THE MAIL.

Auckland Star, Volume II, Issue 478, 22 July 1871, Page 2

THE MAIL.

THS HORRORS OF THE j INSURRECTION:;; ' ___.--'' if > 1 ,-," X * & 4 li !

A SCENE fOEi DESOLATIONi-BRU-

TALITr OB THE VERSAILLIBTS,

Pabis, May 26.—1t would be impossible to describe as it merits the aspect of Paris at the prosent moaiont. ,On all sides there is nothing,to be seen but material and moral ruin. It is not only the burning of the publio edifices of which, only a few days ngo, Paris was so justly proud, that is to be lamented, but the utter destruction of all confidence, of all; sentiment of a common origin whioh'-Has hitherto boon a remarkable part of tho Parisian character. So far from caring for his neighbour, every Parisian now looks with suspicion,on his dearest friends, and is inclined to loop aloof from those ho loves best. Arrests aro made ip fjio streets every hour, and: for the most trifling pauges. Sfo one is spared — foreigners least of ajl—fpr the Versaillists, among other foolish ideas, have got it into -their heads that foreigners were the chief promoters of the insurrection: Two Americans were arrested last night, and Mr. Washburue had to bestir himself in order to have them set at liberty. Two officers of the English army were arrested on Wednesday because thoy had been seen near a barricade, and were only released by the intercessions of au attached, of the British Embassy. In fact, everybody is arrested without much respect of either person or nationalities. Mr. Wasbbume has been vory badly received by Marshal MacMahon's staff, bocauso ho did his duty and remained in Paris to protect the^ .very large amount of property belonging to American citiz^s, which remained irt theicifcy. Besides the American Minister had to look after the Alsatians1 and Lorraiuers and to protect them from the Commune, no iuformed mo yesterday that he had signed nearly 5,003 passes for inhabitants of Alsace and Lorraine, who were anxious to claim the protection of their new nationality. After all the protestations of attachment to Epance to which we have been treated lately, i,t does 'seem a little strange that the AJsiMiansj should 'be' j.u 'such a hijirry to sweat ([Jlcgiance fo thefr cijcmje?. " " • In the streets all is destruction, mage; and desolation. Lumps'and fountains and statues .bavo been smashed to atoms, and houses have been so damaged by shells that tho first gale of wind will bring them crashing to the ground. All tho fiucst palaces and publio buildings in Paris are a heap of sinbking ruins. On the heights of La Villetle and Bollevillo the fight stdl rages, and the cannonade rings in our °»J'9- Troops of tattered, begrimmed prisoners arc constantly posing through the streets, acompanled by soldiers with loadod rifles on their shoulders'; and thoy aro only too ready to use their Chassepots. Yesterday I saw a troop of prisoners with many women among them conducted up the Rue Tromelet, just bohmd the Madeleine An uul'ortunato woman, exhausted .by fatigue, dropped half fainting on the ground., -'' &et up.'^.said an officer.' "I cannot,'' she replied. , The? pifficer then drew . his fevolfrer and*ehdt %ei through 'the'heart.

Scenes of a similar kind are of daily occurrence. Yesterday, close to my own house, a poor old man, who had been an inhabitant of my quarter for years, wass denounced by a woman in the street. ,He was ■arrested by-a soldier and taken to tne Mairfe:' This morning I heard, toiiyhorror, that he had been shot. m leaves fop children and aujEnghsh wife. Thebrutalitfofthe officers is only equalled by their ignorance. Affriend ; M mine, an Englishman, had place* the A.ensign of Greit Britain* in bis, doorway, and the Communists had respected the,hbiis* as that ot a foreigner..^ A lieutenant-of marines came, yesterday, to make a search in the house. "What is that flag?" he asked of its owner. John Bull got arigry,"and answered that French sailors ought to know it well, for it had soared above the tri-color iv many a bloody fight. The Louvre and the National Library and the Luxembourg have escaped the flames. But the most frightful disaster is the burning of the Mont de Pi<He. During the last eight. months people by hundreds of thousands have put valuables into that institution for safety. ;Fattcy iheirdesolatiohjat the destruction. One eannbfeunderstand whatdrovO the iiimrgents to so terrible a step) fpr the working men have more to-lose; if it' be possible,^ by tho, destruction of Mont:de PietS, than the'ricli. THE HORRORS OF VICTORY-DES-PERATE AOT3 OF THE FEMALE INSURGENTS. I took a walk down tbe Rue Rivoli, towards • the Hotel de Ville, to judge of the amount of damage done, and at the coriler: Of the Rue Castiglione became aware of the approach of a great crowd of people yelling and shaking,their fists. The cortege was headed by a company of mounted gendarmes, behind whom were two artillerymen .dragging between them a solid bundle of rags t hat tottered and staggered, and fell down under the blows that were showered upon it by all who were within reach. It was a woman who had been caught in the act of spreading petroleum. Her face was bleeding, afad ier hair rstrg&ifiih£ji)'Own her, back, from which her ' clothes liaA^Ween torn. On they dragged her, followed by a hooting mob, till they reached the corner of i the Louvre, and there they propped her up against a wall, already half dead from the treatment she had received. .The crowd ranged itsolf in a circle, and I haye1 never seen a picture more perfect and complete in its details than was presented by that scene. The gasping, shrinking figure in the centre, surrounded by a crowd who could scarcely be kept from tearing her in pieces, who waved their arms, crying *>^ Down her! down hei^J" on one.sidea barricade, still strewn with broken guns and hats—a dead National Guard lying in the fosse—bohitid' a group of mounted gendarmes, and then a prospective of ruined streets and blackened houses, culminating in the extreme distance in the still burning'HotSl de Ville. Presentlytwo revolvers were discharged, and the bundle of rags fell forward in a pool of blood. [The popular thirst for vengeance was satisfied, and so the crowd dispersed in search of further excitement elsewhere. ( r_ '■_ HOW: THE SAND PRIVATE RESIDENCES WERE FIRED. Paris shall not exist, if Paris does not belong to the Commune. Such was their hellish resolve, and they proceeded to carry out their threat of destroying the capital which they could , not j retain. ..They, set to wortt in three distinct ways. * In' the palaces " and public offices which thoy commanded they disposed at regular intervals, sometimes bottles, sometimes pots of petroleum. When the vessels of petroleum were arranged at proper distances, one of them would be overturned and-ignited j. the flames would rapidly spread, and the whole building would soon be past salvation. It was -in this way,,that #i the Tuileries, tjxe -Palais Royal, the Hotel de the'PalaceTof tTi'e^ Legion of Honor, and other celebrated public edifice's were set in |}ames. This arrangement was made,in the Ministry qt Marine, but the/ wretches: '-engaged' in the work of'destruction had to fly before they could set fire to the pots of petroleum which they had planted iv the most likely corridors. There 'was a second method adopted for the destruction of private houses. When it became necessary to retire from a particular barricade, the Guards tore to pieces the beds which formed part of the barricades ; took the tow out of the beds, dipped 'itdn pßtroleura,'"and loaded their1 g^ns flriish it. Then they fired the tow into the windpWs pf the houses.' It whs 1A thisiway thalt the blook of houses in the Rue Royale, facing; the Madeleine, was set on fire;-*, 't iSWI

Still a third method : men and women were goiug about Paris :with bottles of petroleum in their pockets, or hid about their dresses. They threw these s bottles down.into tho ground floors of every dwelling'tliey could get att If there was not room to get the bottle through, tho neck of the bottle could get into certainair hqjes wbjch, belonged to. .the construction of French'houses j tho liquid would fee poured in, and a lighted match would be sent in after'it. In this way very many private houses were sent in flames j and many hundreds of woratn, were taken in the act all day— iomo of them shot upon the spot. All day, too, the inhabitants,' apprised" of what was'going on, were engaged in stopping up the sky-lights, gratings. and air holes which connected their ground' floors with tho pavement. Wherever you turn —in every street—you saw the inhabitants busy, plastering, bricking, or shutting up Iwith plonks the two feet of their houses next to the pavement. Not only weVe wqme'n ttjken, hut the firemen alsoan great numbers were q.rrest'ecl. The fact is that many adherents of the Commune entered the ranks qf the firemen, partly to distinguish themselves, and partly to spread the fire instead of extinguishing it.

THE. EXTENT QE THE SLAUGHTER, Tho executions of the insurgents are whole* sale. It is estimated that upwards of 2,000 persons, have been shot already on tho left bank of the Seine alone, evidently a small portion of the total number. Wherever women and children are''to be seen leaning over the parapet of the Seine intently regarding some object below.one may be sure that the attraction is a group of hideously mutilated corpse's of men who have been brought down to the river side, and then with their hoicks to the wall have mot their doom. On the slopin X roads loading down from the Quay to tbe river may also bo seen inequalities where the road has been recently disturbed and where tho freshly-turned earth indicates burial-places. Not far from these bodies were lyinjr several dead.horsesi'from which the people tere'eutting steaks..; .•_ g • § ■ I ' The inside of the Hotel ?d e Ville plesents a curious scene, the solid passes of foutf and hme of which the rubbish is composed having fallen »n HMMta of crater, whjoh fills Vn the whole cental placp.vTjnder tha mn., h are^d r t^o^ gents, who were unable to escape at the last moment, and thus fell the victims of th o cpnflagration they had themselves. originated; The mutilation of the ornamental work of this magnificent specimen of architecture is simply hideous j there is scarcely a square inch otthe facade untouched by shot or shell, \% SSLST Btone, colum^ in«de splintered and defaced, support a nipre shell, YOUNG WOMEN BURIED IN THE RUINS. J^*™ V ell°J J S h»«y look intheatmos-. phere, so charged with the smoke Of burning houses and nubhc buildings tho sun SimS 2S F;tSss**J <t ®m* '^ries'is a mere eheU, The smoke, from the Ministry of

Finance and the magnificent publio buildings at the corner of tho Rue Royal-and the Rue de Rivoli is still rising from their ruins, and in the celebrated bonnet-maker's (Madame Drou- 1 art, No. 3 Rue de Itivoli), well known to many of your lady readers, a number of young women employed there took refuge in the cellars, and are now stifled beneath a j^ilo of rubbish twenty or thirty feet high. The, Ru e Royal, which I could only see a portion of, fr like a Ninevitish mound of rubbish, arid the fire is still extending. Turning back biy the Boulevaid Haussmann, I reached the fitaand Opera, a mass of barricades, hnd too Cull of soldiers to be a pleasant resort, especially as petroluem shells were falling on the Boulevard dcs Italiens. All those palaces which made Paris the wonder and admiration of modern times, are heaps of smouldering ruins; her finest boulevards shattered, her gardens laid waste, her gutters running with blood, and an awful pall" setting down heavily over her dying agonies as she completes, in compliance with "the inexorable logic of facts," whioh has formed her only religion, her own suicide. •'.' A WOMAN WHO HAD KILLED FOUR MEN IS CAPTURED AND SHOT. ~ You have heard, doubtless, of the vivftndieres of tho National Battalions, which havemarched brightly and bravely to the combat with the corps, or with the men who claimed their wild and more.than half unwomanly devotion. One woman of this class, straight, tall, splendidly set, with vigor in her face and beauty in every limb—she could not have. been more thau 25, and she was a woman perfectly made —I saw her suffer.a frightful fate.. Captured, I know not- how, she had killed with a revolver, befor her hand could be stayed, a ' Versaillist officer and three of his men. Bhe looked'" out and out" a fury; her handsome ''A face was black with powder, her lips especially made livid by hasty biting of .cartridges; her • f hair hung in dishevelled tangles about her handsome but ferocious face ; and her eyes gleaming with an over-strained courage that mounted even to madness, blazed defiance on the red-breeched'crowd who had her at; their mercy. I will not linger on tho scene. Her hands were tied,-and, with her back against the' wall, Slic di.vl- pierced through wand through with shots from the rifles of M. Thiers' troops. I could not blame them— bi}t __. I could not help being deeply sorry for hep, ■ ■ THE CAPTURED MEN AND WOMEN AT SATO RY. We first went- up stairs,, where, upon tho first aud second floors, were tho female .prisoners, between 300 and 400 in number. Tho house was evidently unused at ordinary ■ times. There was no;baty?lra'lq tp tho'staircase, and.no furniture .whatever iv tho rooms, only some straw on the ground. In this place -there was a close,* noisome smell. There were ' women of all ages, "from 15 "to" GO) together with,a few young boys; a few sitting down, thej rest, Btairiding about.! Tllefo was an anxious, wan look upon llicrn, and all turned and made a little movement'ss I entered. It seemed nslf they half fiSped, half feared, that their hour had arrived to be interrogated. Some of tho women were ferocious-looking firagos, the picoleims ot the last < revolution, the furies who poured blazing petroleum upon - the heads of tho troops as they advanced in r thii:insur_reeH6n. *ATii,w werc'iuild./wghlened- « looking'creatures; who b:id probably ftbod by some hufband they . lov^ed on the . barricades, their-love overcoming: theirfeyr; _ Some stared • boldly and defiantly at me, with faces from which dll show of "uiodosty had disappeared, years ago; others looked down abashed at the position and company in which they found themselves.: Sonid werfr ,in rajjs. .with wild hair, unkempt and malted) falling' ori" their shoulders.' -.Others jworq in decent clothing, .and.Ji'id juade.sginc effort.__.to,. tidy' their hair, and tb ph»sbryc! the lqok~ o.f "v;oi[jen. |t "wis"""' an intensely painful sight, . TRAGICAL FATE OF THE COMMUNIST "', /.-:, LEiDERI" '- T F The ;Grovernment' troops are vindictive if notecve'n brutal, irf following up their victory. A,trio of the Communist leaders'was captured on Thursday night. They were Jules Valles, Ferre, and Longuet.. ' Vall^s, was made prisoner after' the others, in rear of the Theatre dv Chatelet. His comrades had been taken very shortly before. Valles was dragged forward b^ the Vei-shillis^s, *and J one of tl>eir non-cpmuiissioned bfficerii struck hini' oi}' (fto . neck with a sword. Jn Ibis an^er and agony Voiles struck back, and' immediately an extemporary scooting party wtiis drawn up, and fired into the bo>ly. of j lie 'unfortunate rebel. But Vallfcs h*d toe -bail taste not to dio at once; he writhed and 'ttvisted/, aud groaned upon the ground until nearly all who were within sight and hea'Wiig Miad^fb avert their - eyes and move away from the fight of his most : homble suffering. The Captain commanding the firing party told me tl.ijtf "Thpy lpt him suffer on purpose."'liis'feifow captive, FeW-is) wliose^ doom was but'deferred, crieddut; '■' Oh'! P%ptain j in the name of mercy put hitn out and.'-the appeal was so far successful that" the ca'frtors'Uieu shot their prisoner dead , Lefrancais, Gambon, and A-nouroux, were shot in the Hue do la Banquo, against the wall of the stamp office. Raoul Rigauli finished His [ days' in the Courtyard of the Ecole Mditaire., t CourlK'l, .tho painter, who ordered the destruction.of the Vendome Column, was found hiding iv a cupboard, not quite largo enough to conceal hitn, in Llfo Ministry of finance, and, attempting tjomo re^c-taffpey w<i§ Recording to repqrts, shot on tho' gpgjij 'Mai-. journal, who has boasted ever qinee the fate.l 22nd of March, -when the Party cf Order was fired upon in tho Ruo de la l»a^, (hat he gaye tho order, hcis met the fate \yhich he sg rjchly merits. ' Dombrowskl died In {.ho bedroom of the Hotel de Ville, formerly occupied by M'He Hausßman. The day after his escape from La 'm Muetto he. received throe rifle shots while at a barricade in Ihe Ruo d'Omano. He wag '_ transferred from there to the Hotel de Ville, where he died of his wounds. Dolescluie was killed on Tuesday at the .barricades of the Chateau d'Eau. His face was much disfigured by a portion of a burning wall which had fallen on it. His identity is amply proved by papers found in his pooket. The insurgent .Woneral Blisson, who was captured, was shot yesterday, as well as Tavernier, a member of the Commnue. Millie: c, a Deputy of the National Assombly, was arrested on Thursday in the Place Luxembourg. ■•. He was thence led to the Place de Pauthoon,. and there shot. When tho soldiers were raising their rifles to dispatch him, ho cried,- " Vive la Commune !" "Vive l.Humanitcr> y; ve i epeU pi e 7i> ■ A PARIS EDITOR SHOT BX" ORDER ■ ' OF RIGAULT.' M The'fate of 'Otistavo Ohatfdoy, aijM.tho writers of the Sleek, and a matfTWicli esteemed, yfiu no doubtJ know. HtAwas Barrled to Saiiite V&lagie, and shot there by the order of Raoul: Bigault. Came Raoul Rigault to him on Tuesday forenoon, at 11 o'olock, with the words, "-I have come to announbe that this is your last hour." " How ?" cried Chaudey j " you mean to assassinate me?" "You are going to be shot,", was the reply. The guards of the prison refused to shoot the pnsonei', hpd Rigaulfc had to go for other executioners. They came into the court where Chaudey was set up against a wall*, Rigault waved his sword Us tho (signal to fir^ ilud they fired. Bnt they had.hit too high,.thepoor victim was only wounded, and at last ho had to be dispatohed by being shot through the ear with a pistol. . .