"A BERLIN!"

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 105, 26 September 1914, Page 3

"A BERLIN!"

PARIS PATRIOTS WITH WAR FEVER. "Hou! Hon a Berlin! Hon! IIou! a Berlin!" The. night is full of threatening noise (wrote the Paris special correspondent of the Express on August 3). Down the boulevards comes the human torrent, tossing the flags on high. In front of the stream of hot humanity there is a self-made advance guard of cyclists with colored lanterns keeping back the crowd that presses towards the demonstrators.

They march splendidly four abreast as if they were even now going straight to the frontier. These men are not hooligans or loafers. Every one of them has his call to his regiment in his pocket, and is to leave within the next few days. But their temper is fierce now. Germany has become the aggressor and the insnlter in their eyes.

A window opens on tlie fifth floor of a house at flic corner of the Hue Louis le Grand. A man comes out on the balcony and looks over the boulevard is that surging, menacing crow advances with quick steps, crying, "Hon! Hon! a Berlinl" lie sees them stop and swarm round a shop opposite him. The name of the facia is Klein. A FAMOUS SHOP.

It is quite a well-known shop, Jamoue for its objects d'art, its marble and bronze replicas of Louvre and Luxemburg statues—but the name on the facia is Klein, and that is enough for the crowd. The sound of smashing glass splinters the night into fragments of rattling noises. in a few seconds the contents of the window are smashed. The aggressors are not hooligans, but tfcey have no more patience since they liave learnt of the Herman invasion of their territory before war has been declared, i 'TIou! Hon! a Berlin!" Now the man on that balcony raises his arms alii shakes his lists. The crowd sees hirn gesticulating, and " ! ! p ycs look Howards. "Savages!" he shouts.' "Abas l'annoc."

It is lita sliop that they have smashed, and from bis fifth-floor window he can only look on impotcntly. But that cry of "A has l'annoc!" lias reached the ears of the multitude outside.

The vast crowd surges across the road, and all hands are raised and lingers pointing up at the window. "Yes. lie's up there." "What is it?" "A German pig!" "Where?" "Up there, shouting 'A has l'armec!" TACTFUL POLICEMEN.

They can scarcely believe it. The man on the balcony, liigli above them, cries once more, "Sauvages!" and the crowd sways and surges below, yelling and cursing liim. Somebody says, "Let's fire a shot at •him!" The man disappears behind his closed window, and the crowd waits as a hungry bear might wait at the foot of a tall tree lor the man that has climbed it.

Presently a posse of cyclist policemen arrive. The crowd flings itsdf on the policemen, and implores thorn to arrest the man that lives on the fifth iloor. They aTe very excited now. They toll the policemen all about it over and over again, and the policemen listen patiently. The policemen are Tory sympathetic, and one of them—a bit;, heavy sergeant —by a stroke of genius circumvents the passions of the crowd. "One must not take those people seriously," he says, "and besides, we'll he revenged to-mor-row."

The word revenge has a magic effect. The demonstrators cheered for the policemen; they become suddenly goodnatured. They laugh and shout, "Ah, yes; to-morrow we'll he revenged," and then, forming up again, they march away and disappear with their shout of "Ho'u! Hon! a Berlin'.''