The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-04-07
Every Morning Except Sundays,
trB RIPTIONS
ArALg OF TIE COMMUNE.
Destruction and Restoration of the Fam
Gus Column VendOme.
lCassell's Mapazine1

Destruction and Restoration of the Fam
Column VendOme.
[Cassells Magazine.l
The famous Napoleon column in the
Place Vendome, Paris, was constructed
by order of the great soldier from cannon
captured In his wars and was designed to
Illustrate in bronze the wonderful career
Of the Corsican boy. 1t was modelled
after the Trajan column, and is to-day
one Of the conspicuous and notable land
marks of the French capital But il has
had q curious history. In 1871, when
Paris was held by the commune, it was
resolved to pull down the pillar, and steps
were Immediately takenI 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 result of their mis-
guided efforts.
was prepared for the huge mass to fall
upon, that the conclusion to the sur
rounding buildings might be lessened.
The official Journal, on the morning of
May Is, 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 81
the commune and their staff, amounting to
200, attended on horseback Bands played
and everything was done to give the oc-
casion festive character. COT Mayer,
commanding in the Place Vendome, as
cended to the top of the column and
waved small tricolor flag. He then tore
the flag, cried "Long live the commune!"
tied the flag head to the rails at the sum.
NIT of the pillar, and descended
When the ropes were frightened the
and all eyes were fixed on the
doomed monument ut fallsi" ex-
claimed 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 clouds
OF dust rose into the sky, but the concus-
sion was nothing like so bad as most peo-
pie had expected. The column forced itself
some way into the ground, but no win
dows were broken, nor was the square In
any way injured.
As soon as the huge .fragments had set
tied themselves, Col Mayer mounted
them and waved red flag. the populace
cheering and shouting, "Long live the
communet" At'nearly the same moment
there, was posted at Versailles, the head
quarters of the government troops, brief
yet significant dispatch, dated Mont
Valerian: THE top Of the Vendome col
umn 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 breaking the bronze
pieces of the column and throwing them
into the Seine and carrying them into hid
ing in distant parts of the city, so that
by nightfall of the following day not a
piece weighing so much as twenty pounds
of the once magnificent monument which
lowered into the air 105 feet remained in
the Place Vendome, or was anywhere I'd
be found
But the fortunes of war changed. The
communists were driven from the city,
and order once more reigned. Immediately
an effort was made tc restore the many
ruined public and private portions Of
Paris, the Napoleon column among them,
Rewards were offered for the finding Of
the missing pieces, under the stimulus of
which the Seine was dragged and
thousands of out-of the-way places ex-
plored. Strange to say, every piece Of
the great monument was found It was
once again raised, and to-day the Aeroid
figure of the emperor stands as proudly
on the summit of the magnificent pile ii
the Place Nendome as though it had never
been plunged piecemeal into the Seine by
an angry populace.