Meanwhile the students, having dined, began to gamble, and several made
preparations to spend the night in the Legation. They were, however,
expelled by the police.
At the meeting of the women's auxiliary of the American Ambulance at the
Embassy this afternoon, many details in connection with the
establishment and maintenance of the hospital in the Lycée Pasteur were
discussed.
A committee was appointed for the special purpose of supplying with
clothing such wounded soldiers as may be brought to the hospital.
It was announced that Miss Matthews will succeed Miss Cameron as the
chairman of the sewing committee, the latter having been called to
America by her brother's illness.
Mrs. W.K. Vanderbilt has offered to contribute many articles needed in
the installation of the hospital, particularly such things as window
curtains and other furnishings designed to make the institution as
comfortable as possible for the sufferers.
For just four weeks now the American Government has been advancing money
to citizens in need of it at the Embassy, and still the stream of
applicants continues in about the same proportions as ever.
The undiminishing demand for funds is due largely to the fact that there
are new arrivals in the city every day, but Major Cosby, who is in
charge of the distribution of the money, believes that with the
departure of the _Rochambeau_ and the _Flandre_ there will
come a gradually lessening demand for assistance.
So far about five hundred persons have received money, and the total
paid out for the four weeks is 62,100 francs. This represents about one
hundred and twenty-five francs, or twenty-five dollars, apiece.
In addition to the Government fund, which is paid only to persons who
accept it as a loan, about twenty-seven thousand francs, raised here in
Paris, has been given outright to persons who for various reasons could
not be assisted out of the Government fund.
Captain Brinton has also paid out from sixty to seventy thousand dollars
to various persons upon cable orders from the Department of State in
Washington. This represents a purely business transaction, as the money
has first been deposited with the Government by friends in the United
States. It has, however, been an exceedingly practical means of helping
persons who otherwise might have had to fall back on the relief funds.
_Sunday, August 30._
Twenty-eighth day of the war. Sunny, but sultry, August Sunday. Light
northerly breeze, thermometer at five P.M. 26 degrees centigrade.
No let-up in the fighting. The Germans continue with wonderful tenacity
their favorite tactics of rolling up their forces on their right, and
then enveloping and striving to turn the Anglo-French left. The French
left, as officially announced at the War Office, has been forced to
yield ground. But the result of the gigantic battle in the department of
the Aisne near La Fère, Guise, and Laon, on the road to Paris, still
hangs in the balance.
It seems pretty certain that the French armies were concentrated too far
to the east. The temptation to enter Alsace, where strong force is
needless, was too great for the then war minister, M. Messimy, to
withstand. France is paying for this now. For over twenty years it was
an open secret among military authorities that the main German attack
upon France would burst in through Belgium and the northern departments
of France, which seem to have been left without adequate fortifications.
Here is France's vulnerable point. For France to be now outnumbered in
this theater of the war is strong evidence of her also being
out-generaled. While the French have wasted needless troops in futile
excursions beyond the Vosges and in the Ardennes, they seem to have been
blind to the tremendous concentration of German fighting strength in the
north. Had it not been for the solid, heroic resistance of the British
army under Field-marshal Sir John French, on the extreme French left at
Mons and Cambrai, it is very likely that the French would have sustained
a crushing defeat. That the French should be outnumbered on the lines
near La Fère seems incomprehensible and requires satisfactory
explanation from the Ministry of War. Further proof of this primary
fault is forthcoming in the proclamation issued to-day, calling to the
colors the 1914 class, some two hundred and fifty thousand young men of
twenty, due to join the army in October. Moreover, those classes of the
reserves of the territorial army called up when the general mobilization
order was issued and for some unaccountable reason _actually sent home
again_, have also been recalled.
[Photograph: Copyright by American Press Association. Parisians watching
the German air-craft that drop bombs on the city.]
In broad daylight, at 1.15 this afternoon, the Germans left their first
visiting-card in Paris. This came in the shape of three bombs dropped
from a German aeroplane, that made a curved flight over the city at an
altitude of two thousand meters. The first bomb fell at the corner of
the Rue des Vinaigriers and the Rue du Marais, another in the Rue des
Récollets, and a third near an asylum for aged workmen on the Quai
Valmy. The airman also let fall an oriflamme, two and a half meters
long, bearing the black and white Prussian colors, ballasted by sand in
an india-rubber football, attached to which was a letter, written in
German, which ran as follows: "The German Army is at the gates of Paris.
The only thing left for you to do is to surrender! (Signed) LIEUTENANT
VON HEIDSSEN."
The first bomb wounded two women, one of whom died of her injuries at
the hospital shortly afterwards. She was concierge of the house Number
39 Rue des Vinaigriers. No other damage was done. There were thousands
of Parisians promenading the streets at the time. The news spread like
wild-fire, but no panic, nor even undue excitement, ensued; the people
of Paris are totally different to-day from what they were in 1870. Of
course the intention of these aeroplane bomb-throwers, of whose exploits
we shall probably hear a great deal, was to create a panic and
demoralize the inhabitants, and especially to terrify women and
children. This utterly failed. After dropping the three bombs and his
_carte de visite_, the German aeroplane vanished towards the east.
It seems strange that the flotillas of air-craft at Buc were thus caught
napping and allowed the German air-lieutenant to escape.
I called in the afternoon upon Madame Waddington and her sister, Miss
King. Madame Waddington was anxious about her grandchildren, who are at
their country place not far from Laon, where the battle is now raging.
Madame Waddington says that Mr. Herrick, whom she saw this morning, told
her that if worse came to the worst, the seat of government would
probably be transferred to Bordeaux.
A large sum in gold coin, it is said, has been taken from the vaults of
the Bank of France and sent to Rennes. Sharp comment is elicited by an
incident at the Travellers Club, a somewhat select resort of Americans,
English, and other foreigners, in the former hotel of the famous beauty
of the Second Empire, Madame de Paíva, in the Champs-Elysées. It appears
that a wealthy and prominent German by birth, but naturalized American,
Mr. X., casually remarked one day at the club that he did not intend to
trouble himself to get a _permis de séjour_ (permission to reside
in Paris), because "when the German troops arrived in the capital, these
papers would no longer be needed." Mr. X. was told that if he persisted
in expressing such views, offensive to the members of the club and to
the hospitable city in which the club was situated, his resignation
would be forthwith accepted by the house committee. Mr. X. paid no
attention to the warning, but when next he entered the club--a few days
after the incident--he was informed that his name had been stricken from
the list of members.
M. Adrien Mithouard, President of the Municipal Council, states that
arrangements were made months ago to store a large quantity of flour in
the city, so as to provide the civilian inhabitants with bread. This
flour is in the hands of the military authorities, who have a
considerably larger supply than was originally intended, and are still
adding to it.
There will be no lack of coal. The army has accumulated enormous
quantities, and the Gas Company has enough coal for five months. M.
Mithouard also says he recently made a personal investigation of the
water supply, and found that, even if the aqueducts were cut, the city
would have two hundred and sixty thousand cubic meters of filtered water
available every day from the Ivry and Saint-Maur waterworks; and even
without these, Paris could still have two hundred and sixty thousand
cubic meters a day chemically purified.
The Municipal Council has also approved a proposal to buy up certain
provisions to be added to the necessaries of life for the civilian
population.
M. Georges Clemençeau, the "parliamentary tiger," who, although
remaining outside the Cabinet, is one of the greatest personal forces of
France, has made a stirring statement to Mr. Somerville Story, editor of
the _Daily Mail_. M. Clemençeau said:
"Yes, their guns are almost within sound of Paris. And what if they are?
What if we were yet to be defeated again and again? We should still go
on. Let them burn Paris if they can. Let them wipe it out, raze it to
the level of the ground. We shall still fight on.
"This is not my personal resolve alone. The Government, too, is just as
grimly determined. Do you know, it is strange that one should have been
able to come to feel like this, but the Germans could destroy all these
beautiful places that I love so much; they may blow up the museums,
overthrow monuments--it would only leave me still determined to fight
on.
"France may disappear, if you like. It may be called Frankreich, if you
like. We may be driven back to the very Pyrenees. It will not abate one
fraction our vigor and our decision.
"And in this terrible war we must all realize how unutterably great are
the stakes. It is we in France and our friends in Belgium who are doomed
to suffer the most bitterly. England will be spared much that we must
endure. But we must all make sacrifices almost beyond reckoning. We are
fighting for the dignity of humanity. We are fighting for the right of
civilization to continue to exist. We are fighting so that nations may
continue to live in Europe without being under the heel of another
nation. It is a great cause; it is worthy of great sacrifices.
"I say this to convince you of the unbreakable spirit of the French
nation.
"But the situation is not yet so grave. We knew our frontier would be
invaded somewhere. We have many troops in reserve for the big battle
that will follow this one.
"The Germans cannot besiege or invest Paris. Its size is too vast. Its
defence will be assisted by the armies now fighting on the Oise, seventy
miles away.
"The fortifications of Paris are by no means the feeble things they were
in 1870. From the Eiffel Tower we can control the movements in
co-operation with our armies in the provinces of France.
"The situation is in no way desperate, although the Germans have invaded
France. France will fight on and on until this attempt to establish
tyranny in Europe is overthrown."
[Photograph: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N.Y. Eiffel Tower's
searchlight, to reveal bomb-throwing air craft and air-scouts of the
Germans.]
_Monday, August 31._
Twenty-ninth day of the war. Hot, somewhat hazy, summer weather, with
faint northerly wind. Thermometer at five P.M. 27 degrees centigrade.
Kaiser William, who it appears was on the field during the battle of
Charleroi, is pressing forward in hot haste, regardless of consequences,
on the road to Paris, close behind the steel-tipped élite of his vast
armies, consisting of the Royal Prussian Guard Corps and the famous
Third Army Corps. To-morrow will be the anniversary of the Battle of
Sedan. The "Mailed Fist" is doing his best to celebrate it by leading
his legions to Paris. It is daredevil desperation that spurs him on, for
nowhere, as yet, have the Franco-British armies been broken through, and
they continue to present successive stone walls to the Teuton invasion,
and oppose every inch of ground with dogged tenacity. The allied left
wing has been forced--always by the traditional enveloping tactics on
their right--to retreat, but they do so sullenly and in good order,
making the Germans pay dearly for every step gained. The battle is
raging continuously, and much depends upon which side first receives
strong reënforcements to fill up the gaps made by tremendous losses. The
Russian advance in East Prussia, according to accounts from Brussels,
has already forced the Germans to send back to Berlin from their center
at least one army corps.
There is hurry and skurry all day long among Parisians and foreign
residents to get away from Paris to more peaceful towns in the south and
west. The railway stations are so crowded that it is almost impossible,
at the Gare of Saint-Lazare or at the Quai d'Orsay to get anywhere near
the booking office. Motor-cabs are being hired at extravagant prices to
convey families to Tours, Orléans, Le Mans, or Bordeaux. The bearing of
the public however by no means resembles that of "nerves," and less
still a panic.
[Illustration: Copyright by International News Service. Wounded French
soldiers returning to Paris with trophies from the battlefields.]
I lunched to-day with Mr. Hulme Beaman, correspondent of the _London
Standard_, and his charming wife, who live just across the way from
me, in the Boulevard de Courcelles. Mr. Beaman passed Sunday at Poissy,
where he usually goes fishing for gudgeon. At Achères, the junction of
the lines from Picardy and Belgium, he saw train after train filled with
wounded French soldiers, who seemed in good spirits and who, in spite of
their suffering, were burning to get back again to the front.
Another German air-lieutenant made a flight over Paris this afternoon
and dropped two bombs near the Notre Dame Cathedral, but caused no
damage; one of the projectiles fell into the Seine. The airman also
tossed into Paris a German flag, to which was tied a postal card calling
upon Paris to surrender. Groups watched the aeroplane, which never came
lower than fifteen hundred meters, and women and children seemed rather
amused at the sight.
A fugitive from Belgium, who was at Louvain shortly before the wilful
destruction of the once beautiful university town, tells a curious story
of a Dutchman who had a thrilling escape on the arrival of the Germans.
He rushed for the Dutch flag, which, in his nervousness, he hoisted
outside his door upside down. This then represented the French flag, and
the Dutchman, who spoke no German, was immediately seized by the enemy
and ordered to be shot. He was placed upright against a wall and was
about to be riddled with bullets when his employer rushed up and told
the Germans that they were going to shoot a Dutchman, which saved his
life.
General Galliéni, Governor of Paris, has issued a decree prohibiting
newspapers to publish "spread-head" lines extending over two columns in
width. The news vendors are not allowed to shout out the news, or even
the names of the papers on the streets. The type of headlines must not
be of alarming size. In fact, a worldwide war was required to check the
march of the sensational Paris "yellow" press.
The Minister of War has suppressed _sauf-conduits_ for travelers
leaving Paris by rail, but they must be provided with proper
identification papers. The _laisser-passer_, delivered by the
Prefecture of Police, is still required however for all who leave Paris
by automobile.
The American committee, in a circular to Americans, signed by Judge
Elbert H. Gary, chairman, and H. Herman Harjes, secretary, gives a
warning against sensational reports about the "imminent occupation" of
the city by the Germans, but expresses the opinion that "it would be
wise for Americans who cannot be of special service during the war, or
who are not required to remain by their business or professional
interests, to leave the city in an orderly and quiet way, whenever
reasonable opportunity is offered."
_Tuesday, September 1._
Thirtieth day of the war, and forty-fourth anniversary of the Battle of
Sedan. Oppressive sultry weather, with northeasterly wind. Thermometer
at five P.M. 23 degrees centigrade.
The War Office _communiqué_ to-night states that: "on our left
wing, in consequence of the enveloping movement of the Germans and with
the object of not entering into a decisive action under bad conditions,
our troops have fallen back, some towards the south and others towards
the southwest. The action which took place in the district of Rethel has
enabled our forces to stop the enemy for the time being. In the center
and on the right (Woëvre, Lorraine, and the Vosges), there is no change
in the situation."
This means that Emperor William is hacking his way still nearer to
Paris. The failure however to realize his boast that he would celebrate
the anniversary of Sedan by appearing within striking distance of the
French capital may indicate that the turning point of this phase of the
war is near at hand.
The allied troops north of Paris have established themselves in a
fighting position more favorable than that into which an attempt was
made to draw them. The dam still holds good, and breaches are being
repaired.
The people of Paris are quite calm, in spite of false rumors and of
pyrotechnics aloft executed by the German _taubes_.
At quarter past five this afternoon, I was walking across the Place de
la Bourse to file a cable message to the _New York Tribune_. I
heard a loud explosion, followed by clashing of broken glass. A
projectile had fallen a hundred yards distant and hit the top of a house
in the Rue de Hanovre. The _pompiers_ were on the spot within three
minutes, having been summoned by the fire-alarm box near the Bourse. No
serious damage was done, but little lead pellets were found in
profusion. When I heard the explosion, I looked up and saw an aeroplane
at an altitude of about fourteen hundred meters vanishing towards the
northeast. It was pale yellow, and white near the after part. It was a
German _taube_. A sand-bag with a German Uhlan's pennant was
dropped, bearing a card reminding Parisians that it was "the anniversary
of Sedan, that they would soon be obliged to surrender the city, and
that the Russians had been crushed on the Prussian frontier." Another
bomb had been dropped on the roof of Number 29 Rue du Mail and broke
into an empty room, but did not explode. A third bomb fell on a
schoolhouse in the Rue Colbert; ricochetting off the wall, it fell into
a courtyard, where it exploded and made a hole in the ground. Other
bombs were dropped in the Rue de Londres and in the Rue de la Condamine;
the last one injured a woman and a little girl, who were hit in the
chest and head by fragments of the projectile. As the _taube_
passed over the Pépinière barracks, and the Place de l'Opéra, at an
altitude of perhaps twelve hundred meters, some soldiers fired at it
with their rifles, but without effect. The German air-lieutenants have
so far avoided the Eiffel Tower, where machine guns are placed.
The War Office announces that a flotilla of armored aeroplanes provided
with machine guns has been organized to attack the German aeroplanes
that fly over Paris. Spectacular sights are thus in store for us.
[Photograph: Photo. Henri Manuel, Paris. 29th Infantry Reserves, Army
of the Defence of Paris.]
The American committee, constituted by the American Ambassador and
including some of the most eminent Americans residing in Paris on the
day of the declaration of war, has requested the Minister of War to
supply it with formal proofs of the fact that the bombs which have
fallen in Paris were thrown from a German aeroplane.
M. Millerand, in response to this request, has submitted to the American
Ambassador and two delegates from the committee the complete "dossier."
The Ambassador, after having examined the evidence submitted to him, and
to the members of the committee, decided to cable a report to his
Government concerning these methods of warfare, which are not only acts
against humanity, but, further, are in absolute violation of The Hague
Convention, signed by Germany herself.
The committee has also decided to ask the American Government, while
remaining loyal to its declaration of neutrality, to make a strong
protest to the German Government.
The Minister of War has issued a decree calling up territorial
reservists of all classes in the north and northeastern districts of
France, not yet with the colors.
The French "left wing," which, as foreseen more than twenty years ago,
must be the vulnerable spot in the defence of Paris, will very likely be
forced to retire still nearer to the capital. In that case, a battle
would be likely under the shelter of the Paris forts, which encircle the
city at from thirty to forty kilometers from the Notre Dame. This belt
of forts, connected by three lines of formidable entrenchments and rifle
pits, now being dug, not only by the troops, but by thousands of Paris
workmen out of regular employment, make a circumference of two hundred
kilometers, or about one hundred and twenty-five miles. This line of
defence would protect Paris and also a field army with all its own
resources, and probably make it impossible for the Germans to completely
invest the city, as they did in 1870. Meanwhile the allied armies
outside of Paris would be able to keep the rest of the German armies
"busy," and threaten the long line of German communications. Paris would
thus be able to hold out for a long time. The Germans would obtain food
supplies from the rich country that they occupy, but their supplies of
ammunition, and of men to fill gaps in the fighting units of the first
line, must become precarious. Meanwhile the Russian "steam-roller" is
moving towards Berlin.
At six o'clock this evening the following decree was issued by the
Prefecture of Police:
"By order of the Military Governor of Paris, no civilian automobile
carriage will be allowed to leave Paris from today. This order has
been immediately enforced."
Streams of people from the regions to the north of Paris within the
sphere of the German operations are swarming into Paris, bringing their
belongings with them. I saw a train pull slowly into the Gare du Nord
laden with about fifteen hundred peasants--old men, women,
children--encumbered with bags, boxes, bundles, fowls, and provisions of
various kinds. The station is strewn with straw, on which country folk
fleeing from the Germans are soundly sleeping for the first time in many
days. These refugees are being shunted on to the _chemin de fer de la
ceinture_ and proceed around the city to other stations, from which
they are transported towards the south.
Tens of thousands of Parisians throng the railway stations, seeking
their turn to buy tickets to points outside the city. At the Gare de
Lyon, Montparnasse, d'Orsay, d'Orléans, people are standing in lines ten
abreast and a quarter of a mile in length, waiting for hours and hours
to book for Bordeaux, Biarritz, Brest, Rennes, or Nantes. Some of these
people have waited from seven in the morning until three in the
afternoon to obtain tickets.
If matters get worse, President Poincaré and the Ministry will establish
themselves at Bordeaux. Ambassador Herrick intends to remain in Paris,
as Minister Elihu Washburne did in 1870. He will delegate a secretary to
represent the United States Embassy at the seat of government. Perhaps
Mr. Sharp, the newly appointed Ambassador, might be utilized for this
purpose.
A convoy of one hundred and forty British soldiers, wounded in the
recent fighting in the Aisne Department, arrived at nine o'clock this
morning at the Gare du Nord.
Most of them were shot in the legs and arms, but in spite of their
sufferings, none of them showed the least sign of being broken in
spirit. As they were transported from the train, there were touching
demonstrations of sympathy from the crowd, which the wounded men
acknowledged to the best of their ability.