The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1888-11-17 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

LITERARY EXTRACTS. I  _THE CAPITULATION OF Pears.  Nothing could be more di-f-inTiti than the appearance of Paris when the outer world was permitted to enter. The first stranger to penetrate into the city of silence, famine, humiliation, and gloom was Mr. Archibald Forbes, the enterprising and graphio correspondent of the Daily News, attached to the army of the Crown Prince of Saxony. Leaving St. Denis on the morning of January 31st, he rode through the Prussian foreposts to the neutral ground, without interruption, and so to Porte La Chapelle. The gates were closed, and, after waiting half.an-hour, the correspondent and several others were directed to another gate to the right, where they obtained entrance—Mr. Forbes in advance of the rest, owing to his being mounted.. The enterprise was attended with no little peril. The stranger might he mistaken for a German, and subjected to murderous violence; and his nationality was in fact suspected before he had gone far. Just inside the walls Mr. Forbes encountered a mob of half-drunk National Guards, who raised a cry of "Down with the Prussian !" The exclamation was repeated by many voices, and several hands were stretched out to clutch at the rider's bridle. Mr. Forbes then thought it prudent to declare that he was an Englishman, come, if possible, to do good, not harm. At this he was allowed to ride on unmolested, and, proceeding to the heart of the city, he saw how real was the misery effected by the seige—how deep the dejection of defeat supervening on such a contest. The first Englishman he met described the situation in a brief sentence. Paris, he said, was utterly cowed —fairly beaten. The people, however, were orderly and decent in their behaviour; self-restrained and serious. The crowds in the streets consisted almost entirely of men in uniform. Although wine was plentiful, no one was drank, excepting the men near the gates. " The food shops" said the writer "had nothing to show. There were comfitures and preserves, jellies, &c.; but solid comestibles were conspicuous by their absence. In one shop I saw several large shapes of stuff that looked like lard. When I asked what it was, I found that it was horse-fat. The bakers' shops were closed; the grating down before the butchers'. And oh, the number of funerals I One, two, three— I met six altogether in the course of my ride. Sad with great sadness—such was what I found as regards Paris long before I reached the :American legation; selfrespecting, too, in her misery; not blatant; not disposed to collect in jabbering crowds. Each man went his way with chastened face and listless gait." Mr. Forbes had in his pocket some slices of ham; and on reaching his quarters the servant-women asked permission to take the meagre plateful out, and show it as a curiosity to their companions. The scarcity of food was unquestionably very great. On the 30th of January a crowd broke into the store of potted provisions in the Halle, and took what they found. The authority from whom these facts are derived gave the following specimens of the prices which had been attained during the last days of the siege :.2-Two francs for a small shrivelled cabbage: one franc for a leek; 45 francs for a fowl; 45 francs for a rabbit (which was generally cat) ; 25 francs for a pigeon; 22 frame for a 21b. chub; 14 francs per lb. for stickleback; 2 francs per lb. for potatoes; 40 francs per lb. for butter; cheese, 25 francs a lb., when procurable. Meat other than horseflesh was absolutely not to be obtained.