The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-12-18

school, which amount to 81 200 year.
are paid in part by the government, In
part by private subscription.
And now to this obscure saint has como
public recognition from the great Insti-
tute of France, and 2, SEQ francs to dispoee
of as she pleases. ~ have PLAN" she
says, her. bright eyes. shining out from
her good, round face, that is Wrinklcd
with age (for Mademoisclle Bonnefois ia
sixty mine and her step is slow and her
shoulders bent); II have a plan. I shall
have an immense wagon built, fifty
metres wide and seven metres long, and
shall have the boys below and the girls
above on two floors, and that will be our
travelling school. and we need have no
further expense for moving!" At this
representation to her at the Institute, it
was not the prize which made acade-
micians eloquent and brought tears to
their eyes, but the noble and inspiring
example of simple Bohemian girl.
Alfred Duquet's work in the war of
1s70-1871 is in seven ssyolumes, the last OF
which has just appeared bearing the date
1898, and the title, ''Paris; The lombard
ment, and Buzenval. 1t is the history
in detail of the proceedings at Paris from
the 1st to the 22d of January, 1871, with
an account over 200 pages in length of the
battle of Buzenva1. The last word about
the siege of Paris will never be spoken,
for the subject is one of too absorbing in
terest- Duquet has made an admirable
selection from the numerous works and
memoirs written by those who were wit
nesses to the days Of suffering and misery,
of bravery and resistance, during the win
ter of n, and from the first message of
William to the Empress, dated January
5: 1.-THE bonn bardment of Paris began
today under splendid winter sum- to
the last words of the book, "Pauvre cher
pays de Francel" there is not tiresome
paragraph. Given in full are the letters
from Trochu to Moltke and his replies
the protest addressed to Bismarck by the
foreign ambassadors at Paris; the extra
ordinary proclamation written by Gen.
Trochu to the people of Paris, proposing
that they should seek divine intervention
by forming in professions, singing
hymns, andSoalling upon the patron saint
of Paris to protect them against the Ger.
mans, as she had protected them against
Attila in 451; the suppression of this
paper by Jules Favre, Minister of Foreign
Affairs, and all the documents relating
directly to the bonn bardn-ent of Paris.
Duquet gives also the entertaining price
list7of ordinary food at that time: Thirty
dollars for turkey, three dollars for q
cabbage. one dollar for an egg, horse at
o.dollars pound, dog at dollar, and
rat ors.forty cents; fifteen dollars for
peck of carrots. and sixteen for the same
quantity Of Onions. He quotes the fol-
lowing passage from the North German
Gazette Of January z, 1871: "Paris, after
enduring sixteen weeks of siege with .
good humor which must be acknowledged,
begins now to feel troubled. The weather
is most favorable to US. Cold has arg
mented the suffering already caused
among the masses by privat1on.
We have found Observation-Disclosures,
famine, and cold. These, together with
the bombs which are now raining upon
Paris, will soon make clear even to the
most Jealous patriots that the giant city
is not invincible.' Dnquet also gives
the letter from Sir Richard Wallace to
Jules FaVre, placing in his hands 100, COO
francs to distribute among the poor. OF
all the blossoms under cultivation in the
greenhouses CT the Jardin DIES Plantes,
the Prussian bombs spared only two pure
white camelias-and these were offered to
Sir Richard Wallace. Together with the
official side, Duquet has brought out the
dramatic, the literary side of the bonn
bardment, so that we not only know how
the bombs were directed toward the pris-
ons, 'museuws, and hospitals. From frag-
ments quoted from Gautier, Sarcey, Mime.
Adam, and such writers, we have a vivid
picture of the wounded and dying crawl.
ing away by night from the centre of at
tack, ''as though escaping from fire, a
flood, OF some inevitable scourge,'' their
miserable belongings piled peu-meli upon
a hand-cart. which the strongest of them
dragged through the streets, shivering
with cold, groaning with hunger and
fatigue; nothing could be more sinister
than this procession advancing in the
shadow, lighted by the livid reflection
from the snow and the red glare of the
bombs. "Sad press, sad generals, sad
government" Duquet exclaims in con.
Gliding his chapter on the bombardment,
and from here on he let's events speak for
themselves in u closely detailed account
of Buzenval.
BESSIE MCGINNIS.