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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 75, 30 March 1871, Page 2

The Siege of Paris. — "For many a day to come," writes the Daily JVeivs, 5t the great siege which is now a terror and a pain to civilisation will furnish material for French fiction. In the papercoverei volumes at a franc apiece; in those ingenious domestic dramas which are found too naughty for the English stage ; and in the more simple recitals by the fireside — or such substitute for the fireside as obtains in French homes— there will be tales, and anecdotes, and reminiscences of the wonderful time in which Paris was covered as though by a cloud — when all France looked from afar on the spectacle of a capital shut out from Europe by blue and grey lines of earthworks and Prussian steel — when the manifold voices within (he city were heard but as a distant murmur, the full purport of which no one could understand. And we may be sure of this, that not a little of the romance and incident of these tales will cling around the winged messengers which, have carried tidings from friends abroad to friends ineide the beleaguered city. The carrierpigeon will become the heroine of many a romance — the dea eos machina of many a h-ippy deliverance in a drama — the wonder of many a children's story. Our illustrated magazines have already brought the pisreon post into the realm of art; and we find two comely women, high up over the mist and the smoke of Paris, welcoming down the bird that may bring them happy tidings, or perhaps ' Some dolorous message knit below The wild pulsation, of her wings.' Of course, we shall have the mechanical pigeon come down through the gauzy atmosphere of the theatre to baffle the villain, and secure the peace of the betrothed young folks. At the end of the first act, the lover and the villain go out in a great sortie from the capital. The second act shows us the winding loops of the Marne and the lines of the Prussians. Champigny is stormed ; Villiersis taken ; Brie is occupied. Then corner the repulse ; the retreat to the river. The villain fires at the lover, and sees him fall into the stream. The final act naturally takes us back to Paris, and shows us the villain about to marry Annette, Babiche, or Marie, as the case may be. Babiche has been told by the villain that her lover was killed iv the sortie, and in return for the information she consents to marry the gentleman with the black beard. But there is the day of the betrothal — the ceremony which seems to have been created for the benefit of dramatists and librettists ; and just as the fatal paper is to be signed, lo ! there is a flutter of wings, a while dove descends. Babiche tears open the fragment of paper, and faiuts as she reads that Anatole is not dead, but safe and well in a Rhenish prison, waiting anxiously for the end of the war." A hard case. — Poor Snubbin has got into difficulties with the Inland Revenue. They have threatened him with proceedings for not taking out a dog license. He declares he doesn't keep a dog. They say his nose is a pug. We don't know what will turn up next. — Fun. The distance between New York and San Francisco is 3,307 miles, and the average time of transit is — for Western mailsfseven days, seven hours, and fiftytwo minutes ; and for the Eastern mail, seven days, four hours, and forty-four minutes. Between , San Francisco and Omaha a single mail is carried each way. Between New York and New Orleans two daily mails are carried, the average time of transit being four days. There are at present three mails yreekly from New York to Eugland, and Very shortly one will leave every day.