with a lightning-like, overwhelming crash through Belgium, via Liége and
Namur--has failed. But the battle of millions along the vast front of
two hundred and fifty miles between Liége and Verdun has opened, and the
opposing armies are in touch with each other. Every one in Paris has
confidence in the final result.
There is news of stupendous importance in the official announcement that
Germany is employing the bulk of her twenty-six army corps against
France and Belgium between Liége and Luxemburg. The disappearance of the
German first line troops from the Russian frontier is now explained. By
flinging this immense force upon France, Germany gains an advantage of
numbers. How will she use it?
Paris seems to have seen very little, after all, of the mobilization.
Most people may have seen an odd regiment pass, or perhaps numbers of
horses obviously requisitioned. But they realize none of the feverish
bustle of the mobilization centers.
Versailles relieves Paris of all this, and Versailles, since the first
day of August, has been amazing. The broad avenues of the sleepy old
town have been packed from side to side with men in uniform, men only
partly in uniform, or men carrying their uniforms under their arm. At
the first glance there seemed nothing but confusion, but the appearance
was misleading, for at the Chantiers Station trainload after trainload
of troops--men, guns, horses, material--have been despatched, taking the
route of the Grande Ceinture Railway around Paris to Noisy-le-Sec, and
on to the Est system.
At Versailles one realizes very fully that France is at war. For there
are lines and lines of guns awaiting teams and drivers, hundreds upon
hundreds of provision wagons, rows and rows of light draught-horses,
many being shod in the street, while out along the road to Saint-Cyr, in
a broad pasturage stretching perhaps half a mile, are thousands of
magnificent cattle tightly packed together. They are to feed some of
France's fighting force.
And at Saint-Cyr there is unheard-of activity. The second army flying
corps is being organized. It consists of nearly eighty certificated
volunteer pilots, including Garros, Chevillard, Verrier, Champel,
Audemars, and many more well-known names. There are others than French
airmen in the corps. Audemars is Swiss, while there are also an
Englishman, a Peruvian, and a Dane. These men are all waiting eagerly
the order to move.
Those at the American Embassy who are in charge of advancing funds to
Americans in need of them had their busiest day since the work began, on
Monday. Forty-six persons received a total of 3,514 francs.
The total amount of money distributed for the three days has been 8,869
francs. This has gone to 105 persons, which gives an average of the
modest sum of 84 francs apiece, or less than seventeen dollars.
At least nine out of ten of the applicants are virtually without
bankable credit of any kind. One man gave as security--because the money
is advanced as a loan, not as a gift--a cheque on a Chicago bank, but he
admitted that the cheque was not negotiable, as it was drawn on one of
the Lorrimer banks of Chicago, which had gone into the hands of
receivers since he left for Europe.
Callers included a number of negro song and dance artists who had come
to the end of their resources.
The work of distributing money is entirely in the hands of American army
officers, and they investigate every case which has not already been
investigated by the relief committee appointed by the Ambassador. Major
Spencer Cosby, the military attaché at the Embassy, is the treasurer of
the fund. Investigations are made by Captain Frank Parker, assisted by
Lieutenants William H. Jouett and H. F. Loomis. The cashier is Captain
Francis H. Pope, with Lieutenants Francis W. Honeycutt and B.B.
Somervell as assistants.
When the history of the great war is written, a very honorable place
will have to be reserved for the women of Paris. In the work of caring
for the destitute and unemployed of their own sex, and anticipating the
needs of great numbers of wounded men, they are showing extraordinary
energy. Every day new and special philanthropic institutions are started
and carried on by women in Paris.
Comtesse Greffulhe has taken in hand the provision of food and lodging
for convalescent soldiers, so as to relieve the pressure on public and
private hospitals and ambulances. Mme. Couyba, wife of the Minister of
Labor, is arranging for the supply of free food to girls and women out
of work. Marquise de Dion, Mme. Le Menuet and other ladies are opening
temporary workshops where women can obtain employment at rates that will
enable them to tide over the hard times before them.
The Union des Femmes de France is doing wonderful work in the
organization of hospitals and in sending out nurses to wherever they are
most likely to be needed.
One of the finest examples of energy and devotion is being set by the
wife of the Military Governor of Paris, Mme. Michel. She has identified
herself specially with what may be briefly described as "saving the
babies." Her idea is to see that the coming generation shall not be
sacrificed and that expectant mothers whose natural defenders have gone
to the war shall not feel themselves forsaken.
Mme. Michel is the president of a committee of ladies who have
undertaken, each in her own district, to seek out needy mothers, to see
that they and their children receive assistance, and to give them all
possible moral support.
Mme. Michel is putting in about eighteen hours' work a day in the
discharge of her duties. She is up at daylight, and after dealing with a
mass of correspondence, is out in her motor-car before seven o'clock, on
a round of the various _mairies_, to see that the permanent
maternity office, which it has been found necessary to start in every
one of these municipal centers, is doing its work properly.
At eleven o'clock she is back at the big house which is the official
residence of her husband, close to the Invalides, and is presiding over
a committee meeting. She lunches in about a quarter of an hour, and
plunges into more committee work, which usually lasts until well after
four o'clock.
The latter part of the afternoon is taken up in another tour of
inspection, dinner is a movable feast to be observed if there happens to
be time for it, and then there is another pile of letters and telegrams
a foot high to be gone through and answered; and so to bed, very late.
_Thursday, August 13._
Twelfth day of mobilization. Hot, sultry weather with faint
northeasterly wind. Thermometer at five P.M. 30 degrees centigrade.
Breakfasted to-day at the restaurant Paillard and met there M. Arthur
Meyer, M. Max-Lyon, Maître Charles Philippe of the French Bar, and Mr.
Slade, manager of the Paris branch of the Equitable Trust Company. War!
War! War! was the subject of the conversation, but no real news from the
front except of outpost fighting, with success for the French and the
Belgians. Gabriele d'Annunzio's flaming "Ode for the Latin
Resurrection," published to-day in the _Figaro_, is evidently
intended to excite Italians to seize an opportunity to abandon
neutrality and join France and the Allied Powers against Austria, and
thereby win back the "Italia Irredenta." D'Annunzio invokes the Austrian
oppression of bygone days in Mantua and Verona, calls Austria the
"double-headed Vulture," and summons all true Italians to take the
war-path of revenge. "Italy! Thine hour has struck for Barbarians call
thee to arms! _Vae Victis!_ Remember Mantua!"
After lunch I met Mrs. Edith Wharton, who had made some valuable mental
and written notes of what she has seen in Paris. She is about to leave
for England.
So sure were the Germans of advancing rapidly into France that they had
decided to complete their mobilization on French territory. According to
the _Figaro_, an Alsatian doctor, who came to France on the
outbreak of hostilities, had been ordered to join the German army at
Verdun on the third day of mobilization. A German tailor, living in
Paris, had instructions to join at Rheims on the thirteenth day.
Although the early closing hour of all cafés and restaurants causes some
inconvenience, it is being taken in good part by Parisians. It has not
the slightest effect on the habits of the city as far as keeping late
hours is concerned--no power on earth could make the Parisian go to bed
at nine o'clock.
People cannot spend their evenings in the cafés, so they spend them
either strolling or sitting about in the streets, smoking and chatting
for hours. But the new closing hour has had the effect expected by the
authorities. It has made Paris the most orderly city in the world. The
police are, however, kept very busy, for the regulation as to carrying
papers is being rigorously enforced, and the belated pedestrian is
invariably challenged by a cavalry patrol or by the ordinary police. If
his answers are unsatisfactory, he undergoes a more searching
examination at the police station.
Paris has become a paradise for cyclists. Owing to the lack of
transportation facilities, hundreds of Parisians have taken to using
bicycles as a practical mode of locomotion, and the city now swarms with
them. This state of things is not, however, likely to last very long,
for every day brings more vehicles back to the capital, and every day
brings a further step towards a more normal situation.
Some cars requisitioned will hardly be returned,--as is evidenced by
the experience of Mrs. Julia Newell and her sister, Miss Josephine
Pomeroy, two Americans just returned to Paris.
Before the war broke out, Miss Pomeroy left Frankfort by automobile, but
in passing through Metz her $5,000 Delaunay-Belleville machine was
confiscated by the Germans, and her footman and chauffeur, who were
Frenchmen, were put into prison. All her luggage was lost. No attention
was paid to her protests that she was an American citizen.
_Friday, August 14._
Thirteenth day of mobilization. Another hot, stifling day with
thermometer (centigrade) 31 degrees at five P.M.
Lunched at the Cercle Artistique et Litteraire, Rue Volney. Only the old
servants remain. The club is no longer open to non-member dinner guests.
The price of meals is reduced to three and a half francs for lunch, and
to four francs for dinner, including wine, mineral water, beer, or
cider. There is great scarcity of small change. To alleviate this, ivory
bridge or poker counters, marked fifty _centimes_, and one
_franc_, are given in change and circulate for payment of meals,
drinks, etc.
Greater military activity is noticed in the streets than for some days
past. Many movements of troops took place all day, and long convoys of
the ambulance corps, including several complete field hospital staffs,
were seen driving and marching through the city.
This was due to the fact that within the last few days large bodies of
the territorial forces had concentrated in the environs, notably at
Versailles, from whence they left for the front.
Early this morning certain districts of Paris literally swarmed with
soldiers of the territorial reserve.
Although most of them are married men and fathers, they display as fine
a spirit as their younger comrades. They may, perhaps, show less
enthusiasm, but that they are quite as calm is shown by the fact that a
number of them spent the last hours before their departure fishing in
the Ourcq Canal.
A detachment of naval reserves has been brought to Paris to assist the
police and the Municipal Guards in assuring order in the capital. The
men wear the uniform of _fusiliers marins_, and correspond to the
marines in the British navy. They will be placed under the orders of the
Prefect of Police.
Mr. A. Beaumont of the _Daily Telegraph_ has had a very narrow
escape from being shot as a spy. He is a naturalized American citizen,
but was born in Alsace. When the present war broke out, he started in a
motor-car to the front without the necessary passes and permits. He
circulated about and obtained good and useful news for his paper. The
other day, however, he was brought to a standstill in Belgium and was
arrested. The Belgian authorities asked at the French headquarters:
"What shall we do with him?" The reply was: "Send him on here to
headquarters, and if he proves to be a spy he will be court-martialed
and shot." This arose from the confusion of names. It seems that the
doings of a German spy named Brémont, of Alsatian birth, had become
known to the military authorities in France and Belgium. Beaumont
stoutly asserted that he was the victim of mistaken identity, and only
after very great difficulty, and with the exceptional efforts of Mr.
Herrick and of Sir Francis Bertie, the British Ambassador, was he able
to establish his true identity, when he was released by the French
Headquarter Staff, and handed over to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Arrivals of detachments of German prisoners continue to be reported from
various parts of France. A Prussian officer, speaking French fluently,
was among a convoy of prisoners at Versailles yesterday. The officer, on
seeing some French territorials march past, singing the "Marseillaise,"
remarked to his guard: "What a disillusion awaits us!"
_Saturday, August 15._
(_Feast of the Assumption._)
Fourteenth day of mobilization. Heavy thunder storms set in at three
A.M. Showers followed until one o'clock; cloudy afternoon with variable
wind. Thermometer at five P.M. 22 degrees centigrade.
Huge crowds lined the streets leading from the Gare du Nord to the
British Embassy, to welcome Field-marshal Sir John French, Commander of
the British expeditionary force, who came to visit President Poincaré
before taking command of his army. At quarter to one, three motor-cars
rapidly approached the Embassy. In the second I could get a glimpse of
Sir John in his gray-brown khaki uniform. His firm, trim appearance and
his clear blue eyes, genial smile, and sunburnt face made an excellent
impression, and he was greeted with loud cheers. He had a long talk with
M. Messimy, Minister of War.
I am having a very busy time trying to obtain permission for American
war correspondents to accompany the French armies in the field. Mr.
Richard Harding Davis and Mr. D. Gerald Morgan have arrived in London on
the _Lusitania_ from New York to act as war correspondents in the
field with the French forces. As president of the Association of the
Foreign Press, and as Paris correspondent of the _New York
Tribune_, I made special applications at the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and at the War Office for authority for them to act as war
correspondents for the _New York Tribune_. These applications were
endorsed by Ambassador Herrick, who also did everything possible to
secure permission for them to take the field.
The official regulations for war correspondents are much more severe,
however, than those enforced during the Japanese and Turkish wars. In
the first place, only Frenchmen and correspondents of one of the
belligerent nationalities, that is to say French, British, Russian,
Belgian, or Servian, are allowed to act as war correspondents. Frenchmen
may represent foreign papers. All despatches must be written in the
French language and must be sent by the military post, and only after
having been formally approved by the military censor. No despatches can
be sent by wire or by wireless telegraphy. No correspondent can
circulate in the zone of operations unless accompanied by an officer
especially designated for that purpose. All private as well as
professional correspondence must pass through the hands of the censor.
War correspondents of whatever nationality will, during their sojourn
with the army, be subject to martial law, and if they infringe
regulations by trying to communicate news not especially authorized by
the official censors, will be dealt with by the laws of espionage in war
time. These are merely a few among the many rigid prescriptions
governing war correspondents.
I talked with several editors of Paris papers on the subject, notably
with M. Arthur Meyer of the _Gaulois_, Marquis Robert de Flers of
the _Figaro_, and M. Georges Clemençeau of the _Homme Libre_.
They one and all expressed the opinion that war correspondents would
enjoy exceptional opportunities, enabling them to get mental snap-shots
of picturesque events and to acquire valuable first-hand information for
writing magazine articles or books, but that from a newspaper standpoint
there would be insurmountable difficulties preventing them from getting
their "news to market," that is to say, in getting their despatches on
the wires for their respective papers. However, Mr. Herrick is doing
everything he can to obtain all possible facilities for Mr. Davis and
for Mr. Morgan.
Almost every day brings some fresh measure in the interest of the
public. Yesterday the Prefect of Police issued an order forbidding the
sale of absinthe in the cafés under pain of immediate closure, and again
called the attention of motorists to the regulations which they are
daily breaking.
The sanitary authorities, too, have their hands full. So far, however,
the present circumstances have had no influence on the state of health
in Paris. The weekly bulletin published by the municipality shows that
the death and disease figures are quite normal.
Mr. Bernard J. Schoninger, chairman of the committee which has recently
been formed by the American Chamber of Commerce in Paris with the object
of settling difficult questions which may arise in Franco-American
commercial relations, states that his committee is collaborating with
the ladies' committee founded by the wife of the American Ambassador to
assist wounded soldiers. In a few days this committee collected one
hundred and seventy-five thousand francs. His own committee has issued
an appeal to all Chambers of Commerce in the United States, and he
trusts that considerable funds will be forthcoming for the ambulance
corps created under the auspices of the American Hospital in Paris. The
Minister for War has granted the use of the Lycée Pasteur, where it is
hoped to establish an ambulance of two hundred beds, which may later be
increased to one thousand.
The committee has also taken up the question of the payment of customs
duties on American imports into France, and Mr. Schoninger states that
he has met with the greatest kindness and that the French customs
authorities have agreed to accept guarantees from various commercial
syndicates instead of actual immediate cash payments. This will obviate
difficulties occasioned by the refusal of French banking establishments,
acting under the terms of the moratorium, in handing over funds which
they have on deposit.
_Sunday, August 16._
Fifteenth day of mobilization. Gray, cloudy day with occasional showers
and westerly wind. Thermometer at five P.M. 17 degrees centigrade.
I drove out in the Bois de Boulogne after lunch with the Duc de Loubat.
The Bois was rather deserted; only a few couples were strolling about or
seated on benches reading newspapers. Went to the Cercle des Patineurs,
where fences were being put up on the lawns to enclose sheep and oxen to
provision Paris. In the tennis court we saw about two hundred Kabyles
from Algeria, who had been found astray in Paris. They sleep on straw
beds in the tennis court and are provided with rations. They are all
men, and will be drafted into the Algerian reserves.
Madame Waddington, formerly Miss King of New York, and widow of the late
William Henry Waddington, senator, and member of several French
Cabinets, and one of the French delegates to the Berlin Conference in
1878, remains in Paris, and is stopping with her sister, Miss King, at
her apartment in the Rue de La Tremouille. Madame Waddington was a great
friend of the late King Edward VII, who never passed through Paris
without calling to see her and lunching with her and her family. Madame
Waddington, who is in excellent health and spirits, told me that the
feeling was so strong against the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador, Count
Szecsen de Temerin, during the last few days of his stay here after
hostilities had begun with Germany, that one evening, as he was about to
sit down to dinner with his fellow diplomatist, M. Alexandre Lahovary,
the Roumanian Minister, at the Cercle de l'Union, which is one of the
most select and restricted clubs of Paris, the secretary of the club
requested M. Lahovary to announce to the Austrian Ambassador that the
committee of the club expressed the wish that he should no longer take
his meals at the club nor appear on the premises, because his presence
under prevailing political conditions rendered the Austrian Ambassador
an "undesirable personage." The Austrian Ambassador, who had just
ordered an excellent bottle of Mouton Rothschild claret for his dinner,
at once left the club.
[Illustration: French Negro troops from Africa entraining in Paris.
Photo by Paul Thompson.]
Parisians flocked in thousands to-day to the basilica of the Sacre Coeur
of Montmartre, where special services were held. This church was planned
and built in expiation of the war of 1870. It was finished only a few
months ago, and was to have been definitely "inaugurated" next month.
A detachment of about four thousand men of the Naval Reserve, most of
whom are Bretons, is encamped to the north of Paris at Le Bourget, and
there have been stirring scenes in the little church there. It has been
crowded with sailors and soldiers at every service, for Bretons are
among the most religious of all peoples of France.
Abbé Marcadé, the curé of Le Bourget, has had magnificent congregations.
On the Feast of the Assumption the Abbé decided to hold Mass in the open
air. An altar was accordingly set up in a large field beside a haystack.
Thirty-five hundred soldiers attended. At the end, the Abbé, standing on
a table, preached a sermon in the falling rain.
These military services at Le Bourget have been strikingly picturesque.
The Abbé's sermons are interrupted from time to time by cheers, as if he
were making a political speech. His words on patriotism and soldiers'
duty have been greeted with shouts of "Vive la France." Loudest of all
was the applause when he declared that feelings of party were now
drowned in love for the country. In the evening, after the service at
which this sermon was preached, the Abbé dined with the officers of the
regiment and with the socialist mayor of the commune, a thing which
would have been impossible in ordinary times. The war has made Frenchmen
stand together in closer unity than they have ever done before.
One of the strangest changes brought about by the war is that of the
fashionable race-courses of Auteuil and Longchamp. These have been
turned into large grazing farms for sheep and cattle requisitioned by
the military authorities. Another curious requisition is that of all
French military uniforms in the wardrobes of the Paris theaters.
Mobilization orders to rejoin his regiment at Rheims on August 7 have
been found in the possession of a wounded German soldier in hospital at
Brussels. The man stated that several of his comrades had received
orders to join the colors at other French towns on specified dates. This
shows how the German plans were upset by the resistance at Liége.
Field-marshal Sir John French slept at the British Embassy last night,
and after a rousing reception left Paris at seven o'clock this morning
in an automobile for an "unknown destination."
Every man in France is envying the young dragoon officer, Lieutenant
Bruyant, who has been given the first Cross of the Legion of Honor in
the war. The lieutenant with six men was scouting near the frontier,
when suddenly he saw a number of horsemen moving a good way off, and
made them out to be a patrol of twenty-seven Uhlans. Shots were
exchanged and a German fell. Then the Uhlans cantered away. They were
four to one, but did not care to fight.