HOW PARIS RECORDS THE NEWS OF THK DEFEATS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 244, 15 October 1870, Page 4

HOW PARIS RECORDS THE NEWS OF THE DEFEATS.

(From the Thames Advertiser.) The following graphic account is from a correspondent : — n that day Paris went mad with grief and auger. Three weeks before, her gay and shining boulevards were full ot delighted crowds escorting regiments and batteries to the Strasbourg Railway Station. Songs of glory and patriotism echoed from every side: the soldiers were plied with drink and dainties to surfeit point; the vivandieres were courted and flattered like princesses ; the grim cannon aud mysterious mitrailleuses were affectionately patted; even the Ministry was praised for the moment, and the Emperor had become popular; while the grand hymn of Koguet de ITsle, the heart-shaking " Marseillaise" was pressed into the service of the Imperial arms, aud made a war song — certain verses heing, of course, omitted. The journals of the capital were all printed in coleur de rose, and fair Paris was eager to smite the Prussian armies. "La guerre ! la gloire ! " These were the passionate, pitiless cries npon her lips; and moreover she sought by her journalists to sharpen the bayonets of her army with phrases which stung like filed and whetted steel, such as those knife-like verses of Alfred de Musset on the " Rhin Allemand," and all the defiant rhetoric poured forth in the Soir aud the Constitutionnel about the "soldiers of Jena;" they "came," those "soldiers of Jena;" they " saw," what ? Only sileut battalions of the blue-coated men, keeping "Die ivacht am Rhehi" (the watch upon the Rhine). Against whom? One small spectacle of victory. A lever de rideau was rehearsed, with the little Prince for a dramatis per sonce , a passing farce played, while Fate was arranging the stage for a real historical tragedy. And then, suddenly and swiftly, like lightening out of dark clouds, the wrath and burning love of Fatherland burst forth from those blue Germau battalions. Surprised, outwitted, outflanked, out-numbered, out-generalled, these "soldiers of Jena" were sent to be crushed at Wiessernbourg, and Woerth, and crushed at Saarbruck, till the very telegrams of their conquerors stammered hesitation and incredulity at such prodigious losses. And while the war, thus lolling up to the walls of Metz, what had become of boastful, glorified, song-singing Paris ? Never, since history began, was such a contrast seen as ihat between the capital anticipating "glory," and the same capital realising defeat and flagrant denial of the military supremacy in Europe. No Maenad raging, no Niobe all teats and fury, and despair, was ever so frantic, so passionate, so pathetic as this beautiful city. .They had imposed upon her il order" and strong government, and then decked . her with grand buildings, aud wooed- hi-r with luxuries and splendours; yet she was '-irreconcilable." Then they- engaged to give her for her fill of " glory " a series of victories over Bismarck, and a march to Berlin. Her fiery .heart leaped up at the promise; for "glory "is something, when freedom is denied. Paris seized the compact, cried at full pitch of her lungs for " glory," and lent to the , eagles of her master the an-

them, of the barricades for their war-shout, fhe '• Song of (he Rhine," nevertheless, turned out'to be the tune to wliich Fate marched, and when the terrible tidings of overthrow after overthrow reached the Place Vendome, they unwisely trifled with this fair tigress of a city. She was teased wiih no rews, false news, and with news cunningly cooked to take the taste of shame away from its sentences; But when sbv knew all the truth, her fury was menacing.