacAIahon's re-
treat from Woertb was an utter rout; and the
panic of shattered army which fed even be-
fore the dust raised by one of its own
divisions, thinking it the enemy, could not
fail to infect the population. NJ. About and
M. Texier have both described the scenes
which followed. The inhabitants, SD atching
mp their children and such small goods as
could be carried, rushed from their homes,
scarcely knowing whittier they were bound,
falling in exhaustion by the waysde, encamp-
ing for the night in the mud aud rain, in
utter helplessness and despair. 81 knew not,
says Texier, "where we were going, but
went with the crowd. What a crowd Old
men, women carrying their infants in long
clothes, little girls of four years old Chamber
ing along paths fit only for the chsmois;
cries, tears, desolation. They had taken
everything they could take, and more than
they could carry. The men staggered under
their burdens, the very children had their
loads. This was only a type of many similar
scenes. Whole villages and even towns took to
theroad as the tide of panic flowed on. At Null
house few energetic citizens barricaded the
streets against the flight of their townsmen,
and forced nsny of them to stay against their
will. Nancy surrendered to a handful of
Uhans. Little more than hundred Prus-
SLAMS took possession of Luneville, the chief
cavalry garrison, the Canterbury of France.
Epernay is almost the only instance where
the people themselves have made front against
the enemy. Everywhere else the Prussans
themselves have been amazed and even
alarmed at the absence of resistance. The
very wording of their proclamations to the
inhabitants of the invaded districts ex-
pressed the apprehensions which have been
SO strangely disappointed. There have been
grumblings at the amount of the requisi-
tions, curses not loud but deep, a scowl on
the public face, but few overt acts of vio-
lence.
Surprising as all this may appear at first
sight, especially in the case of so proud and
spirited nation as the French, it admits of
easy explanation, Nothing could be more
unjust than to ascribe it to any want of
courage on Il6 part Ol the people. lner
behavior has been only the natural and inevi-
table consequence OF the policy of their
Government. For eighteen years they have
been drilled and disciplined into apathetic
and uDreasoning obedience. They have not
only been asked but compelled to trust every
thing to the Emperor, the great entrepr6neUr
de saint public, who made national safety,
like tobacco and the post Office, Govern
ment monopoly. The people were dsarmed
the National Guards curbed and paralyzed,
the press gagged, political discussion pun
ished by official prosecutions, if not by more
direct and legal penalties. A limb long be-
numbed by oppressive bandages and enforced
want of exercise does not recover all at once
its strength and elasticity. The
projects who governed France under
the direction of the Minister of the Inte
rior were scarcely less strangers to the COM
munities over which they were placed, or less
remote from them in sympathy and co-opera-
tion, than the Prussian officers who seemed
to drop from the skies into the centre of
populous towns, making instant acquisitions
of food and money. The second nature of
habit is not readily shaken off, and the accus-
toned obedience of Frenohmen to every
thing in the shape of official orders explains
their instructive submission to Prussian de-
mands. Even, however, before the disaster
of Sedan and the downfall of the empire,
there were signs that this was only transient
mood, and that the people were already be-
ginning to rouse themselves from their first
fit of stupor. 1t was indeed, impossible that
they could long remain quiet under such
terrible experiences There are limits to
human endurance, and both as regards ma
tional humiliation and personal losses the
limit seems in this instance to have been now
reached,