Balloons.--Large Number dispatched.--Small Number lost.--Worth.
--Carrier-pigeons.--Their Failure.--Their Instincts.--_Times_
"Agony Column."--Correspondence.--Letters to Besieged.--Count Solms.
--Our Dispatch-bag.--Moltke complains that it is abused.--Washburne's
Answer.--Bismarck's Reply.
At the beginning of the siege, one of the absorbing topics of
discussion among the Parisians was the means of communication with
the outer world. The French had always had a fancy for ballooning,
and were probably in advance of the rest of the world in this
respect. They now applied their experience to a practical use, and
soon a service of mail balloons was organized, starting from Paris
twice a week. At first they were dispatched in the afternoon, for the
all-sufficient reason that they always had been dispatched in the
afternoon; but soon they found that the balloon did not rise quickly
enough to escape the bullets of the Prussians encamped upon the hills
which surround Paris. So they changed the hour of departure to one in
the morning. When daylight appeared they were beyond the Prussian
lines. Indeed, the speed of the balloon is sometimes marvelous.
Starting at one o'clock in the morning, one of them fell into the sea
off the coast of Holland at daylight. The passengers were rescued by
a fishing-smack. A second descended in Norway on the very morning it
left Paris. The officer of the Post-office who was charged with the
organization of this service told me that, of ninety-seven balloons
that left Paris during the siege, ninety-four arrived safely; about
equal to railway-trains in these latter days. Two fell into the hands
of the enemy, and one was never heard of. It was supposed to have
drifted out to sea and been lost. A balloon was seen off Eddystone
Light-house. A few days afterward a gentleman spending the winter at
Torquay received a letter from the rector at Land's End, Cornwall,
stating that a number of letters had drifted ashore, supposed to have
been lost from a balloon, and among them was one addressed to him;
that it had been dried, and on receipt of twopence it would be sent
him. It proved to be a balloon letter from me, and is still preserved
as a souvenir of the siege and the sea.
Quite at the beginning of the siege a member of my own family
received a letter from me, dispatched by the first balloon which
left Paris. Its arrival created quite a sensation in the little Welsh
watering-place where she was spending a part of the autumn. People
stopped her in the street, and asked to see the "balloon letter." The
natives evidently thought that it must have something of the balloon
about it.
I recollect Worth's coming to the Legation one day--(and who does not
know Worth? He rules the women throughout the civilized and toileted
world; and through the women he rules the men, or their pockets at
least). Worth was in great distress. His nephew had gone out in a
balloon and been captured, and there were rumors that his life was in
danger. I promised to ascertain his fate, if possible, and prepared
a letter to Count Bismarck, which Mr. Washburne signed. Bismarck
replied most promptly, as he always did. And here let me state that
during the siege, at the request of anxious wives and parents, we
often addressed inquiries to German Head-quarters to ascertain the
fate of a husband or a son, and that these inquiries always received
the promptest and kindest attention. To the inquiry about young
Worth, Bismarck replied that he had been captured attempting to cross
the Prussian lines in a balloon; that to cross the Prussian lines
in the air was like crossing them on the land; and that the person
caught attempting it would be similarly punished; that young Worth
was in prison, and would be kept there for a few months, to teach
others not to attempt the same thing; but that no other harm had
happened, or would happen, to him. I sent for Worth, and read him the
letter. He was much relieved, and expressed himself very grateful.
Some years later a relative of mine took the material for a dress to
Worth, and asked him to make it up. Think of the audacity of such
a request! But Worth did it. If gratitude is to be measured not by
the magnitude of the favor conferred, but by the sacrifice made by
him who confers it, then Worth's gratitude stands out in unequaled
grandeur.
But while with the help of balloons the Parisians managed very well
to send letters from Paris, it was no easy task to receive them. The
pigeon experiment proved a failure. No doubt pigeons can be trained
to do their work tolerably well, and the French Government now has
a large collection of carriers at the Jardin d'Acclimatation. But
during the siege very few succeeded in reaching home. A carrier will
scarcely ever make a two days' journey. If night overtakes him, he
goes astray, misled perhaps by siren wood-pigeons. In winter, too,
the days are short, snow-storms blind him, and hawks pounce upon him.
One of the canards circulated in Paris was that the Prussians trained
hawks for this purpose. The instinct of the animal, too, seems to
teach it to fly northward only. Two or three times a carrier arrived
safely, bringing with it one of those marvels of scientific skill,
a photographic letter. The microscope revealed the contents of a
good-sized newspaper transferred to a scrap of paper that a pigeon
could carry under its wing.
Some of the French residing in London took advantage of the "agony
column" of the _Times_ to send news to their friends. They had faith
in the ubiquity of the great journal, and their faith was rewarded.
I doubt if you could so hedge in a city that the _Times_ would not
penetrate it. Our Legation in London sent it to us. I received one
number a week. In it I found multitudes of _prières_ addressed to Mr.
Washburne, and some to myself, begging us to inform Mr. So-and-so,
or Madame Blank, that their wife, or husband, or children, were at
such and such a place, and all well. When these messages were purely
personal, we delivered them. If they were in cipher, or susceptible
of a double meaning, we did not. I remember finding a message in
cipher, and addressed to the Minister of War. I not only did not
deliver it, but I burned it for fear that the favor of receiving
our letters and papers accorded us by the German Government might
be abused. About two days before the _jour de l'an_, I received
a _Times_ of December 23d, for the Germans purposely delayed our
bag, probably that the news, should it become known to the French
Government, might not be acted on by it, to the detriment of German
military operations. The "agony column" was full of messages to
besieged relatives. I thought that the Parisians could receive no
more acceptable presents for their New-year's-day, so I copied all
the messages which had addresses and sent them by mail. But some
had no addresses. How the writers ever expected them to reach their
destinations, I do not understand. I copied them too, however, and
sent them to the _Gaulois_. On New-year's morning that journal
published them. In a few days it received grateful letters, thanking
the editors warmly, and offering to pay a share of the expense,
"which must have been great." The _Gaulois_ replied, declining all
payment, but modestly assuming great credit to itself for its
"unparalleled enterprise," and assuring its correspondents that it
should continue to spare no expense to procure them news of their
families.
The Prussian officers, too, at head-quarters not unfrequently sent in
letters, with the request that we would distribute them. I remember
once receiving from Count Solms, who had been _chargé d'affaires_ at
Paris after the departure of the Embassador, a letter forwarded by
him, without address, without signature, and without date. I waited
a few days, thinking that other letters might refer to it, and that
the owner would call and claim it. No one came. As the difficulties
increased, of course I was the more determined to trace out the
owner. Every thing else failing, I read the letter, to try to obtain
a clue. Fortunately, I found the name of Mr. Henri Blount. I knew
Mr. Blount, and knew that his father was in Paris. I wrote him, and
told him the circumstances. He replied that if I would trust him with
the letter, he thought that he could find the owner. He took it to
the Jockey Club at dinner-time, and asked if there was any gentleman
there whose name was Charles, and whose wife's name was Anna. A
gentleman immediately claimed it, but after a glance reluctantly
gave it up. Another claimed it, and turned out to be the right man.
I had rather an amusing correspondence with Count Solms in reference
to this letter and other matters. I give two or three of the letters
which passed between us, as showing that we contrived to enjoy
ourselves after a fashion in Paris, notwithstanding the rigors of
the siege. I give the letters as written. One of them is, perhaps,
better adapted to the French language than to its more austere sister
English.
"Paris, le 13 Décembre, 1870.
"MON CHER COMTE,--Votre lettre n'est pas vraiment d'un "intérêt
palpitant," mais vous êtes bien disciplinés vous autres
Prussiens, et j'adore la discipline. Nous voyons les résultats.
"Néanmoins, il puisse être permis à un neutre de vous remercier
de vos anxiétés à son égard. Mais il ne meurt pas absolument de
faim. J'ai dîné, il y a quatre jours, chez un restaurateur bien
connu, en compagnie de quatre jeunes gens que vous connaissez
bien. Nous avons mangé un cochon-de-lait, un canard rôti, des
truffes et du beurre frais. Ce n'est pas la famine ça--tout
arrosé de Château Margaux de '50. Ne croyez pas que dans ces
temps ci j'ai commandé un tel dîner de Sybarite moi-même.
J'ai été invité. Voilà pourquoi je ne puis rien vous dire de
l'addition.
"J'espère qu'on ne trouvera rien de compromettant dans cette
lettre excepté pour le cochon-de-lait. Lui il a été bien
compromis.
"Je suis toujours à vos ordres pour envoyer des lettres de
famille de vos amis.
"Votre dévoué, etc., etc., etc.
"Comme je plains vous autres pauvres Prussiens enfermés hors de
Paris!"
"Versailles, le 17 Décembre, '70.
"MON CHER COLONEL,--Merci de votre amusante lettre. Le menu
qu'elle contenait m'a complètement tranquillisé, et la solidité
de votre repas me fait espérer que vous jouissez encore des
forces physiques nécessaires pour que je puisse me permettre
de vous prier de vouloir bien vous charger de la distribution
des lettres que j'ai l'honneur de vous envoyer cijoints. Mille
amitiés de votre très-discipliné,
"F. SOLMS."
"Paris, le 25 Décembre, '70.
"MON CHER COMTE,--J'ai reçu votre billet du 17, et je me suis
hâté d'envoyer les lettres y incluses. Quelques-unes j'ai livrées
moi-même; les autres je les ai mises à la poste.
"Depuis le repas dont la solidité a tant frappé votre esprit, je
suis heureux de vous dire que j'ai mangé quelques-uns encore plus
solides. Que pensez-vous de lard salé aux haricots--pas verts?
Je me suis trouvé transporté aux premiers jours de notre petite
guerre en Kansas, au Grand-Ouest, il y a 16 ans.
"Nous avons une nouvelle idée à Paris, une idée tout-à-fait
parisienne. Connaissez-vous la cause de la guerre? Evidemment
non. Eh bien, la Providence a trouvé que les vieilles races
d'Europe commencent à se dégénérer. Elle désire les mélanger un
peu. Il y a probablement 350,000 soldats français prisonniers
en Allemagne; il y a peut-être 600,000 soldats allemands sur
le territoire français. Vous voyez, ou plutôt vous verrez, les
résultats. Voilà l'idée que j'ai entendu développée avec beaucoup
d'éloquence par la belle marquise de ---- à une petite soirée où
j'ai eu l'honneur d'assister il y a quelques jours. Je la livre,
gratuitement bien entendu, au George Bancroft de l'avenir--'La
cause et les résultats de la guerre de 1870.'
"Vous voyez que nous tâchons de nous amuser encore à Paris.
"Agréez, etc., etc., etc."
To be in exclusive receipt of news during a siege is gratifying to
one's vanity, but it has its decidedly disagreeable side. I doubt
if the siege were to begin again if Mr. Washburne would accept
a bag containing any thing but his official dispatches and his
family letters. If we gave the Parisians news, they said that we
gave them only bad news. If we withheld it, they said that we
were withholding the news of French victories. I speak of what was
said in the workmen's clubs, and by the inferior press; the better
classes and the more respectable newspapers found no fault. Then
General Moltke complained that we abused our privilege. His scouts
had intercepted a balloon letter, in which the writer spoke of the
facility of receiving letters through the Legation, and instructed
her correspondent to write under cover to me. That clever writer,
too, Labouchère, "The Besieged Resident," told in the columns of
the _Daily News_ how small a matter it was to be shut up in Paris.
"Go to the Legation of the United States on any day, and there you
find the latest London journals lying on the table." All this was
nuts to General Moltke, for he had opposed our receiving our bag,
but had been overruled by the King on the request of Count Bismarck.
Bismarck wrote to Mr. Washburne, calling his attention to Moltke's
complaint. Washburne replied. After stating the circumstances under
which I had authorized a letter to be sent under cover to me, for an
American lady whose daughter was sick with the small-pox at Brussels,
he proceeded to say that both he and I had endeavored honorably to
discharge our duties as neutrals; that we had acted according to the
best of our judgments under this sense of duty; that we proposed to
continue to act as we had done; and that if the German authorities
could not trust us, they had better stop the bag altogether, with the
exception, of course, of the dispatches from our Government. At the
same time he sent back nearly five hundred letters which had been
sent us without authority, and which had not been delivered, as the
best possible proof that he had not abused his privilege. Washburne's
letter concluded as follows:
"Before closing this communication, I trust your Excellency will
pardon me a further observation. For the period of six months I
have been charged with the delicate, laborious, and responsible
duty of protecting your countrymen in Paris. Of the manner in
which these duties, having relation to both belligerents, have
been performed, I do not propose to speak. I am content to abide
by the record made up in the State Department at Washington.
But I can state that there has never been a time when these
duties have involved graver consequences and responsibilities
than at the present moment. As I have expressed to you before, I
have been astonished at the number of Germans who, as it turns
out, were left in the city when the gates were closed. Having
exhausted their last resources, and finding themselves in a
state of the most absolute destitution, they have applied to
me for protection and aid, which I have so far been enabled to
extend to them from the funds placed in my hands by the Royal
Government. The number of these people amounts to-day to two
thousand three hundred and eighty-five; and it is certain, had
there not been some one to protect and aid them, many must have
inevitably perished of cold and starvation. My position in
relation to these people and to your Government is known to the
people of Paris, and as the siege wears on, and the exasperation
is intensified, I now find myself exposed to the hostility of
a certain portion of the population of the city. While your
military authorities seem to be agitated by the gravest fears in
relation to my dispatch-bag, I am daily violently assailed by a
portion of the Paris press as a "Prussian representative" and a
"Prussian sympathizer;" and a short time since it was proposed
in one of the clubs that I should be hanged--rather a pleasant
diversion in these dreary days of siege through which we are
passing.
"I will only add that, so long as I am the diplomatic
representative of my country in Paris, I shall discharge every
duty, even to the end, and in the face of every circumstance,
that I owe to my own Government, and every duty that I have by
its direction assumed toward the subjects of the North German
Confederation.
"I have the honor, etc., etc."
Bismarck replied with an apology. He said he knew that the privilege
accorded us had not been abused, and he was satisfied that it would
not be; that the military authorities had called his attention
to this matter, and that it was therefore his duty to call Mr.
Washburne's attention to it; that the bag would continue to be sent
as usual; and that he returned the five hundred letters, with full
authority to Mr. Washburne to deliver them if he saw fit. I heard
afterward that Bismarck was delighted with Washburne's letter, and
took special pleasure in sending a copy to General Moltke.