Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1871-02-02
THE INTERCEPTED LETTER.
An Episode OF the Siege of Paris.
BY CLARENCE Z. BUTLER.
From the New York Evening Mail.

The truest story will find some in
credulous readers, and perhaps there
are some "bage creeturs, as Mrs.
Camp called them, who viii be wicked
enough to insinuate that mine should
be taken with grain of salt
But TO begin. Louis Napoleon inau-
gurated the Franco russian war under
the impression that German was only
intrepid in eating cheese whose odor
alone would kill any one ut sixty PAGES.
But when the powerful Landwehr of
King William dubbed their needle
guns. and knocked the Frenchman' kcpj
into cooked hat, Mr. Napoleon ascer-
tanned to his cost that German could
stand The smell Of powder as well as
that of Ilmburg cheese. \ Gordon OF
Prussian steel was soon drawn around
Paris, and carrier pigeons and balloons
were IS only means of commune cation
with the outside world. And even
these means had their drawbacks, for
the balloons were frequently captured
by Uhlans, and the pigeons were no
less frequently captured by hawks that
being kept Tor that purpose by the
Prussians, were called " Uhlan5 of the
air" The letters, which were written
in cipher and couid only be read with
microscope, were always rolled up
and put inside of quill plucked from
the pigeons tail and afterwards rein
serted.
Every one knows to what extremities
the Parisians were reduced through
scarcity of food, and how the proverb
that "every dog has his day was ex-
empliiied when that animal became an
article Of luxury IN the starving city
Nay, every cat then had its day; and,
we may add with perfect truth, every
rat During that crisis. an army cor
respondent of an American paper was
quartered for the night in an old mill
in the immediate vicinity of Paris. He
was accompanied by several Prussian
officers, who used the sashesof the up
per windows for fuel, and made
themselves quite at home
over their rations of black bread,
sausage, and pea-soup. BY midnight
all were fast asleep on the floor,
with the exception of the correspond
ent, who sat by the fire preparing dis
patches to be forwarded on the ensuing
day. While thus engaged, he heard Il
scratching and huttering sound in the
room above, and thoughts of French
guerrillas known as F'rancs-tireurs in
stantly rushed through his mind, But
he resolved to reconnoiter before giving
nm alarm; ana diyesting himself of his
boots he cautiously assembled the stairs.
The room was illuminated by tho moon
that shone on the ebon front of night
like a marigold in II darkeys button
hole, The first thing seen by the cor
respondent was the tail Of a pigeon
sticking through the bannisters ut the
head of the stairs and he advanced
SO noiselessly in his stocking feet
that he succeeded in grasping it.
Then came the tug of war.
A hawk had captured the pigeon,
and entered the room through one of
the windows from which the sashes had
been torn, as aforesaid, in order to de-
vour the prey at his leisure. The
"Uhlan Of the air, )" no sooner saw the
man than he struck he talons still
deeper into the pigeon, tapped his
huge vans and disappeared through
the window with its victim, leaving it's
tail in the hands of the correspondent.
Judge Of the surprise at finding that
several of the quilts contained small
rolls of paper covered with short hand
writing of the minutest description
Surprising them to DO important mill
tary dispatches, he took them ut once
TO headquarters, where stenographer
examined them through microscope
and pronounced them TO be letter
from lady in Paris to friend Mt
Tours. Suppressing the signature and
everything of private nature, | APP
pend the remainder of the letter.
"PARIs, Dee, 1870
My DARLING In spite of the
Chasseport rife and the mitrailleuse |
am I'm durance vile in the starving
capital of the French RcpuIHc, |
italicise the word because the Empire
is an opposum that only pretended to
be dead in order to rid itself of the
Prussian dog And although Victor
Hugo says the Republic is awake! /
fear it viii soon be ready to take an
other Nap. But my main
object in writing is to tell you about
the most remarkable feature Of the
present siege. You know / have five
children-Sammy, George, Oscar. Jeu.
me and Grace; and | often shuddered
rs [ remembered that He who hears the
cry of the hungry raven had not always
heard the cry that went up from a fam.
ished city. There is but one thing
worse than living on horse-meat, and
that is to have no meat at all; and il
half the strategy used to obtain food
had been employed in outgeneralins
Won Moltke and the Grown Prince
IL - ,,..,t1l1 hnNr hnN,h IN h.nA nrntnr 81,