Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-02-02
'ERMS $3.50 PER ANNUM

1t Is impossible to hope for supplies ldur-
ing the fortnight after the siege is raised,
consequently fifteen days supplies must
be laid aside for that period. We have
other serious troubles. The supply OF
medicines is becoming very low. There
are rumors that the government intends
to confscate all of them for the military
hospitals.
LAUNDREsSEs
refuse work, for there is no starch, little
soap, no hot water, no means of heating
irons. In some quarters of the town there
is an insufficient supply of water. A
great many wealthy families are obliged
to do their own washing and to dry the
linen in the dining room.
WOOD
is daily advancing in price. 1t is now
five cents pound. Dealers require re.
tail buyers to pay for its saving and fol-
its carriage to their home, which makes
the cost eight or ten cents pound.
THEN WE ARE LACKING FOOD.
1 lose hours daily hunting for some
thing to eat. I occasionally get some.
| thing which makes me i'll with nausea fol
six or eight hours. T'other day 1 bough,
some peas whose aftertaste was most
nauseating. More than one meat pie ]
have bought has made me i'll. A physi.
clan told me this morning he advised all
his friends to drink daily wine glass oi
debility existing from want of food in suf.
fcent quantities. Many people will die
He tells me of surfeit, or rather of inabili
ty to digest animal food during the first
days after the siege is raised, and we re-
ceive abundant supplies. Consider, we
have only twenty grammes of meat in six
days, it is painful to see the wan, pinched
famishing faces in the ribbons of the
people stretched in front of the butchers
and especially of the public kitchens. ]
stepped off one this morning as walked
by ii, and found it two hundred and ten
yards long. Some of the wretched
women had skeleton babies sucking.
was walking through the great markets
to-day when a woman asked me "Do
give me the green tops of that celery Q
had stalk of celery in my hand, ,)it is toe
green to eat, but il will enable me to
make good soup with bit of horse meat
Too green to eat In these hard times ]
eat everything The poor woman looked
so wretched, and was so pale.eyed (now
accurately the poets observed when they
described famine as psle.eyed, the star.
wing have paleness of eye to be seen in
no other condition.) / let her take wha,
she wanted. / could not, however, keep
my heart light as it should have been
when it loved my neighbor as myself.
TYPHUs AND HOSPITAL FEVER
sweeps to the grave a larger number OF
persons every day. If my reckoning be
accurate, there have been 20 900 deaths in
Paris since the siege commence. The
smallpox continues its ravages with
scarcely any abatement. There are many
suicides. There is good deal of insani.
ty. There never was before so much
drunkenness in Paris: it has large share
in the increasing mortality of the week
We have just now a sort of freshet of veg.
etsbles. 1 do not know where they come
from. By vegetables mean celery, Brus-
sells sprouts, and nlaclae Ia sort of salad not
very unlike sleeps sorreD but their
prices continue unabated. No preserves
are TO be had anywhere. We are almost
reduced to dry bread. ..
THE AMERICAN MINISTER
receives dispatches every Tuesday from
the United States. At 10 a. m. exactly
trumpets sound the parley on the left or
Western side of the Sevres bridge, and
the white flag is raised. A German officer
in full dress comes forward to the broken
arch of the bridge, gives the military
salute, and says to the French officers who
go to meet him, they standing on the
right or Eastern side of the broken arch:
Gentlemen, have the honor to present
to you my salute" The latter reply:
"Sir, we have the honor to salute YOU"
Gentlemen, have the honor to inform
you my mission is to place in your hands
Mr.. Washburne's dispatches"
"Sir, we are going to have the honor to
send for them"
Each gives the other the military salute,
goes to his end of the bridge, and walks
down the steps leading to the river bank.
The French send off boat, crossthe river
and receive the dispatches from the hands
of the German officer The military salute
is again exchanged. Each returns to his
respective trenches, and fire is re-opened
the instant the white flag is lowered.