LIFE OF ARCHIBALD FORBES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1025, 2 November 1882, Page 2

LIFE OF ARCHIBALD FORBES.

( Continued .)

At Metz Forbes began to revolutionize war correspondence—by living on fore* posts, witnessing every fight, and substituting for curt telegrams of bare facts long descriptive letters telegraphed in full. According to Forbes, successful war correspondence depends upon three attributes :—Faculty of organisation, capacity of physical endurance, and the gift of lucid writing, resulting from studiously acquired military knowledge. From a journalistic as well as from a military point of view, the base of the campaign must be secure ; open communication and presence in the right place are indispensable. Forbes seems to sniff a battle afar off, and is ready to live in squalor, as he did for six weeks .within easy range of French cannon before IMetz capitulated. It was the wettest autumn on record, and typhoid fever and dysentery were his conslant companions. During a sortie Forbes received a flesh wound in the leg, which continued open for months, but which did not force him to leave the front. For these six weeks he did &ot sleep in bed, except on occasional vis’ts to the telegraphic base at Saarbriick. Before the capitulation was effected, he was the first to enter Metz ; and infoi - mally joining the sanitary volunteers, he devoted himself to the removal of sick and wounded, 200 of wbora were in a state of semi-putrefaction. As the most infectious disorders reigned, including the rave type of Usury typhus, Forbes s leg was attacked with gangrene, which hud to be burned out with nitric acid. By constant smoking, never removing his boots, and carrying in his mouth a sponge saturated with vinegar, lie managed to keep on his legs, but was finally ordered to England, lest, by a longer stay in so

foul an (atmosphere, amputation should become necessary. On reaching London, Forbes showed his disabled leg to Mr Robinson, who remarked with a shudder, l As a fellowman, 1 say you ought to lay up for six months. As a newspaper manager, I wish you would start for the siege of Paris to-night. 1

Forbes started immediately, and his leg got well, probably owing partly to his rule of being a teetotaller one week out of three. Attached to the head-quarters of the army commanded by the Crown Prince of Saxony, Forbes witnessed the hardest fighting of the siege. After the final bombardment of St Denis, he contrived to get inside the walls, which had been reduced to a most dilapidated condition, and was offered food by a Protestant pastor. The meat consisted of part of a young grey horse that had been killed by a shell. During the siege, Forbes's letters were sent to an agent on the frontier, who telegraphed them in full to London. This feat excited great surprise among the Germans, who knew that Forbes had permission from the Crown Prince to telegraph only short messages from the offices within his army. One day a Forbes telegram appeared dated at a place where f ,there was no telegraph office. It was reported to Prince George of Saxony’s staff by a jealous rival correspondent. Tha same night Forbes dined with the staff, and was asked to explain the incomprehensible. ‘Why,’ be replied, jestingly, ‘ I have my own private wire, and shall telegraph from here directly.’ Knowing that orders had been given at Prince George’s office to receive no telegram that night from him, Forbes quieily wrote a letter directed to his 1 frontier agent and put it in the post. The next day it was telegraphed to London, and copies of the Daily News were sent to Prince George with Mr Forbes’s compliments. Pending the capitulation of Paris in February, 1871, some fifty journalists wanted hungrily to enter on the side of Versailles. Forbes arranged to enter by the north through St Denis, and accomplished his purpose on horseback, dressed as a Prussian, and was in consequence very nearly killed by a cruukeQ National Guard. Having little knowledge of French, and no knowledge whatever of Paris, he had great difficulty in finding the U. S. Minister, who gazed with surprise upon the first man he had seen for weeks from the outer world. They sent the stranger t» Unthank’s English Hotel, in the Faubourg St. Honord, the only hotel open during the siege. Forbes brough forth from his wallet five pounds of sliced ham, which Unthank’s people put on a large covered plate and exhibited ia the Faubourg at ten centimes a peep, as the first ouside marketing to enter Paris. After walking about dark streets all night, Forbes, who had stabled his horse without leave, rode to Vincennes, where he passed the Prussian lines. He then galloped fifteen miles to Lagny, tha terminus of the German railroad system, which ha reached in time to catch the train for Germany, but killed his poor horse in the effort. On went the war correspondent for twenty-two hours, without stopping. Beaching Carlsruhe at two o’clock in the morning, he made his way to the telegraph office, where the two girls in charge refused to take a long telegram before day set in. Ceaxing and bribery, however, accomplished the purpose. At eight o’clock the first despatch was finished, which gave the first details of the interior of Paris that had reached England for a week. Taking the next train to Paris, Forbes entered the Hotel Chatham on the morning of the third day after his departure, and was roundly chaffed for his delay by two journalists who had just got in. Fancy their feelings on reading the Daily News ? Couriers were so until ustworthy that it was not unusual for Forbes to carry news to England twice a week. He was often the only passenger, and nearly died from fatigue. After witnessing the great parade at Lougchamps, Forbes on the same day accompanied the German troops into Paris. Leaving the German cordon and entering that part of the town stiff in French hands, he was assailed by the mob as a German spy. A fight ensued, in which. Forbes’ clothes were torn off. ‘ Let us drnwn him!’ shouted the mob, who threw him on the ground and proceeded to drag him along the streets. Eescued by a Natioral Guard picket, the supposed spy was taken to a police-station, and brought before a magistrate whose sister spoke English, and who testified her belief in Forbes’s representations. On being released, Forbes boi rowed apparel from the brother of his benefactress, who accompanied him to his hotel. 1 How can [ repay you for all that you have done for me?’ asked the correspondent. ‘ More easily than you think,’ replied the Frenchwoman. ‘ My brother and I are literally starving. He has received no salary for six months; and being gentlefolk, we cannot stand in the queue with the populace to receive alms. Doubt'ess you know somebody connected with the distribution of England’s gift. Any food will be a godsend.’ As one of the Englisa almoners happened ro be staying at Forbes’s hotel a hamper was dispatched with the Frenchwoman, who went away sobbing like a child. That same night Forbes started for England, and wrote his account of the entrance into Paris before he washed the blood-stains from his head

and hands. This account appeared in a special edition of the Daily News, and next morning Mr. Robinson found his correspondent asleep on the floor, with the London Directory for a pillow. On returning to Paris, just as the Commune was collapsing, Forbes entered by La Ohapelle gate, and the same afternoon reached Dombrowski in Chateau La Muette. While dining the report came that the Yersailists had forced the Porte de la Muette. Desperate fighting ensued, during which Dombrowski, who had mounted a wall, was wounded, and fell into Forbes’s arms. All then ran away. The next morning, Forbes was ‘ requisitioned’ by the Communists to aid in erecting a barricade across Rue Rivoli, and again, later in the day, to defend an indefensible position, the defenders of which promptly disappeared. Some hours after, Forbes stood behind shelter in Rue Lafayette, and watched the Versaillists take the Grand Opera House. There followed a pandemonium of indiscriminate slaughter. Unable to communicate with England, Forbes got out of Paris with great difficulty, and bore to London the news that Paris was in flames. He returned to the distracted city in time to witness the final downfall of the Communards in the slums of Bellevue and in Pfere la Chaise

(To be continued.)