SELECTIONS.

Cromwell Argus, Volume VI, Issue 286, 4 May 1875, Page 7

SELECTIONS.

. . rj ~ Remarkable Frost in Paris.

A Paris correspondent of a London paper, writing concerning the recent frost in Paris, says;— There has hardly ever been such a night seen in Paris as that of the Ist January. After a severe frost, the streets were already slippery, when, at nine in the evening, rain began to fall, and to freeze instantaneously ; it was frozen before it could run off an umbrella. From this inclement state of the weather I took refuge in a cafd, for the roads were quickly sheeted with ice, and there were no cabs to be had for love oxmoney. Before long the cafd resembled an ambulance, men and women with blackened eyes, cut faces, and bruised limbs flocking in to be bandaged. Along the boulevards, when the theatres wer over, the sight was at once painful and ridiculous, for ladies and gentlemen who had counted on their carriages were forced to face the road on foot, and the only way to walk with any safety was to pull off your boots and trust to your stockings. A gentleman said he never saw so many horses down except at Champigny, where the German batteries played sad havoc with the French artillery teams. In many instances Hie poor anirhals remained where they fell, either too much frightened or too much hurt to rise, and I hear that the omnibus company lost no fewer than 200 horses from broken legi or severe strains. One gentleman cut up hj railway wrapper, and making stockings for his horse, drove home ; and an enterprising syith established himself on the Boulevards, and roughed a number of steeds. A man‘ w'.th a quantity of list slippers made a little fortune, but his stock was soon exhausted. In some of the worst places—at the Pom Neuf, for example—there were dozens of vehicles unable to move, and in fact all over Paris were to be found deserted carriages aid omnibuses, in which persona who despaired of getting home took refuge. Many people passed the night at the various police stations, and one hears of gentlemen, after having left their wives to the care of the, executive, regaining home alone. Several people lost fheir lives. A young man fell and fractured his skull in the Rue de la Paix ; a woman slijped down, breaking her arm, and the chili she was carrying was , killed on the spot ; numerous fractures of legs and arms occurred, and many dangerous wounds. Coming down the Champs Elysee's f yesterday morning, one could hardly walk twenty.yards without seeing traces of blood. M. Eranoisquo Sarcey has written- an amusing account of how he and three friends ma- | naged to cross Paris, linked arm-in-arm, and J of course there were comical incidents. Ther ; ; is a well-known be.-gar who, having lost b •th his legs, propels himself, in a go-cart, by ‘ meins of sharp-pointed sticks. This man ’ dashed Up the' Boulevards at. full speed, and, ' as i reporter remarks, “ avenged the hurai--11 laton of years.” . . . ..