Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1891-01-30

THE SURRENDER or THE couurNE
a Remini-eepce Of Paris in 1871.


This effective bit of writing is from
Another Chapter Of My Memoirs" by
Mr.. DE Blowitz, in Harper's Magazine for
January
Next day May %, 1870 it was gener-
ally known that the 'Nersaillais, as they
were called had entered the capital Then
opened the gloomiest page in the history Of
France. On one side were the vandals Of
the commune, doing their best to burn Par
is to the ground numbering innocent host
ages, Enchanting all the horrors Of civil
war exhibiting all the heroism, every act
of ferocity and cowardice, into which human
nature when unrestrained will rush On
the other side were the troops irritated by
the struggle, humiliated by the duty that
had fallen upon them, exasperated by so
many horrors Torrents of fratrcidal
blood deluged the pavement Of the great
French city. While the struggle was 60
ing on there could be seen arriving at
Versailles, escorted by the soldiers, gangs
of prisoners, the savage rabble who had
plundered and spread conhagration, and
who, in blind obedience to their leaders,
had committed unparalleled acts of bar
barism. They arrived on the great Place
d'Armes. under bright and broiing sun
=
blackened with gunpowder and dust Their
clothes were in tatters, smelling of smoke
and petroleum There were women with
features distorted by hatred and anger :
prococious children, casting a stealthy look
around them and old men, crushed by de
feat, with patches of cotted blood on their
white hair and boards, marking them out as
apostles Of revolution Some, who had
been iolted amidst the lumber heaped on
the carts, were taken out and put fiat on
the ground. They lay, stiff and motion
less. Nt.,. 'hair ewes wide open and staring,
as if, after long n s.!..gess, they had
lost all consciousness Of an outer 'grId
The captives were separated into groups,
and sent to improvised prisons, where an
attempt was made to shelter this army of
disorder. They had added shame to defeat
who had with fire and sword ravaged Par
is. They had done what no foreign enemy
had dared to do, inscribed 'Delenda est
Carthage on its walls few years only
have passed and yet these things are already
forgotten. The authors, the instigators.
the men who took part in these most horri-
BILE of crimes, raise their heads and claim
the inner side of the pavement They
make boast of the patriotism of which
they dare to assume the monopoly. But
those who lived in the midst of these hor-
rors, those who saw into their depths and
witnessed the widespread misery and ago
ny they caused have preserved fresh and
neverto- e-effaced remembrance of the
feelings they aroused in every healthy and
honest mind. 1t will be for the historian
TO tell with calm serenity what occurred on
those momentous days of grief and discour-
agement 1t has been a great source of
regret to me that circumstances retained
me at Versailles, and that could not from
day to day watch close at hand the execra-
ble misdeeds, the Infamous enterprises of
these ignorant reformers, who for the en-
ioyment of a temporary triumph. gave the
reins to human passion without examining
the problems they raised, and without even
making an attempt to solve them"