Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1893-11-18
RED FLAG.
CONTINUED.
Chapter WI
CONTINUED.
To be continued.

'Headstrong Liberty is dashed With
Wee.
New Years Day had come and gone
"A dark and dreary New Year for
many . severed household; the mother
an the children afar, the father lonely
in Paris. not knowing if the letter
which he writes daily to the wife may
not be written to the dead-for it is
months since he has had tidinSS of wife
or child; and WHO can tel where the
angel of death mag have visited? A
change had coee over the great city
and the spirits Of the people-braye
still, bearing their burden calamity,
stiu crying their cry of NO suyTen-
derr' but gay ana light Of heart no
longer, bowed down by the weight OF
ever increasing wretchedneSs, pinched
by the sharp pqngs Of hunger, en-
feehled by disease, tortured by the
bitter cold of a severe winter, which
just now is the hardcSt trial of all.
And now, in these dark days after
Christmas, the ice is broken, the siege,
for which Paris has been waiting pa
tiently three months, begins in bitter
earnest, and the thunder Of the guns
shakes earth and sky. The Line, the
Mobile, the National Guard, all do
their duty; but at best they can only
die bravely for cause that has long
been lost. The bombardment ceases
not day or night-uow on this side
now on that. In the trenches the men
suffer horribly The snow falls on the
living and the dead. Every sortie re-
suits in heavy loss. The ambulances
are all full to overlooking. Trochu,
the irresolute, the man Of proclama-
tons, and manifestos, has given place
to Vinoy; but what generalship can hold
la bcleagured city against those grim
captains Famine and Deathf
The women bear their burden with a
quiet resignation which is among the
most heroic things in history. Day
after day, in the early winter dawn,
they stand in the dismal train Of house
holders waiting for the allotted portion
of meat-a portion so scanty that it
seems bttcrest irony to carry it homo
to a hungry family There they stand
ladies, servants, workwomen, from
the highest to the Iowcst-buifeted by
the savage north-easter, showed upon,
hailed upon, shiycring, pale, exhausted,
but divinely patient, each feeling that
in this silent suffering she contributes
her infintesmal share of heroism to
the defense Of her country. SO long as
her rulers will hold out, so long as
her soldiers win fight and die, so long
will the women of France submit and
suffer. Their voices win never be
Joined in the cry, Surrender for our
sakes."
The little children are fading off
the face of this troubled scene. That
! is the worst martyrdom Of all the
mothers. The little faces are growing
pinched and haggard, the fragile forms
are dropping, dropping, day by day
/ The mother and fathers hope against
/ hope. In a day or two the siege viii
/ be raised; milk and bread, fuel, com
fort, luxury, the joy and light of life
will return to those desOlate house
holds, and the dropping children viii
revive and grow strong again. And,
while the mothers hope, the little ones
are dying, and the little collins are
seen, in momnful professions, day by
day and hour by hour in the cold
J cheerless street.
At the butchers shops, at the bak
cries. there the same dismal train waits
day after day. Everything is scarce
Butter is forty-fve francs a pound
the coarscst grease, rank fat, which
1 the servants would throw into the
grease-tub In times of plenty, Is solo
for eighteen francs a pound. Gruyer'
cheese is a thing beyond all price, anC
is only bought by the rich, who wisl
to offer costly present like bas
ket OF Strawberries in February Of
peaches in March. Potatoes arr
twenty-five francs a bushel; a cabbage
six francs; and garden-stuff, which las
year one would have hardly Offered
to the rabbits, is now the luxurious &c
compartment Of the pot-aufcu de che
val. There is no more gas for tn
streetlamps. and the once brillian
Lutetia is a city of Zimmerman dark
ness. BlttefeSt scarcity Ol ar lu'i ia
become prodigously dear; and the poo
are shivering, dying In their dcsolat
garrets. pinched and blue with the col
of a hard winter,
Even among the well-to-do classe
funds are running low. Provisions a
siege prices have exhausted the purse
Of middle-class citizens Stocks hay
been sold at a terrible loss, capital ha
been exhausted. Ruin and hunger star
I'm at the windows, and haunt tn
snowy night-like spccues.
For the poor the struggle is sti
sharper; but the poor are familiar wit
the pinch Of poverty, with the pang
of self-denial. And then, perhaps Their
is more done for the INDECENT in thi
day Of national calamity than was don
for them in the golden years OF pros
perity; albeit the Empire whateve
it's shortcomings, was not neglecttl
TO the houseless and the hungry.
In all these troubled days-with su
render and shame far away yonder