Norwich bulletin., 1914-09-12
CONDITIONS IN PARIS
 WITH GERMANS APPROACHING
Shown in Letter Received from Mrs Ruth SpaIding Eager, Written Au- gust 10th,

gust 10th.
 While the Germans have been a1- most knocking on the gates of Paris, but now seemed turned back, accord ing to the war reports received, much local interest attaches to letter re- ceived here by MT. and AIrsA Charles W. Spalding of No. F Penobscot street from their daughter, Ruth Spald- ing Eager. wife of the American con- sul at Barmen, Germany, Professor George E. Eager.
 Mrs. Eager gives an inside view of Paris on August 10th soon after the war had started, when she writes as follows:
 am still here in Paris. Aug. 10, ten days after the last Franco-German war has commenced. Baby and I are noa suffering yet. I have still money enough to last me month. It is sim ply remarkable, the calmness, the good management, the law and order and good sense of the French in this ter rible time. Food is plentiful and has not advanced in price; the grocer or butcher who attempts to raise. his prices will be arrested. Of course everyone is restricted to a limited SUD- ply. You are politely asked, when you demand half pound of butter, to please take a quarter, one pound o1 sugar, one pound of flour, or tea ol coffee, or anything else. Everything is managed, and governed with the common sense and charity which characterizes the French people. Un- like us in America, where fraternity means that it is not necessary to be polite, because 'I am as good as you, the Frenchman is polite, because "you are as good as me- I always had g feeling of sympathy for the French people before I ever came here. think every sciloolboy and girl doe. | have it when they read of the Ameri. can Revolution and the part that ths French under General lafayette played | in che winning of the independence ( l the United States.
 There are lot of Americans her, Tn Paris now It is, unfortunately fol them, just the season when they arl most numerous. In some cases the, | have arrived, only to turn around and go back. The consul general, MT | Thackara, has worked indefatigably t, assist those stranded here. went t | see him Saturday, Aug. 1st, and h 1 advised me to try and get to my bus band in Germany, as wrote you, bu
 as said, it was simply impossible. had no difficulty in seeing him tha
 day. but the Monday after there wa
 such mob of people that one coul,
 neither get in nor out. Tuesda,
 morning they were obliged to line ui
 on the sidewalk outside of the build ing. I stopped there on my way hom | from the Care du Nord after fruitless
 ly searching for my trunk, which
 they assure me. always politely, is re posing at Verniers, on the extrem frontier of Germany, in Belgium. 0
 course. everything that baby and l possessed at the time was put int I that fatal trunk. I am still in hope
 that the Belsian station master vii
 have returned it before it was too lat and tomorrow I shall make anothe | of 1,,s, and storing trunks is worthy copyins l Every available space is filled wit trunks. but in less than an hour W
 had found two trunks for a friend las
 Tuesday morning.
 1 Or course, after living nearly min | years in Europe, I could make man comparisons between the people o 1 these two countries, but what is th | use? The greatest enemy of the Ger l man people has been "militarism,' < 1 terrible sickness that is worse than al the enemies outside of their bounda | r1es. There is nothing on the face Q
 the earth more brutal than Germa
 officer with his mon in the ranks The call it discipline! Perhaps it is. but | breeds hatred and insubordination. Tn
 real cause of this disgraceful war
 the imminent bankruptcy of German,
 whose intention was to walk into Pari
 In two weeks and then demand in
 stead of five nailliards, 45 thousan
 millions, because France was thre
 times as rich.
 Fortunately, we are independer
 Americans. instead of English becaus
 the English in Germany have bee
 horribly maltreated. Some people wi
 were expelled from Berlin have bee
 heard to declare in Brussels that
 the Unter den Linden in Berlin croN-C
 were shouting Down with the kaiser!
 and Down with the crown princel'
 snail hope to get this letter through
 you, but before you get it much bloc 1: will have ben split and the face of tf
 map or Europe will have been change
 It IS hard to believe that this beaut
 Iui country IS In the midst of a wa It is so quiet in Paris, the houses 2 galiy decorated with their flags. an
 nere and there one sees the believe stars and Stripes at the side of tf rIaencn red and blue. but there is T rioting nor noisy crowds of any Kin say with the French, "Vive france" the country of real nerson