INSIDE THE CITY.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 799, 8 April 1871, Page 3

INSIDE THE CITY.

There was great excitement in Paris when the result of the sortie became known. No previous disaster had thrown so dark a shadow over the city. Large numbers had congregated around the Arc de Triomphe, and on every point of ground where the smoke of the battle could be seen. There was intense anxiety atnongst the women and children, for the National Guard were out in the entered by the Porte Maillot " says a correspondent who was one of the first to leave the field, " there was a most-wonderful sight, a dense crowd—perhaps 2,000 —men, women, and children, waiting with dread for anxiety for news.'" They could see nothing, standing as they did for the most part behind the drawbridge, but they listened to every shot that was fi.-ecl, and looked hard for anyone coming from the field. I was almost torn to pieces. They set upon me with terrible eagerness. 'What news? How goes the battle ?' I could tell them very little. But one thing I could tell them, that whereas so far the troops had been successful, Paris mu*t be prepared for many killed and wounded. They were greatly agitated ; and then came the women around me, anxious to know of their kindred. One had a son in this regiment of the National Guards, anothera husband, a third a brotheF, some one else a father. I shall never forget the trembling of the people waiting to have news of their nearest and dearest—their faltering voices, their swimming eyes, their restless manner. And if ever you wish to picture to yourself the horrors of war, do not let imagination rest alone upon the battle-field. Think also of the thousands of people at the gates of this great city—thousands of all classes, fine ladies and poor women—in "agony for those they loved the best; wondering whether they are safe; fearing they are dead; certain they must be wounded. This it is to fight with National Guards. They fight with their families in sight, and the agony of these families waiting at the gates is. in eome respects, greater than the agony of the field of battle itself.

A Person in the neighborhood of Keswick lately placarded the following announcement : —" Extensive sales of live stock, comprising not less than 140,000 head, with an unlimited right of pasturage !" It turned out that he had several hives of bees to dispose of. A fellow of atrocious ugliness chanced to pick up a good looking-glass on the road '. but when he looked at it himself he flung it away crying , " If you had been good for anything you would not have been thrown away by your owner." " I've got a new machine," said a yanlsee pedlar, " for picking bones out of fishes. Now, I tell you, it's a leetle bit the darndest thing you ever did see. All you have to do is to set it on a table and turn a crank and the fish flies rite down your throat, and the bones rite under the grate. Well, there was a country ' greenhorn ' got bold of it the other day, and he turned tho crank the wrong way, and I tell you the way the boues flew down his throat was awful. Why, it stuck that feller so full of bones that he couldu't get his shirt off for a whole week,"