The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-01
WAR NOTES.

Horrible suGerings of the Wounded French.
The Cassel correspondent OF the London Times
writes:-
The other day had most horrible sight of
human suffering. About 1900 prisoners arrived
at midnight on their way from Frankfort to
Stettin, in open railway trucks, no other car
riages being available. When the train started
from Frankfort in the morning the thermome-
ter was above freezing point, but in the course
OF the day such a sudden change set in that
in the evening the glass marked many de-
grees below it, They were scantily clothed,
SOME of them without great coats, which they
had sold, buying tobacco with the money;
others had thin cotton stockings and wooden
shoes; others again had nothing at all on their
feet. Lying in. the same open trucks which
conveyed them from Epernay, exposed TO the
intense cold, they were in many instances
frozen to the boards in their own filth. One of
them at least-some people speak of more-was
frozen to death. They were in most terrible
and pitiable plight, and the groaning of some of
the poor sufferers was fearful. After their
arrival they were distributed in the
waitipg-rooms of the station and in
the barracks, where they received resto-
ratives in the shape of coffee, soup, and
meat Warm clothes and blankets were also
given to many of them, and they continued
their journey after stoppage of fifteen hours,
with the exception of about twenty, who were
sent to the Lazaretto. When | saw them there
they had first to be bathed. They were literally
swarming with vermin. Some of them, being
Mobiles, were mere boys of sixteen and again
men above fifty; Others had served in the line,
and all of them were suffering from exhaustion
or pulmonary affection.
Germany as n Naval Power.
One OF the reported conditions of peace
offered by Bismarck Is that France shall cede to
Germany some of her colonial possessions
What does this indicate? That Prussia, having
achieved supremacy on land, next aspires to be-
come great naval power? That the decay of
the maritime greatness of France is to be fol-
lowed by the accession of Germany to the rank
nrlna oil hU hnr and nroli md
rival? Or is II only in lieu of any better attain
able conditions? 1t would be difficult to fix at
this juncture the precise limits of Bismarck's
views touching the future development of
FatheIland. That this ambition should expand
in proportion to the opportunities which the
result of this war affords him is but natural
The unifcaton of Germany means more than
a simple political consolidation of hitherto
separate States. The effects of a union SO tre-
mendous must reach far beyond the terri
torial boundaries of the Empire, and by
what methods and towhat ends the great states
man who controls Germany will exert the forces
at his disposal, is a question surrounded by too
many difficulties at present to determine. That
one OF these ends, however, will be the building
up of vast commercial and naval power is
altogether likely, and this view is strongly COR
firmed by the proposal to which reference has
been made, as well as by the demand that
France shall surrender certain number of her
Elephant on Toast.
A Paris letter says
We have just killed Castor and Pollux, the
two elephants lately installed at the Jardin
d'Acclimation and upon the backs of which, in
happier times, so many children of all ages and
sexes used to take ride in the Bois de Bou-
logne. Pollux was the first to fall, done to
death by an explosive bullet, the triumph of
the great gunmakers on. DeVism's) skill. The
ball struck behind the right shoulder, and
bursting internally, produced terrible hemor-
rhage in the bowels.
The huge beast bore the wound patiently, and
after flooding the cage with blood, expired
without a struggle. Castor was slain by young
Englishman, Mr.. Milne Edwards, who aimed at
the head in preference to the heart. The first
ball struck on the right temple, and Castor,
after shrill cry of surprise and pain, sank
upon his knees The second bullet struck him
in the centre of the little hollow cavern, sunk
into the forehead, and upon receiving the third
he fell dead instantly. Tonight the restaurant
at Peters in the Passage des Princes, is crowded
with French consonmdteurs, eager to taste the
flesh of a new animal.