Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-11-16

/ TEEN oI TIE Zoe. 10 cut Dnelr way 4
liberty or to death, only TO hand then
lover to the enemy like a flock of Sheel
When he found that his imperial:s
game was played out, and the stake
lost irretr:ev;lbly.
At last came that which seemed til,
browning humilia ton. a cap:tulatio1
which, to the soul of the patriots, wa,
moro shameful than that of Sedan
more irreparable than Strasburg. NOR,
fatal than Metz. Paris surrendered he
forts. and opened her gates to the in
vadef; France gave up her provin ces
and pledged herself to the payment O.
monstrouS indemnity The flag of tht
Germanic Confederation f1oated above
Mont ValeTien, and the Guard of the
Emperor of Germany defiled along The
Avenue of the Grand Armee to encamI
III the Champs ElySeeS. Dark ana
mournful was the aspect of Paris or
that ver-tO-be-forgotten day. The
populace held themselves aloof from
the region occupied by the invaders
as from the scene of a pestilence
Those who came as captors were as
prisoners in the conquered CITY. The
theatres were Closed. and Paris mourn
ed IN gloom and silence for the ruin
OF France. And on the morning of de-
paTture, when, after an occupation of
only twenty-four hours, the barbarorls
flood swept back, the Partisan gamin
was seen pursuing the rear-guard of
Williams soldiery, burning perfumes on
red-hot shovels, as if to purify the air
after the passage of some loathsome
beast.
Unhappily for Paris there We're worse
enemies than William and his square.
heads lurking in the background, enc
mics long suspected and feared, and
now to be revealed in all their power
for evil.
With the opening of the gates began
an emigration of the respectable classes.
Husbands and fathers haStenad % re-
join tEeir families, provincials returned
to their prOvinces-one hundred thou
sand of the National Guard. good citi-
zens, brave, loyal, devoted to the cause
Of order, are said to have left Paris
at this time Those who remained be-
hind We're for the most part an armed
mob, demOralized by idleness, by drink,
by the teaching of handful of rabid
the maSter-Spirits of Belle
vile and Montmartre.
Too soon the storm burst. There is
nc darker day in the history of France
than the 18th of March 1871, on which
Paris found itself given over to 4 horde
Of which it knew neither the strength
nor the ma1ignity, but from which it
feared the worst HideOus faces, which
in peaceful times lurk in the depths of
a city, showed themselves in the open
day, at every street corner, irony on
the lips and menace in the eye. A day
which began with the seizure Of the
cannon at ChaumOnt and MOntmartre
by the COmmunardS, and the deSertiOn
of the troops IF the Line to the insrlr
gents, ended with the murder of Gen
erals Incomte and Clement Thomas,
and the withdrawal of the government
and the royal troops to Versailles.
When night fell Paris was abandoned
W Il LCN tONCI, NllIII1 IClIIIu 1ISCL1
Central Committee of the Federation;
and it seemed that two hundred and
fifty battaEOnS of the National Guard
had become Federals. They were for
the most part FederalS without know
ing why or wherefore. They knew
as little of the chiefs who were to
command them as that doomed city up
on which they were too soon to estab-
lish reign of ignominy and terror
But the Central Committee sustained
by the International and its powerful
Organiza ton, was strong enough to COM
mand in Il dSOrganiZed and abandoned
city; and on the 10Th of March began
the great orgy Of the commune, the
rule of blood and fire The offal of
journalism. the scum Of the goals, sat
in the seat of judgment. Rigault, Ferre,
Eudes. Observation-Disclosures Herbert
istes-these were now the masters of
Paris. They held the prisons; they
commanded the National Guard. They
made laws and unmade them; they
drank and smoked and rioted in the
Hotel de Vile; they held their obscene
orgies in palaces, in churches, in the
public offices, and the goals, when the
innocent and the noble We're anguish
ing in a shameful bondage, waiting
for a too probable death. There were
those who asked whether William and
Bismarck would not have been better
than these.
For Castor Mortemar, an enthusiastic
believer in Communism and 1nterna-
t:Onal, it seemed as if this new reign
meant regeneration. He was revOlted
by the murder of the two generals, but
ha saw in that crime the work of a
military mob. He knew but little of
the men who were now at the helm.
Assy, one OF the best of them, had
protested against the violence of his
colleagues, and had been flung into
prison. F1ourens, the beloved of Belle
vile, was killed in a skirmiSh with
the Versailais, while the Commune
was still young. Hard for a man OF
intellect and honor to believe in the
scum of humanity which now ruled
at the Hotel de Vile, and strutted in
t;nsel and feathers, like montebanks
at a fair. But CASTOR had faith in the
cause if he doubted the men.
TL7t red flag flying from the pinnacles
where the tricolor had so lately hung
was, ta his mind, a symbol of mans
equal rights, the uprising of i down
rodden people, the divine right OF
every man to be his own master. Fol
this cause he wrote with all the fervOl
and force of his pen.
The arrest of the Archbishop and his