Morning journal and courier., 1885-01-23
ArA.EoE THE COMMUNE.
Destruction and Restoration of the Famous Napoleon Column in tfae Place VendOne.

1 Destruction and Restoration of the | Famous Napoleon Column in the Place Vendome.
 From Cassells Magazinel l The famous Napoleon column in the Place | Vendomc, Paris, was constructed. by order l of the great soldier, from cannon captured in l his wars and was designed to illustrate in bronze the wonderful career of the Corsican boy. It was4nodelled after the Trajar col u1nn, and is to-day one of the conspicuous and notable landmarks of the French capital. But it has had curious history. In 1871, when Paris was held by the commune, it was resolved to pull down the pillar, and steps were immediately taken to undermine its base, the idea being to cause it to fall with one grand crash, symbolical of that national fall which the communists hoped to see take place as 6 result of their misguided eff forts.
 bed of sand, fagots and manure was prepared for the huge mass to fall upon, that the concussion to the surrounding buildings might be lessened. The Official Journal, on the morning of May 18th, announced that the column would positively fall that day at 2 o'clock At the hour named a large crowd of spectators assembled. The members of the commune and their staff, amounting to 200,
 
 everything was done to give the occasion a festive character Colonel Mayer, command ing in the Place Vendome, ascended to the top of the column and waved a tricolor flag. He then tore the flag, cried, ''Long live the Commune" tied the faghead to the rail at the summit of the pillar and descended When the ropes were frightened the band struck up the "Marseillaise," and all eyes were fixed on the doomed monument sIt falls" exclaimed the onlookers, and the great mass bowed slowly toward the Rue de la Paix. As it fell it broke into pieces in the air and struck the ground in four portions. A loud yet dull report followed, and the clouds of dust rose into the sky but the con- cussion was nothing like so bad as most peo- pie had expected. The column forced it. self some way into the ground, but no windows were broken, nor was the square in l any way injured.
 As soon as the huge fragments had settled | themselves, Colonel Mayer mounted them | and waved a red flag, the populace cheering | and shouting, F'Long Live the Commune.S | At nearly the same moment there was posted | at Versailles, the headquarters of the govern meut troops, a brief yet significant dispatch, | dated Mont Valerien: ''The top of the Ven dome Column has disappeared from view"
 The excited Communists immediately set | about making the indignity to the memory of Napoleon even greater than it had already been by further breaking the bronze pieces of the column and throwing them into the Seine and carrying them into hiding in dis. tant parts of the city, so that by nightfall of the following day not @ piece weighing so much as twenty pounds of the once magnih- cent monument which lowered into the air 105 feet remained in the Place Vendome, or was anywhere to be found
 But the fortunes of war changed. The l Communists were driven from the city and order once more reigned. Immediately an | effort was made to restore the many ruined public and private portions of Paris, the Ma