The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1870-10-01
fCorrespondence OF the Bosom Journal.l

-The Rude Lesson the French Have
Notwithstanding Of siege.
correspondence of the Bosom Journal \
PARIS Sept. 1, 1870.
Not much chance to write, or even
tn think, friends, for the past few days.
Even my notes on my erankenphae-
ger" trip TO Metz are IN arrears.
Since / lett you rejecting on the
bloody and significant reyerses OF
GraVolotte, | have hardly had time TO
put pen to paper. 1t was Tearlsome
Journey from the frontier down into
the interior of Germany and out to the
Belgian frontier, after an escapade on
the field as a sanitary man, and the
slowly on. Every station was a hos
pltal; every car was crowded with
broken armed ard pallid men, getting
YEARLY forward to the towns where
they were to be cared for. l saw at
Blngebruck a dozen "Brandenbur
gers, whe came out alive, but fear
fully mangled. from the tremendous
charge their cavalry made against
Bazaine's army at Mars la Tour.
They we're shot eight and entimes.
many by mitrailiense bullets and most
of them were not likely to live. The
physique Of the men was particularly
noticeable. They we're ssalWart and
rude in form, but their faces were all
singularly beautiful, and often lighted
by rare intellectual fire. | am told
that the corps is composed of men of
very fi1e minds. Nearly all this little
group had the KoDiggratz wounds
and medals, and agreed that Mars la
Tour was quite as frightful as the chief
battle OF the great Austrian campaign.
As my next letter will be devoted
entirely to a description OF the mag
nificent sanitary arrangements IN the
Prussiau army, and IN Germany gen.
orally, and as the various rumOTs about
the immediate siege of Paris have
sent me back here, much TO my disad-
vantage, must content myself with
describing to you the Notifications
and some of the inner strategic ar
rangements of the city, aud then no
once more for land where bad news
is not kept silent. Paris knows moth
ing of its critical situation. Murat
Halstead, Of the Cincinnati CONNER
cidl, who has just come back from the
front, where he narrowly escaped being
shot, says that the Prussians have
BaZaine fast In a net, out OF which he
will find it hard to break. Here 1t is
said that Bazaine is ravaging the
Prussian army, and wandering at his
own sweet will. Mc1Iahon, In the
French journals, appears as victor,
Ia the English and Prussian kilograms
as defeated and retreating General.
Whom to believer. believe it is [,
and not the King of Prussia, gone
crazy, or else all the French kilograms
are fabricated In Paris.
Lutetia, 20 my queenl the world is
all forsaking thee Paris, in her
stained and war worn purple; Paris,
queen of cities and mistress of sciences,
crouches here in her corner, beneath
her massive walls, terror-strieken
Her little sister fortresses, Strasbourg,
Phals1ourg, Toul and Bitsche, still
hold out valliantly, although in flames
every night, and their citizens are dy-
ing of fright and hostile shells. There
is q brief respite from the terrorism;
the Prussians have halted in their
march and tented toward the Belgian
frontier; so the queen city beseeches
her protection; to render impregnable,
if possible, the present "boulevards"
or bulwarks of Paris. What are these
bulwarks2
Paris was surrounded by its present
wall in 1871, chiefly at the recon
mendation of NJ. Theirs, fiery par
ticle" and historian Of the Empire,
who predicted that by thorough forti-
fcations even so large city could be
rendered impregnable. He remem-
bered With,sorrow the Invasion of the
allies, and determined that those
scenes should never be repeated.
Paris is fortress of the first class.
Between the Roman epoch aud the
reign of Louis the Thirteenth it was
surrounded five times with those an
tiaue walls and towers which to-day
would not stand the fire of a dozen
guns. Each time that it expanded
beyond the bulwarks, it did so with
the most supreme defiance of all mill
tary advantages. 1t grew large and
misshapen, like an uUoultured child.
In 1892, when the country was de
elared in danger, Paris awoke out of
the stupor that had for, a long time
characterize :, nd threw up the re-
doubts of EIontmartre, SAINT Denis,
and BelleVille. But these were not
erected with sufficient rapidly to have
kept off the enemy, fit had then deter
mined to come to Paris. In 1888,
Marshal Soult asked the Corps Legis-
latif to vote credit Of thirty.fve mil
lions of francs, to pay for a perma-
nent plan of defence for the capital.
He proposed to have seventeen peutsg-
fronts. Eleven of these forts were to
be on the right, and six on the left
onal forts, each presenting five bastiea-
edshore of the Seine. Each was to
contain one thousand men and sufi-
Gent ammunition for them Besides
these forts there was to have been an
intrenehed camp outside the walls.
But this plan, the details of which
would only be Wearisome at present,
was faally rejected, aud there was no
more talk of fortifyiug Paris for seven
years. At the end of that period, when
the revival of the Coalition seemed i'm
minent, and when Louis Philippe was
willing to become republican to save
the country, M, Theirs opened a credit
of one hundred millions of francs,
and the present Notifications were
elevated.
Eighty-fve bastions now command
the plain in front, and the bitches be-
low the walls can be filed with water
from the Seine at anymoment, The es-
carpets furnished with rampant. The
military road of connection on the in
E'ner side is one of the pleasantest prom
enades in Paris. and is elegantly paved.
Near to. and often parallel with this.
runs the Liene de Ceinture, or cir
cular railway" which connects all the
roads running into Paris, and their
stations. Sixty-six gateways, at each