The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1871-07-21
IneIdents Of be Capsure Of ParLs.

A dense smoke overhung the whole
Rue de La Paix quarter, and made
ones way uncertain, and If one ven-
tured into certain streets he was i'm
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 to obey. The penalty was arrest
and possible shooting; and ones pro-
greSs was q 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 If 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 doubts. He quarreled at once,
and endeaYoEed to draw q crowd
around me, but left him post haste.
To even hint that 8 communist was
human being was almost the signal
for ones execution. Toward evening
the shells fell very rapidly In the
Place de POpera, and woman, who
was coming to the Place VendOme a.
prisoner, was struck down byR shell
from the Chaumont battery. A horse
was also wounded near the Opera
baTTicsde, 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 Tiddled with bullets. In the
Rues Scribe and AubeF, 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 Sumber of Americans and
French people have reeOunted to me-
the following incident, which i defy
any one to read without q certain
emotion. On Thursday 9 very beaU-
tiful young girl taken IN the act Of
scattering inflammable matches
against the houses, was marched
down the Rue de Ia Paix to the Place
VendOme to be shot. She seemed
quite beside herself, and answered
quietly, when asked what she was
doing and what she had in her apron,
"OnIy some kindlings to light my
fire With" Her beauty, and her elas-
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 a 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
shambles 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 q firing platoon and dis
charge of number of musketB could
be 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 q 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.
-AutbOT Of ''dly Pttris."