Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-06-13
Tbo vcndomc column.

The Red" savages who for few weeks past
have been devastating the beautiful capital of
France, have at length been cowed into tenn
porary submission. In their frenzied zeal to
add new horrors TO the calamties inflicted upon
the Inorthern portions Of their country by the
recent Prussian invasion, they have exhibited
sort of crazy valor that, had it been seasonably
turned against their foreign enemy, might have
proved as serviceable. as, under actual circum-
stances, it has been suicidal and disgraceful,
Overlooking the frightful amount of bloodshed
staining their hands, and the moral and polit-
cal evils aggravated and perpetuated by their
ruff1anism, against the establishment of any
kind of government that can possibly be eff
eient to protect life or property, the buildings,
merchandise, streets, &c., destroyed-the sack
ing, pillaging, burning and devastating COM
mited-by these wretches, could hardly be
restored, it is estimated, at less cost than two
hundred million dolarsI Nothing sacred has
been spared from dissertation; nothing beauti-
full has escaped mutilation or ruin. The proud
monuments commemorative of the many glories
of France, alike in the arts of peace and of war,
have been swept away by this foul deluge from
the slums of the city, with purpose no more
rational than that which guides an avalanche
when it hurts peasants hut with itself down
the Alps.
| But, while a full account of this vandalism in
| all its loathsome details would almost overbur
den single issue of the largest daily paper in
| the country, there was one among the disgust
ing exploits of this Partisan mob, so wanton,
stupid, mean, and purposeless, as to merit
special notice. This was the pulling down of
the Vendome column. The only conceivable
motive, short of downright madness, that could
have instigated the demolition of this costly
work of art, seems to have been morbid desire
of expressing, in this way, condemnation of
Bonapartism,-a piece of craftsmanship, on the
part of the adde-headed leaders Of the COM
munists, of which the absurdity would only be
feebly initiated, were the modern Italians
to destroy Trajan's column in Rome, because of
its associations with the old Pagan imperialism;
for the Vendome column was erected lin 1906
1O) by Napoleon l, expressly to commemorate
the success of the French armies over those very
same Germans who have just been humiliating
Parish
Such an extraordinary proceeding Is alto
gether beyond the criticism of censure, and we
can only hope that no tidings of it may ever
reach the red-skinned, though-thank heaven!-
not red-republican, savages on our western from
tier, TO deepen any contempt that they may al
ready feel for what we call civilization!
AS some of our readers may wish for little
more information in regard to the Vendome
place and its famous column, we condense what
follows, from Galignanrs Paris Guide
La Place Vendome, as the French call it, oc
cupies the site of what was once city residence
of the duke of Vendome. Hence the name. 1t
is very near the centre of Paris and has the form
of symmetrical octagon, the two larger sides
opposite each other being something over four
hundred feet long. La Colonne Vendome stood
in the centre of this Gctagonal place, and was
an enlarged imitation of the pillar of Trajan, in
Rome. Its height was 1876 feet; the diameter Of
the shaft, thirteen feet; the pedestal twenty by
seventeen feet, and twenty.one feet high. The
pedestal and shaft were of stone, covered with
bronze bas-reliefs, cast out of 1890 Russian and
Austrian cannon, and representing the Yicto-
ries of the French armies. These bas-reliefs
pursued spiral direction up the shaft to the
capital The figures, said to have
been 1000 in number, were feet high; they
were executed by 81 soul ptors Inside the col
umn was a spiral stairway ascending by 176
steps to the capital which was surmOunted by
statue III feet high of Napoleon LIST. The fine
views of Paris and its environs, from the little
gallery above the capital of this column, will
not soon fade from the memory of those whose
privilege il has been TO ENJOY them. The total
cost OF the column was about 100000 in gold.
There is a rumor that the fragments of this
much admired, although not altogether fault
less, work of art have nearly all been found,
and that its restoration at no distant day is not
improbable provided the intriguing NJ. Theirs
and his turbulent republic can hold out long
enough for that purposel Qui vivra vera.