Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1871-07-22
Incidents Of the Capture Of Paris,

A dense smoke OverhuDg the whole
Rue de la Paix quarter, and made
ones way uncertain, and II one ven
tured into certain streets he was Inn
mediately impressed into the water
bucket chain, and kept labOring to
help extinguish the fires all day.
Every one, young and old, who was
commanded to pass down to the fires
had 70 obey. The penalty was arrest
and possible shooting; and ones pro-
gress was a constant succession OF
panics. Strangers were treated like
Parisians, and hustled when they
grumbled. The national guards OF
order were fretting and fuming about
as II anxious for preteXt to kill some
thing; and 1t was unsafe to reason with
them. One man assured me that five
thousand insurgents had been shot
since the troops entered. mildly ex-
pressed doabts. He quarreledat once,
and endeavored TO draw crowd
around me, but l left him post haste.
To even hint that O communist was
q human being was almost the signal
for ones execution. Toward evening
the shells fell very rapidly In the
Place de POpera, and a woman, who
was coming to the Place Vendome as
a prisoner, was struck down bya shell
from the Chaumont battery. A horse
was also wounded near the Opera
barricade, and added his screams to
the terror. The front Of the building
in which the Washington is located
was half torn away. The kiosques
were riddled with bullets. In the
Rues Scribe and Auber, shells fell
every few moments. The troops suf-
fered considerably. The incendiary
panic became wilder every moment
and as the lurid flames from the min
istry Of finance lit up the Opera square
one could see men and women
brought down tied and bleeding to the
square, where they were instantly
shot. A cumber Of Americans and
French people have recounted to me
the following incident, which l defy
any one to read without a certain
emotion. On Thursday very beau
tiful young girl taken in the act OF
scattering inflammable matches
against the houses, was marched
down the Rue de la Paix to the Place
Vendome to lbe shot. She seemed
quite beside herself, and answered
quietly, when asked what she was
doing and what she had in her apron,
"Only some kindlings to light my
fire with" Her beauty, and her elias
tic and courageous step, as she march
ed to execution, did not enlist the
women in her favor; but as she turned
and faced the crowd with flashing eye,
and as her long black hair swayed in
the breeze, many strong man shed
tears. The implacable wal OF the
poor against the rich, carried now to
the extremity of despair, made this
young girl march as proudly to the
sbambles as though her cause had won
and Paris were free. A few minutes
after she had entered the Place, the
report Of some muskets was heard.
The military school on the Champ de
Mars was made the favorite place for
executions. Prisoners taken there
rarely came out. On Wednesday and
Thursday the PROFESSIONS were almost
constant, and as fast as the men and
women entered the doomed precinct
the tramp Of a firing platoon and dis
charge Of q number Of muskets could
he heard. The corpses were heaped
up SO that newcomers had to climb
over them in order to stand at the
fatal wall. One man cut a pirouette
as he marched over his dead comrades
and gave the word "Fire!" himself,
The bodies were dragged afterward
from the Champ de Mars to trenches.
F-AWh0r Of "My Paris"