The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-05-30

| cultics are still all before him. I he Yer
sailles Government has never been popular
even with the Parisians to whom tn Com
| mune was most odiOus Before it omitted
Bordeaux, it had contrived to outrag,, the
sensibilties of the vainest population n the
world. Every shopieeper on the Bouley2rds
felt himself humiliated at being governed
from provincial city, and the vote of the
Assembly to ad journ to Versailles instead of
Paris was resented as q wanton affront. For
all this M Theirs was held responsible. BE
had not been thoroughly popular in Paris
even when Paris chose him as one OF
her deputies in the Corps Legslatif. It
was not Theirs whom they loved, SO much
as Napoleon whom they hated, and in
the same way it was the fierce hostility of
Paris to the rulers who surrendered the
city to the Prussians that led them to well
come any successors. When the Executive
whom the Bordeaux Assembly had chosen
had established itself in the capital, Paris all
at once found itself divided into two hostile
camps. Paris in rags sat scowling from the
Buttes Montmartre, while. Paris in broad
cloth implored M. Theirs either to govern or
give way to somebody who would. He, did
neither. The insurgents might have been
dispersed without difficulty during the first
week or fortnight. They might have been
beaten even after a months delay, had M.
Theirs known how to attach his own troops
to him, or had Vinoy shown ordinary skin in
planning his movement. The double failure
drove the Theirs government to Ver-
sailles, followed by the Kisses of the
city he could not rule. Then came
| that long period of inaction and that
weary show of incapacity and fear, while tse
| insurrection grew daily stronger, while the
| Commune organized itself and intrenched the
city, and throughout which the contempt of
the Parisisns for M. Theirs dalkened day by
! day into hate. His bombardment of the city
followed, and Paris saw with indignation her
lawful rulers battering down what her ene-
| mics had spared. From she day when the
shells began falling about the Arc de Tri-
ample, the anger against M. Theirs was as
| strong among his old partisans as among his
| old opponents. What must it be to-day, when
| the city lies in ruins solely because the chief
| who ought to have saved her was unequal to
| the WORK?
| That is the immediate difficulty of the
| situation. 1t is not possible to believe
that M. Theirs can long continue at the
| head of this Government 1t is equally
| difficult to name a successor under whom
the Government could be carried on in its
| present shape.
| If we are to regard the existing Govern
ment as permanent in form, we shall look
| about in vain for an executive whose claims
to popular confidence could inspire any hope
| of success. To put a weak man or an un-
known man in M. Thiers' place is to encour-
ages the intrigHes of Orleanists of Bourbons,
and of Imperialists alike. There are no
means of forming an opinion on the proba-
BILE chances of either, nor is it certain that
society may not find savior who should
prove neither an imbecile nor a tyrant. But
he must be q sanguine man indeed who can
discover in the circumstances of to-day much
ground for believing that the republic is
likely to prove stronger than all its opponents
together.
THE LATEST COAL MINE HORROR
From the n. Y. Herald. r.
On Saturday last Pittston, Pa, was the
scene of a calamity similar to that which
visited Avondale in the autumn of 1869. The
shaft of one of the mines took fire. and as it
was the only means of ingress and egress all
the workmen in the mine were completely
shut out from escape. Fortunately the num-
Der of men thus trapped was not as great as
at Avondale, where one hundred human
beings fell victims to the carelessness, inhu-
manity, or, what is most likely, avariee OF
the mining companies At Pittston only
thirty-seven men were entombed, of whom
eighteen were taken out dead and the others
alive, though insensible. 1t is feared that
the recovery of several of the latter is i'm
possible. w ,r-tr-g .al B.sr.L
!, One would have thought that after the ter
rible catastrophe at Avondale precautions
would have been taken at once against iti
, occurrence in other mines. The fact thai
the number of victims in the Pittston mine il
only eighteen does not make their fate less
horrible to contemplate. Two years ago W,
called the attention of the mining compsnie
? to the necessity of providing all their mine
l with more than one shaft, so that the work
men would be not only secured against dealt
from sudden and unforeseen occurrences, bu
that they would be all provided with a strong
health-preserving current of pure air, 8
much needed in all mines. 1t is evident from
@ the tragedy at Pittston that there has not bee
: any improvement in this direction
o The mine in which the thirty-seven me
were immured has but single shaft; ths
= shaft took fire, and instantly every soul j
/ the depths below was as much cut off froI
a escape as are any of the souls we read of i
o Dante's 'Inferno." Not long ago the sam
II shaft caught fire, and, says the report, ''hs
y not been considered entirely safe in its worl
IS ing-gear for some time" Nevertheless, o
o Thursday last, mine inspector investigate
/ its condition ''and reported everything sati
y factory" But, as events have proven, ever,
70 thing was not satisfactory. In the first plac
3 there was danger of the shaft taking fire, anC
Y In the next, the company was deliberate
10 violating the law, which forbids the en-
~ ployment, at one time, of more tina
~ twenty men in a mine which has but OF
ui means of retreat Furthermore there WI
10 next to nothing at hand to extinguish fl
20 in the event of one occurring. When IL
10 shaft at Pittston was in flames on Saturday
10 miserable well was the only source fro
"a which water could be rapidly obtained, ar
10 as its supply was insufficient recourse was ht
Id to the river, half a mile distant. In shor
OF every fact developedIby theItragedy strength