The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-05-25
A Horrible Day or siaushters aid Uon-
nayrations In Parts-The Crowpisg Tcrrors
Of tho Commune.
OH shame TO thee, land or the Gauli
OH woe to thy children and theei
Unwise in thy glory and base in thv fall,
How Wretchcd tuy portion shall bel


| TO France" after the final overthrow and re-
moval of the First Napoleon; but they will as
forcibly apply to the events in Paris which
have followed the downfall of Napoleon the
Third. TIE GROWING tcrrors of the Com
mune in its dying struggles, in addition to the
fearful saughters at the barbados, have
fallen upon Paris, in the turning loose of its
vagabond incendiaries. Our dispatches Of
yesterdays events in the late paradise
of pleasure and frivolity present one Of the
most appalling pictures imaginable of the
horrors Of civil war. We have only few
outlines and hints of the dreadful scenes in
Paris of yesterday and the night succeeding
the terrible day but it needs no effort Of the
imagination to ill in the shocking details.
The thunder of artillery, the crashing of
bombs, heavy explosions Of mines, magazines
or caissons; the growing of the mitrailleuses
and the incessant roar of musketry at the bar
ricades; the shrieks of flying women and
the groans from heaps of wounded and dying
men, the yells of the combatants, and around
all, at various points, the rush and roar Of
angry confagrations yelling the city in smoke
and dire confusion, give us a combination
of horrors of which even Paris knew but
little in all her first world-appalling
Reign Of Terror. The burning of the Tuile-
rics and the Louvre, conspicuous among the
incidents of this dismal spectacle of war, are
still only among the incidents of the days
misfortunes to Paris and to France. The
shame, the Generalization and the disgrace to
the French people are the disasters which it
will be most difficult to repair.
There has been for some time general
apprehension in the outside world that the
Paris Commune would 60 down only in the
ruins of the city or 60 out only from the city
in flames. The senseless destruction of the
Imperial Army Column in the Place Ven
dome pretty plainly indicated the ulti-
matum of the iconoclasts of the Commune
in regard not only to the monuments of kings
and emperors in Paris, but to all the symbols
and vestiges of Cnsarism throughout France.
In the destruction of the Vend6me Column the
Commune proclaimed to the world that in the
event of its success in its design of revolu-
tionizing and reconstructng the government
OF France, all the monuments of royalty
throughout the country were to be destroyed
or sold and made to undergo
Into something new and strange.
Every name of building, square, street or
public work of any description associated with
royalty in any form, was to be changed, and
every shadow Of despotism was to be removed
from the land. The grand idea of the Com
mune was the Republic Universal and Social,
under which each city was to be q sort of in
dependent concern, with the provinces subject
to the cities and the cities bject ia the general
government to Paris, and all under the form
of great community of liberty, equality and
fraternity" known as the State. 1t was to be
the duty of the State, holding all property of
every description, to provide equally for all
its children in the division of labor, subsist-
ence and recreation, and while marriages,
divorces and everything of that sort were to
to be perfectly free, the churches were to be
turned into schools, theatres and other insti-
tutions of utility, pleasure and amusement,
and the Goddess Of Reason would again take
the place of religion. In word, France
under the Commune would be great confedc-
ration Of Fourierite phalanxes, of free love,
free labor, free enjoyments, and SO on, and
with everything for everybody and nothing to
do but to enjoy in everything the pleasures
of perfect equality and the fat of the land
Considering the desperate task first devolv-
ing upon these Paris revolutionists-the task of
putting down by force Of arms the existing
government of France-the Commune, during
its brief occupation, had. down to yesterday,
accomplished much inside of Paris, in doing
away with the old and in substituting its new
order of things. 1t had driven out large
proportion Of the city property holders and
had entered into the occupation of their
houses free of rent it had robbed churches
and imprisoned the priests; it had levied its
assessments upon the Bank OF France, the
money changers, the shopkeepers, the railway
and other corporations; II had shot numerous
citizens cougregating peaceably as men of law
and order, and had suppressed every newspa-
per venturing TO speak its own opinions. In
the work of removing the landmarks of
the despots it had changed the names
Of streets and places without number,
had torn away fine ratings, bridges and
house fronts--every sign of Napoleonism-and,
with the pulling down of the Vend6me column,
it was going into the image-breaking bust
ness on a grander scale, when interrupted
by the necessity Of bringing all its forces to
resist the army OF MacMahon inside tue city
walls.
II IS hardly, then, matter Of surprise that,
when driven into corner, like a gang of
pirates, these Communists should fight like
demons, and turn loose their incendiares upon
the city. We repeat that it has been
the general apprehension for some time
that the dying struggles OF the Com