The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-02-04
Paris Under Fire-FeerfuI scenes iEs
the Streets


The special correspondent of the London
Daily Ne,os in Paris, in letter of the 9th
ult. says:
The bombardment still goes on, but with
an effect, moral and physical, so small that
any description of 1t would sound almost
like bravado. That there have been deaths,
and that there has been destruction, it is
impossible to deny and death and des-
truction are always terrible to witness. But
for the object which the Prussians have in
view, the prodigious cannonade with which
Paris has been visited might as well have
been salvo of champagne bottles. The
only practical result of the bombardment
which can find is one jest the more for
the little boys of Paris. When they see a
man or woman particularly well dres-
sed-say man glorious in furs that argue
an extraordinary care of his person--they
cry out flat, fiat shell, shell, plat
ventrel Down on your faces The man,
gorgeous in fur, falls fiat on the ground
perhaps in the gutter--and the Partisan
urchin rejoices with exceeding great joy.
The Prussian shells have burst upon
the gardens of the Luxembourg, upon the
Iavalides, upon the Observatory, upon the
boulevard and street which take their
name from the hottest OF all hot places
the Boulevard d'Ener. But most of all
they seem to converge upon the Pantheon,
for it appears that the Prussians have an
idea that here is powder magazine.
There is not grain of powder in the
Pantheon-only hundreds of women and
scores of men praying to Sante Genevve
to save Paris--though the blessed virgin
of Nanterre seems to hear them not. This
quarter OF the town begins to be de-
serted, for it is dangerous. A cantoniere
is in her bed, sound asleep, and dream
Jog doubtless of her gallant regiment a
shell kills her in her sleep. A dozen peo-
pie are drinking at a cabaret shell
comes to scatter them. A mother is sitting
at her table with her two daughters a
shell smashes into the room, but does them
no harm. Ia house hard by it bursts on
two babies in their cradles the mother
rushes in terror stricken, and swoons with
joy to find that her babes are unhurt. In
one of the houses some soldiers are cooking
their dinner, she'll comes tumbling into
the pot, and the dinner is dssipated, but
the soldiers are Untouched. In another
house celebrated painter is working at
his easel a shell plunges into his study,
destroys his pictures, but does him no
bodily harm. A cab jogs along the
streets in the lazy fashion peculiar
to French cabs. 1t contains two
ladies, and if the coachman had
been little more active it need not
now be recorded that one was killed and
the other only frightened. Frightened
People may well be frightened at such per-
sonal experience but Paris, nevertheless,
is comparatively Indifferent, and the psy-
Geological moment is not come, nor is it at
hand. So much life has been destroyed
that few lives more or less can make no
great difference; and 80 much property
valuable property-hss suffered destruction
around Paris that more waste and destruc-
ton can produce little effect. We have
become seasoned to uffering-hardened
Another Paris letter states that among
the ambulance corps in that city are Mr..
Cragg, of Baltimore J. K. Riggs and
Frank Riggs, of Washington, aud Mr.. Ey-
elyn, of Virginia.