The Portland daily press., 1871-06-14

Commune has done is horrible Of course it has
burned palaces OF inestimable value it has laid
Dne-third OF Paris in ruins, aud it has murder
"a In cold blood the venerable Archbishop, ten
Sisters OF Charity, score or two Of priests, |
and thirty or forty other hostages. But the |
gentlemen" of the army of Versalles-the |
officers OF "the splendid army" which now |
holds Paris-have done things quite as bad.
TO shoot prisoners, under any circumstances, |
is bad thing: but had none bat men and wo-
ar in the act of causing CONGREGATIONS,
been shot L should find reason 'or
extenuatlon II not for justification. Inc yer
sallles army have not contented themselves
with ihis-they have disgraced themselves W
acts of incredible cruelty and baseness, ahu
have murdered the innocent while executing
the guilty. Some OF these Olficers-wbo call
themselves geatlemen-have slashed their wo-
men prisoners with their swords; others OF
them have given these prisoners to their men
Tor an hour and then butchered them; others
of them have entered into houses and dragged
out whole families to eXecution-Old men, old
women, young men, young women, even
children, have been their victims. L have not
a word of pity for the wretches of the COM
mune; they deserved all they have got, and
more; the t1endish women who have been set
ting the city on fire deserve death; that is all
right; and their eXecutoners have shown
hemseiveS to be as fiendish as their victims.
Let it not be forgotten, by the way, that all
Paris during this week has not been the work
of the Commune and its adherents The Versail-
lals have had their full share in it, think it
is demonstrable that fully one half of the con-
fagrations were caused by the shells of the
Versallais. They were very careful of their
own lives, and they cared nothing at all for
anything else. But to the facts. Essl
On Friday and Saturday, as find by COM
pairing my own figures ard notes with those
of my friends, something like one thousand
two hundred persons were shet, and OF these
nearly four hundred were women. Some OF
these women, admit, deserved death, but
others, L am confident, did not. Some of them
were hays and fnries; others were young,
handsome, and respectable women. Some of
them were degraded" before they were shot.
You can imagine what that means; L cannot
describe it.
As 1 am writing-as often as i write a SEN
tence, almost as often as ! write line, an exc
eution or a murder is perpetrated. Since
have commenced TO write this letter have
heard no less than eight volley Of musketry in
the neighbOring boulevard, and each one OF
them was the death. knell of a party of the
condemned. o. party, say; for now they
are not shot singly but in squads or companies
OF dozen, of score, or OF nifty.
IL il not true that the soldiers kill all their
chptiyes. During Friday and Saturday saw
hundreds of their prisoners driven along to-
wards Versailles. Among them we're old men
with gray hair, young and pretty women, and
children. 1t was wonderful to witness the
conduct OF the respectable" bourgeoisie as
these conveys Of prisoners passed along They
were going probably TO death-at least TO Bit
ter punishment. The people crowded upon
them, bissed at them, spat upon them, reviled
them, and sometimes, when the guard permit
ted II, showered blows upon their deienceless
heads. The women were treated with the
most cruelty, and their worst tormentors were
women.
la the Rue St. Honore saw this scene: A
party of soldiers came down the street, having
with them two prisoners-One very old man
and one fine fellow thirty or thirty five years
old. AT the corner where L stood there was a
crowd of people, and these booted the prison.
ers and struck at them with sticks. What
the prisoners had done no one knew-no one
cared to ask. When they were struck how
ever, they turned upon their assailants and
the old man raised his hand to strike back
"a mort! A mort" cried the crowd and to
death it was. The soldiers closed around
their prisoners, they crowded them up against
wall, and then they-shOt them? No; they
pounded Their to death with the butts Of their
muskets, knocking them down, then making
them rise on their knees, then KNOCKING them
down again, and finally smashing their heads
so that their brains spattered out upon the
pavement
A vivandiere of one of the National battal.
ions was captured at barricade which was
taken in the rear while feigned attack was
made on it from the 'front.' She was fighting
bravely, and when told to surrender she drew
revolver from her belt and killed three OF her
foes. Then she was seized and disarmed, her
hands were tied behind her, and she was led
away. Had she been shot while fighting it
would not have been fair; but she was taken
to house pear by, kept there awhile, and
then brought back to the street. There she
was placed against wall, her hands still tied
and she was shot by the men who had ravish-
| ed her. Icould go on for hours writing accounts
of scenes like this. But grow sick with the
task and leave it for the present
AN EDITORIAL OPINION.
The Washington National Republican in a
very sensible editorial article gives the follow
ing explanation of the causes which led, or
rather drove the Commune into the commits
sion of such terrible excuses:
The desperate fighting of the communists,
and the awful destruction and savagery which
marked their fall, are in some measure ex.
planned and palliated by the fact that Theirs
aud his Government, like all weak men and
Governments, refused to be magnanimous in
the hour of victory and to give any terms to
the iDsurgent leaders. He meant that they
should all perish in Paris be captured. 1t
appears that they were willing to surrender
the city peaceab'y, and, in fact, did surrender
it by allowing the unobstructed entry of Yer
salllIsts On one side, hoping to themselves es.
cape on the other. But the Germans, in ac-
cordance with an understanding with Theirs,
drove them back to be shot, and then it was
that the destruction of Paris was determined
upon and preparations made to lay it in ruins
As the Saturday Reuiew says: "What is the
Saint Chapelle, or the indignation of those
who would mourn over the destruction of the
Saint Chapelle, to a man who is driven back
by the bayonets of foreigners on the bayonets
OF his cOnutrymen?