DASH FROM PARIS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 105, 26 September 1914, Page 5

DASH FROM PARIS.

-FIGHT FOR TRAINS IN FRENCH JCAfr ITAL. ,"..|1

MOBILISATION IN FHANCB. f£s

L My journty here from Paris has sMar I fc nightmare. Thf rush from tlie Vzensk •'capital last night was terrifying, wrote ft Daily News special correspondent frx«n Brussels on Sunday, August 2. News of the mobilisation lad beea circulated, and it was known that t*e State, in order to pour its millions of men on to the frontier, would require all the rolling stock of every railway for some days. The great gates of the Garc du Nord were elosed, and an army of police and officials made certain that only travel* lcrs should' join the thousands besieging the ticket offices inside. It seemed when you took up your place in the queue leading to your hooking guienefc tirat you could never reach it.

WOMEN AND CHILDREN. (/ More than half the crowd were wo'men and children, eent to fight iheir Avay to some quiet country place while their husbands am 4 fathers were under arms; there were thousands of young joining their regiments, chafing in r ,the delay in the issue of their militaiy tickets; there were foreigners wi every " nation falling over eaeh other 15 their 'anxiety to get away from the city on 'which tlie shadow of war had falle*. ' > A pathetic scene was that of a mother flaking her blind child away, The youngster could not Bee what was go- • ing on. The struggle and- the, babel of disputing voices frightened it, and its 'terrorised, piercing cries bfo%ht tear* ,to the eyes of many who wanted no better excuse to weep.- . ' A VAIN APPfiAI,. When, as the time for the departure of the trains they had hoped to cat*."* 'drew near, and they seemed far from .the ticket windows with the announcefment staring them in the face that the 'issue of tickets would eeaso a quarter 'of an hour before the-traiif started, wo- ' (men made agonising appeals to be allowed to get in front of the crowd. Dragging their little-. enßs with them, they rushed out of the line to endeavorto invade the platforms.. It was useless. Hut is was small consolation to look behind and'sce that the waiting, strufjcrowd in the rear of them was increasing instead of decreasing. It waft t no -more consolation to them either to ba told that the fight to leave Paris waft 'even more terrible at Gare de l'Est. jAnd these scenes now were to be perpetuated into the night and on to the 'morrow.

There was no attempt to check tickets on-the platform. The train backed in and was taken ny assault while on move. Women literally threw ch&dIren into it to' secure the prescriptive (right of a place themselves as their 'guardians. Although this was an international train deluxe, people packed in without thought of class or seats. And l-still many were left on the platfon* f unahle to fight their way into the 'crowded carriages. 1 A COSMOPOLITAN TRAIN. When I got on board, I found the people making the best of a •j'bad journey with Germans who had deI laved their departure top long and watt I kad to go round iby Holland t« the that was expected to i? ; the jgeople of the country whose hospitality they had been enjoying. I found Belgians called to the colors, and nrany tFreneh reservists called to the frontier Itowns. It reminded me strongly of my journey to South Africa with two «f President Kruger's nephews and others ''who were to fight us in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State after we shook hands at Capetown. And Uie way these prospective fighters of three nations fraternised, rcmindtd me, too, that we were good friends with our Bc-t fellow travellers on the way out to tihe Cape. "I do my duty," *»ys the Gentian apologetically in 'nis ,\iamistakab!i' accm', "lAnd I do mine," »ays the Frenchman, as they begin talking of the horrors of war, of the terrible sacrifices thej;., are making itt baring to give up good employment. There is not one word of bitterness on either eide, and I feel more than ever that if (this be war, it is a war of armaments and not of enraged men.

WHEW: THE NEWS CAME. There was no panic in Paris on Hh» announcement of mobilisation. We stayed up on the boulevards half Friday Hight expecting the news, but the apjeal to all French men to join the colors within 48 hours did not come until yesterday, at the end of 'a hot sunny Afternoon. Notices were just fixed tg the Poßt Office windows:—'fThe mobilisation takes place August 2." There was something cynically bald ia the announcement, which may mean life »r death: to nations as well as, alas! to* tens of thousands of men. No newspaper ever distributed bad news B» quickly than did the faces of the population of Paris. The tears of women, and the pale determined visages of tbo »«n. told the story.

■WHAT CONSCRIPTION MEANS. 1 turned into my hotel to see that .things were ready for my departure. •The proprietor stood in the back room with Jiis wife, her eyes red with tears. "It's lhard at forty to have to leave "Skcr," he muttered with quivering lips, "and those two little ones," and lie pointed to the two little children playLing on the floor with wooden soldiers, »»d a fort! j. . ■ . The telephone Ijlbell rang. The half of the conversation ' I heard was, "Yes, old man, I leave ia the morning—Jion died, we couldn't expect anything else—let's all' shout Vive via France." !( Outside I happened to pass the Pruiteinps, one of the great Paris stores. Three or four hundred men who had been working overtime behind, the doors of the place, which had been closed for half-holiday, trooped out into the street, (leaving parcels luilf-pncked, and too huge motor delivery vans, which have 'now been commandeered by the State, half-laden. They shook hands in silence, some kissed their companions on both , cheeks, and then hurried off to their homes to do some packing before Paris street traffic was quite paralysed.