Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-01-23

From Paris.
A private letter from Paris, dated Dec. 26, and
received in Washington, Friday, states that it is
impossible for the city to continue resisting the
besiegers beyond the first of February Food
was nearly exhausted. Horse meat had given
out. There was little mule meat left which
was sold for two dollars pound. Cats, dogs,
and rats brought enormous prices. Coal was
entirely gone, and there was no other fuel save
what the fences afforded. At night the city was
in total darkness, and the weather, day and
night, was extremely cold. The continuance of
this situation, beyond the time specified, seemed
impossible.
The same letter says, it is now a well estab
lished fact that Gen. TTochu is 'com plete fail
ure," which means, we suppose, that he has
failed TO drive the Germans from the city. 1t is
very likely that Gen. TrOchu is good deal like
our Gen, Halleck, able in writing out military
theories and criticisms, but not at all great as a
leader in actual war The French, however, are
inclined to impute all their defeats to incapacity
of their generals, whereas there is another ex-
PLANTATION of which history will be likely to take
some account. 1t is stated that Trochu sup
poses himself to be the greatest man in France,
and believes France would be ruined if he should
be captured. Therefore, he thinks of escaping
in balloon before the city surrenders. He is
told that the people would regard this as cow
ardicc; but be replies that the Germans can not
be driven from France, if be is taken prisoner.
If the statements in the letter are correct, we
shall soon hear that Paris has capitulated, The
Parisians can no longer cherish any hope of
defeating the besiegers. Their sorties arc con-
stantly repulsed; it is manifest that they can
not now make a successful resistance; the Ger
mans on the one hand, and starvation on the
other, make the surrender inevitable. While
the provinces and their army of the Loire prom
ised to aid Paris in attempts to raise the siege,
there was some show of reason in maintaining
defiant attitude. But Cbanzy, Bourbaki, and
Faidherhe have all been very badly defeated.
The army of the Loire is nearly annihilated.
Aid from the provinces is impossible, and the
sooner Paris yields to the inevitable, the better
for all concerned. How more than two million
starving Parisians are to be supplied with food
Immediately, when the surrender is made, it is
not easy to see; and the longer the surrender is
is delayed, the greater will be their destitution.
Cheap Transportation ON Railways.
Hon. Josiah Quincy addressed the railway
committee of the legislature on Thursday, in
support of his petition for cheap railroad trans
portation for the poorer classes in Boston. One
of Mr.. Quincy's main arguments was drawn
from the fact that hundreds of families in Bos-
frOr oil bt-4 f,s
eucroachments of railroad companies which
have taken additional lands for their accommo-
dation under the authority of the state. The
families of mechanics, artisans and laborers
thus deprived of their homes, are driven to seek
refuge in other localities already too much
crowded, and thus the moral and physical evils
of dense population are continually agra
waited. The state which clothes the cor
porations with the authority to take
lands already occupied by others, should
compel them to make compensation by provid-
ing cheap trains to the suburbs, so that the
working people, driven from their homes in the
city, may find Others at a little distance, and go
and return from their daily work at greatly re
duced rates. The legislature is yearly authoriz-
ing the railroads to take more land required by
their increasing business. The owners of the
lands are duly compensated to the full value of
their property, but the tenants, though they
have no proprietary rights to be paid for, suffer
a real injury of no trivial nature for which they
have no redress, in being driven by the gradu.
ally contracting space for dwellings within their
means, to pay higher rents for smaller and less
convenient tenemcnts, surrounded by all the
evils and discomforts that attend a crowded city
population.
The only relief from these evils is TO find
homes in the country. But the people of whom
we speak are dependent upon their labor for
their daily bread, and their work is in the city.
II is useless to provide homes for them unless
they are also provided with the means of getting
to and from them daily, at rates much less than
are now established. There are hundreds, perhaps
thousands of families in Boston now compelled
to live in small, ill-ventilated rooms, in closely
packed tenement houses, surrounded by all the
elements of moral and physical disease, who
would gladly, if they could, occupy more com
modous tenements, at a lower rent short dis
lance from the city, with the added advantages
OF free, pure atmosphere, abundant range
for their children, and Il little piece Of
garden-ground which they could turn
TO good account in their hours of
leisure. Only one thing prevents their getting
this relief, and that is the high rate of fare on
the railroads leading out of the city. For the
head Of the family to 90 once day ten
miles from home and back, would cost almost
as much as years rent. This is too great a