Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1871-02-10
BomBARDmENT OF PARIS.
A Night Picture From a Bridge Of the
Seine.
Correspondence New York Times.l
D,,rc rTE,,--Jo,- Ta0,,a-,r 30

PARIS, Thursday, January Z, 1871.
The bombardment continues. Du
ring the night past, however, very few
shells were fired, if any at all, and it
was not until ) O'Clock this morning
that the first bomb fell into the city,
near the Pitie, killing an aged woman
of seventy-one years. A young girl of
nineteen years was the next victim, one
of her legs being carried away complete
ly, the poor girl dying speedily from loss
of blood Mr.. Swaeget, the yonng
Kentuckian who had his right foot ta-
ken off, is doing very well at the Amer
ican Ambulance. He IS cheerful, and
his amputation was decided success
"a beautiful case, as the doctor says.
Previous to last night the enemy began
the bombardment at 10 o'clock. At
that hour the city presented touching
spectacle. About II osElOck l was on
the Point Neuf listening to the shells
as they fell into the Quarter Latin.
The night was fine, the moon making
its way through the clouds, at times OBJ
scured at times shining with brllllanCy.
The Seine below was filled with floating
ice, the current making a murmur like
the noise of a crowd. In the moments of
L
Notre Dame, Tours St. Jacques, the
Louvre, and St. German L Auxerrois,
came out in full relief, the clouds float
ing through the sky, throwing them at
times into black and irregular masses of
shadow. The night was very calm, in
spite of the crowds which gazed into the
sky, and in spite Of the crowds huTying
by with their household goods in bum
dies or in small hand-carts-the people
fleeing for safety to the right bank of
the river-one could yet hear the muir
muir of the Seine. Hundreds of the
curious were there gazing into the south
ern sky, a subdued cry of warning ma
king all eyes turn III that direction. A
visible but transient flash of light upon
the dark southern sky, told that a gun
was fired. From fifteen to twenty sec
onds later one heard the report of the
gun, with its dull and well known boom;
hve or six seconds later loud whistle,
as the shell came over the houses-a
whistle so distant that the eye followed
it as if the shell was visible; lower and
lower it came; five seconds pass, per-
haps, and then we could hear the heavy,
sickening crash, as the bomb entered
some unfortunate house, the crash being
followed by loud and terrible eXplo-
sion. When near, one heard worse still,
for it is even more sickening to hear the
crashing of glass and the pattering of
pieces of shell and stone, sent hundreds
of yards away. There is then a mo-
ment of silence, in which the heart al
most ceases to beat, followed by the
piercing shrieks of frightened women,
who have, perhaps, seen their children
torn in pieces before their eyes. Some
times there IS the cry of fire, and a rush
of men, and a few moments later sad
cortege, followed by crying women-the
men carrying the wounded to the hospit-
al. Night before last all of these hor-
rors were beneath my eyes-a shell fall
ing only three houses away, one of my
windows being broken by a fragment of
stone sent flying by the shell. The
sight of house in which one of these
ninety-four pound shells have exploded
is appalling. All of the rooms are
made into one, the house being, in fact,
completely gutted. It is worthy of re-
mark that nearly all of the German
shells explode, and at the precise mo-
ment.
Another correspondent writes:
The firing upon the ramparts, which
-yon will see by map are quite on the
interior of the city, is wonderfully accu-
rate, and it is estimated that one hundred
persons, soldiers and civilians, have
been killed on the road which runs
along the FIVE earthworks. 1t is divert
ing to see the soldiers on duty hug the
huge bank, in a horizontal attitude, when
the coming shell is heard, and the citi-
zens duck their heads on the exposed
highway. The houses in the shelled
districts are being rapidly vacated. An
old cobbler, of Point du Jour, refused to
ioin in the flight of his neighbors, yes
terday. and last night an obus fell at the
foot of his bed. He moved in to-day.
Narrow escapes are multiplying. Some
are marvellous, if not miraculous. A
shell crashed into the midst of a group
of six persons, and, although every arti-
Gle of furniture was mutilated, not per-
son was harmed. OF course the war
fiend will damage a church, if he can.
An obus penetrated the roof of Saint
Sulpice. but did no more harm than the
fracture of the fresco on the wall of the
ckabel2e of the Virgin. One recoils with
inexpressible horror from the mere
thought of seeing the Krupp shells fall
upon the churches, and galleries, and
libraries of Paris. But if such be the
visitation written down against this me-
tropolis of rotten splendor, we can look
upon it with the assurance that never
was such a judgment better deserved
If you are anxious to sympathize with
the Parisians, make tour of the cafes,
some evening, and see with what jolly
abandon the besieged and betrashed
people prosecute their enjoyments. The
Grand Cafe looks as you might imag-
inc it would look if the French army
had had their desire, and were lombard
ing the stomach Of Berlin, instead of be-
ing shut up to their billiard tables and