Evening Star Newspaper, July 16, 1898, Page 18

CHAPTER XXUT. Ashes of Empire. From the first of November the situation in Parts became more alarming day by day. During the beginning of the siege ¢he fear of bombardment had driven people to hang cut ambvlance flags or hoist the colors of ns over their houses, hoping rman cannon might spare build- Over the dismal freez- thousands of dingy, tattered mere rags for the most part, still din the November wind, although bitants of the wretched city began gard the Prussian siege guns as myths. all the weeks of fighting that had passed ered into Versail- ie cannon shot from the Prus- ad. been fired against the city. »ple no longer believed in the j Prussian cannon. so protected. ing streets flags, days of November s of Paris some- g mysterious, intangi- It was reflected in ed faces of the peopie; it | holiow eyes of the soidiers— the cold gray waters sad twilight of the n the brooding November not fear, it was not despsir; pair. no longer frequent- vital sparks of life to eet, were now closed at the closing of the ca’es gn of animation le! the streeis, o'clock the city lay in darkness, dark figures on the icy ram- red to watch the flash of some the far flare of tne shell, the great gun, monotonous rockets climbing to the zenith from the forts of the But the sickly light of dawn now fell on crowded streets instead of empty ones, for everywhere at the doors of butcher stalls lines of women stood, card in to draw their meager rations south. flesh. were few cabs and fewer omni- t y; the government need- r artillery and cavalry; the peo- Factories had closed ev- where the Cail steel worss | out cannon. Most of the 28 stood silent and empty. station, however, served for facture. > the last gas jets were cut off Idings lighted with candies these gave out r, the Nationai rm police du- communication with the wh a rare spy eva by balloons and . Sent from the | a few pigeons sieged city, but were lost A number, hi rn provinces, Dg prodigtes- asionally neements arms in the al of the walls of Paris. e What heights of hs of despair marked its the starving vuth for the n the filthy streets sick Children listened Rumors grew the Loire had ad been heard in suth; its rockets signaled from the east! Then the choed with din of gallop- 3n columns of cavalry r of infantry with the heing and up the burden from ad from Romainville ble Crown. cam) the ambu- ading the froz nd. And thi n loads of ¢ mping through 1 looking on, 4 misery, yet jer sortie when the dull gov- sould stir from the shadow hainted chamber. ¢ the rations of hors: meat the n i aa ernor of Pari r to ty grammes White bread had ther? was no floyr left. A iry morse: of black bread was ra- tioned daly to the people, scarcely enough to sustain life until the dawn of another day brought another crust. The newspapers published schedules of prices from week to week; the poor, shiver- ing in the bitter November dawn, st#od hour after hour, ragged, sick, ankle desp in slush, patiently awaiting their rations of ean horseflesh, and reading the weekly les to pass the time. Francs. lesh (per kilo) 8 flesh (per kilo) an < ing of warm fires d and the mercy of God. he rest | on in silence; the shivering line closed the next old woman hobbled away with her food, mumbling and mutter- ing of battles to coms and the honor of France. There was no fuel for the poor; mothers burned their furniture to ‘save thelr babies from freezing; the greén wood from the Eois de Boulogne and the forest of Vincennes gave out little heat and a great deal of smoke for those who could afford to buy it. Bands of rufans sacked vernment woodyards at night, ‘scarce- % before the bayonets of the Na- ai Guard, troops of gamins hunted the s¢wer holes rats, or watched the gar- Gens of the rich for the gaunt cats that had almost disappeared from the famine- stricken city. The animals in the zoological gardens, with the exception of the lions and tigers, were killed and eaten one by one, their bones boiled for broth, even their skin scraped and steeped to gather the last shred of nourishment. Yet. in the frightfully stricken city no- bedy spoke of surrender—unless it were M. Renan, dining comfortably at his cafe, where, napkin in hand, he could discuss human brotherhocd and the wickedness of e he left resistance—wh. hands and could wipe his fat pS and button his great coat, nd go out into the desolate streets to pon- on his dexterity in hair-splitting de- copvact 098 oe is the creature who besmirches the mother- land in evil days and days of need—al- though that motherland be less sinned against than sinning. CHAPTER XXIV. In Hilde’s Chamber. When Hilde was carried to the house on the ramparts, unconsciousness had already succeeded her brief delirium. Yolette’s first transports at sight of Hilde and Bourke were followed by days of terror and egonies of doubt. Hilde was very ill, so ill that Bourke brought a Sister of Mercy to the house in the first days of November, and spent his money, almost to the last franc, for the necessaries that meant, per- haps, life to Hilde. But now the good Sister of Mercy had gone to the hospitals again, and Yolette sat all day long at Hilde’s bedside, watch- ing her sister grow better and stronger. The scar on her forehead healed, promis- ing to show, however, as a tiny white cres- cent; the reaction from the horror of that October night left nothing of nervousness or fear behind. As she grew stronger her beauty, too, returned; the hollows in temple and cheek appeared, the scarlet came back.to her lips, exquisite whiteness to neck and brow. But in the dark eyes Bourke saw the the last sparkle of child- hcod had died out forever; only the sad- ness of woman remained—the tenderness, the wistfulness, the sweetness of a woman who loves, who fears and who waits. When, In the last weeks of November, she was well enough, she told Bourke how Speyer and his carbineers had forced her into an ambulance, how they had traversed the istracted city, how Flourens had met Speyer and his detachment and had or- dered him to place Hilde and Red Riding Hood in the fortified church, where already a dozen frightened gray nuns had been im- prisoned. What fate Flourens desfgned for the gray nuns Bourke could not conjecture; what fate had been reserved for Hilde he dared rot imagine. He told her nothing of the murder of Speyer except that he was dead; he er spoke of the fate of Mon Oncle or of , nor did she ever mention it, al- though both Hilde and Red Riding Hood had seen the Killing of those eminent ruf- flans. Bourke read in the-newspapers that the government troops were hunting for Flourens and Buckhurst, and that for the moment the carbineers had slunk off and mixed in with their equally ferocious fellow citizens of Belleville. The Undertakers’ Club, however, cortinued, and, as this was really the head and heart of Flourens’ bat- talions of bandits, and the government weakly permitted its doors to remain open, it was clearly only a question of time when Flourens and his carbineers should once more reappear on the scene and raise the red flag of revolt. Buckhurst, it was known, in company with a creature named Sapia and the veteran Blanqui, was al- ready deep in a mysterious secret society that pretended to represent the entire na- tional guard, and calied itself the central committee. Naturally, it was a revolution- ary group, an obscure band of cutthroats, who sat like buzzards watching the agon- ized city until their moment should arrive to fatten on {ts ruins. When, in the carly days of October, Bourke’s fcresight had provided tins of pre- served meat and vegetables as a reserve in time of famine, Hilde and Yolette had jaughed at such precautions. But now these canz and tins of provisions had be- come the only food of the little household. Even while Hilde was ill Yolette obstinate- ly refused to take a of the delicacies pro- vided by Bourke. The marauding carbin- eers had only begun to loot the cellar when the news of their defeat at the Hotel-de- Ville sent them packing, therefore the pro- visions remained practically untouched up to the day when Bourke refused to renew the government card that entitled the little household to rations or horseflesh and black bread for three adults and a child. Yolette baked little biscuits in the kitchen. Red Riding Hood made soup. And now that Hilde was well enough to come down stairs, they had dinner in the dining room again, where, from their store of fuel, a good fire burned in the grate, and a@ candle sent its cheerful yellow rays into the chill of the black hallway. The shadow that fell on the house did not come from the battle clouds gathering swiftly in the south, nor from the sleet, the bitter cold, the rain, nor yet from the spectacle of the ndid, desolate city, naked and famished, and diseased. There was something else that touched Hilde’s face with the sub- tle pallor, that made her silence heart- breaking and her forced smiles terrible. knew. At such moments he would ‘You see, Hilde, my theory is thi: Jim, finding that Le Bourget was threa ened, struck out for himself, and wriggled through the Prusssian lines, somewhere be- tween the Fort de la Briche and St. Deni: That's what I would have done myself, lit- tle sister.” Then he would bring his map and stick pins all over it and talk very cheerfully until Hilae, lying in her armchair, turned her head away to conceal the tears that RITTEN FOR, 1& EVENING STAR. YY. ROBT W-CHAMBERS: came. At such moments, too, Yolette would read aloud from Hugo, and her clear young voice, pronouncing the superb lines “Upon Us Have Pity.” of Les Chatiments, sent the blood tinglin: to Bourke’s cheeks. And then tne ‘Geep strong love in her blue eyes when she raised them to meet the eyes of the man who worshiped her. The room would be- come very still—Hilde, resting motionless among her shawls and cushions, eyes closed, sometimes heard the rustle of Yo- lette’s dress, the light footfall, the breath- less whisper, scarcely audib! love you, Cecil." But it was on Hilde’s eyes that Yo- lette’s kiss always fell. As for Bourke, he hoped against hope. He knew what ‘the others did not know—he knew that Hare wood had remained in Le Bourget at least during the first assault, for the soldier had brought him Harewood's letter, and he had not dared to show it to Hilde or to Yolett: because it had beeen delivered three days after the fall of Le Bourget. At night he could not sleep for thinking how Hare- wood might have falllen a victim to his rashness. Often hot anger succeeded un- easy foreboding—anger that Harewood should have dared risk death whe the ties of honor and manhoood he was bound to Hilde until he had fulfilled his duty to her, to Yolette, to Bourke. Often his face would harden as he thought of all that Harewood had prom- ised, all that he had not fulfilled, of the d the degeneracy of his native , God help such as he—in France in the western world—abroad and at home. For the foulest thing that creeps on earth wrong he had wrought, of the debt he had incurrred that should be paid one day or the next, on earth or in the life to come. Again and again he thought of Hilde's "HE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, JULY 16, 1898-24 PAGES, words, uttered in delirium, and strove to believe that there had beeen nothing in them, nothing except the innocent babble of a sick child. But their significance, ter- rible in its simplicity, appailed him; he thanked God that Yolette had been spared that; he remembered that Hilde herself was unaware of having spoken. At mo- ments he almost wished Harewood dead. What was life worth to such a man or to his friends? What did love or honor mean to him? The demon of selfishness ha taken possession of him. Selfish he ha lived; his death, if death had overtaken him, was but the last whim of his selfish- ness, self-satisfaction at the expense of honor, a reckless risk of self, heediess of the most solemn duty he owed to Hilde, which was to live, merely to live, until he had a moral right to die. “Let him die,” thought Bourke; “it will be better for her perhaps, whatever be the verdict of church or state—better for her, if the blow does not kill her.” He could say this, almost aloud, as he lay in his dark room at night. and yet, often starting awake from dreams of his comrade, he would sit up praying, for he often prayed, that Harewood, his friend, might return. The month of November passed in an al- most constant downpour, sometimes rain, sometimes snow, more often driving sleet or flerce icy storms, where sheets of fine frogen dust drove through winds so bitter BOURKE BROUGHT A SISTER thought, Hilde, shivering in her chilly bed, listened to the childish voice: “Upon usjha pity, upon our land of France, upofi our city, upon our soldiers, pity, intercede for papa, who is dead, for Gen. Trocht’ and Gen. Bourbaki and Gen. Chanzy, and the y_of the Loire.” “Amen,” Whi Hilde. The child rose from her knees. Hilde drew her into the bed and warme@ the cold little body against her own. The cannonade grew louder. Toward midnight all the southern and eastern forts were firing. An hour later the batteries at the Point-du-Jour joined in, swelling the majestic volume of the cannonade until the floors of the house seemed to sway and tremble in the splen- did rhythm of the deep thunder. ‘Can you nbdt sleep asked the child. 'No,” said Hilde. “After a silence the child spoke again. “Mile. Hildé.” ‘Yes, little one.” ‘ “Was it Our Lady of Paris who gathered the cannon balls in her veil of lace when they fired at, the city hundreds and hun- dreds of years ago?” “I don’t know,” sald Hilde, faintly. Presently the child said: “I should like to hear about St. Genevieve and about St. Hilde of Carhaix.” “Can you not sleep, Red Riding Hood?” “Yes; but you have tears on your face.” “They are often there now, little one.” “Since he went away, Mile. Hilde?” “Since he went away.” The child's arms sought Hilde’s neck. Their faces touched now. “Hear the cannon,” whispefed the child. “They are very loud tonight. Do you think our Lord Jesus is jistening to the cannon?” Hilde did not reply. The child spoke again, as though to herself. z “He is somewhere up there near the stars, you know. The cannon cannot hurt Him. He ts sorry for us when we are cold and when the Prussians shoot our fathers. When we sin He is sorry, for we go to hell—unless—unless—"" “Hush!” murmured Hilde. “Sleep, little one.” The child whimpered. “Mile. Hiide, I cannot sleep, because you are cryin “Hush!” said Hilde. are sometimes’ pardoned.” “Have you sinned?” asked the child, in- nocently. “St. Hilde of Carhaix, witness for me! 1 hose who weep OF HE aRCY TO HOUSE. that sentries frozo at their posts and every dawn broke on such scenes of suffering among the ragged troops beyond the en- ceinte that the newspapers scarcely dared record the details. Combat after combat was delivered under the walls of Paris, but it was not until the end of the month that the great series of battles began along the Marne, c ating in the frightful slaughter at C pigny—a victory for France perhaps, be- cause the Germans had failed to hurl Du- crot’s troops across the Marne and destroy the bridges—but the victory was a sterile one, and the iaurels fell on heads too w with sickness and starvation to bear the weight of even withered wreaths. Then, on December 5, came the news that Orleans had fallen and the army of the Loire was destroyed—news sent by let- ter, under a flag of truce from Moltke—a grim letter, devilish in its courtesy: “Versailles, December 5, “It might be useful to inform cellency (General Trochu) that the « the Loire has been defeated near Orleans and that that city has been reoccupied by German troops. : “If, nevertheless, your excellency judges {t advisable to convince yourself by one of your officers, 1 will not fail to furnish him with a safe conduct to go there and return. “Permit me, general, to express the high consideration with which I have the honor to be your very humble and very obedient servant. (Signed) “The Chief of the General Staff, “Count yon Moltke.” The news stunned the people; at first no- body credited it. The governor began os- tentatious preparations for another sortie, alas! against the very village he had abandoned when it was in his own hands— Le Bourget. But it mie not until the end of December that he was ready to begin, and then the cold became so frightful that 900 men froze on a single night in the trenches, and dur- ing the last ten days of the month 20,000 soldiers were carried to the hospitals. The attack on Le Bourget was abandoned. The moral and material sufferings of the miserable people of Paris were terrible be- yond description. The ‘mortality among children reached a figure that seemed un- 2,000 in a single week. There wa no milk for them, they could not swal- low the black bread, the flesh of horses and mules, so they died, some from fevers, many from the cold, many from starvation. In December, toward Christmas time, the first signs of discouragement appeared among the people. Deluged with false dis- patches, manufactured by the wholesale and printed in the government's official journal, the poor people at last became aware of the bitter deceptions—the false news of victory followed inevitably by tardy avowals of disaster. Their hopes, each day reborn, each night dead, their momentary joy and pride at the announce- ment of successes ruthlessly destroyed by the lying government, led them more surely and more swiftly toward despair than if they had been told the truth, no matter how sad. Yet even then nobody spoke of surrender —always excepting M. Renan, who once wrote a life of Jesus Christ. The month of December passed slowly in the rue d’Ypres. Bourke often went into the cellar to count the sticks of wood re- maining. They were easily counted. Pro- visions might last for several w yet, but the last er uae been bul and the last drop of us ‘up. ‘All doy on December he wandered t the somber boulevards, which, in nape ler times of peace, had swarmed with boliey shoppers for the New Year. Now nothing remained of the crowds, the splen- did stores all a-glitter with lights, the rush of gorgeous carriages, the flutter of silken gowns. Under the Grand Hotel a sick man sold little cakes at exorbitant prices; a few old women peddled wooden toys; that is al He found in a shabby store one or two little gifts for Yolette and Hilde, For Red Riding Hood he bought a tiny box of bon- bons and a pair of shoes, It was all he could afford. . So they celebrated the New Year t er, trying to be cheerful, forcing selves to talk, until the thunder of the forts, culminating fn a series of terrific crashes, drowned their faint voices and left them silent, each to dream pray a little, too, wherever he might be on that first day of the new year. As for Red Riding Hood, she always had something to pray for, and late that night she crept into Hilde’s room and said her for France and for the repose of father’: soul, who had died as soldiers die—so she th- em= do not know,” sobbed Hilde. Goad! To have him back! him back!" . * “O, God! O, Only to have * . * “There Is some one knocking,” sald the child. CHAPTER Xxv. The Beginning of the End. The knocking was repeated, Hilde sat up in the darkness, staring through her tangled hair at the dim outlines of the door. “Who is it?” she asked, striving to steady her voice. hes came the shuffle of feet, a sound of whispered consultation. Suddenly a voice out: “We want your house for a hospital. ounded are coming in by the Port Hilde sprang from the bed and groped the darkness for her clothes, bidding in them wait and she would spen. And now Yolette was stirring in the next room, and Bourke came down stairs, half dressed, and lighted a fire in the dining room, for there was no other means of illumination. When Hilde appeered, soldiers of the hos- pital corps were piling straw in the hall- wa Outside the street was choked with cavalry, helmets glimmering in the frosty dawn. Already a Red Cross flag hung over the doorsteps, Its solled folds floating lazily with every icy air current. When the first stretcher appeared, borne by priests, the cavalry moved on, endless lines of them, and the sad trumpet’s peal was echoed by steel culrasses clashing and the chiming of spurs and sabres, and a thousand horseshoes’ flinty clink. One by one the ambulances creaked up the street from the porte Rouge; one by one the stretchers passed. Every house received its load of wounded, every house hoisted the Geneva cross. Yolette and Hilde helped the soldiers Spread straw on the floor; all the rooms on the ground floor were ‘taken, and the wounded lay there side by side, half frozen, pale as corpses. There were a few Germans among them, quite blond fellows, staring at everybody with mild blue eyes. One of them, a mere boy, watched Hilde as she moved about with cups of hot brandy, silently waiting his turn—which never came, for he died without a sound before she reached his side, It was late in the afternoon when the sur geons came. Hilde and Yolette gave up their places to some sad-eyed Sisters of Mercy, and Bourke insisted that they should go to Harewcod’s room on the floor above. They slept there that night, keeping each other warm as best as they could, for they had given most of the bel coverings to the wounded. 5 At daylight the dead-cart came to their door, halted for {ts load, then rumbled on to the next house. Other wagons passed, creaking under their weight of wounded; sounds rose from® the. kitchen, where already the good Sisters of Mercy were making broth, and jpplitting green wood, Hilde, her head on. Yolétte’s breast, could hear Bourke stirring Infis room. Yolette heard it too, and opgnet er blue eyes, It wag daylight. id you sleep, Hilde?” she asked. “You are 80 pale—"” “Yes, I slept. Didyvou hear that wounded man groan? Oh, Yolette! Yolette! I think T heard him die—die down there in the cold end derk.” aj at She rose shivering, t6 bf#ak the tee in her water pitcher. Her shoulders, white as the snow outside; shrank’ undér the icy sponge. “The awful odor of chloroform makes my head ache,” s«f& Yolétte. “The whole house reeks of carbolfe acid, too. Shall I bli eT oS Hilde crept into Lie 4 Wool gown, held her wrists out for Yole to linen cuffs, then, é ing on thé apron, she went downstairs. arm, just above the elbow, she wore the white band and red cross of the volunteer nurse. The Sisters of the Mercy greeted her in low voices, and told her that the aor places on the straw had already been A fresh convoy of wounded was at the Porte Rouge, The whole quarter had been turned into a vast , and m and surgeong were coming from the = embourg and Sorbonne. That night, however, orders arrived to the wounded to the Luxembourg, the crush of sprtettncon Bieendons pre: cessions of ieee to ae It fon yee 4 Set eraeh am eae fakes fell thickly, covering the blankets of the wounded and the cloaks of nurses, The whole quarter echoed with the noise of de- parture; from ev: street the wailing of the sick, the of the stricken, the sharp, nervous orders of the surgeons rose and mingled in one monotonous plaint, At length, when the house was empty and the last stretcher had passed out to join the toreblit procession in the snow, Hilde sat Gown on the sofa and buried her head in Yolette’s arms. Her tears were tears of sheer physical weakness, for she had eaten nothing since the night before, saving every scrap for the wounded, in spite of Bourke’s protestations. And now, because the wounded had need- ed so much, Bourke found his cellar empty. He had sent Red Riding Hood to procure a ration card, and that night they ate the government rations for the first time. Yolette tried to make light of it, saying that the soup was good, and thet she did Tot believe it.could be anything but beef broth. Hilde and Bourke ate their portions and swallowed the coarse humps of black bread, too tired to care what they were eating. “This can’t last long,” said Bourke. “The siege will end one way or another.” He Yooked anxiously at Yolette as he spoke. Her forced gayety was heart-breaking. What in the world was he to do? His mon- ey was gone; the last tin of provisions had been given to the wounded. “Who cares?” said Yolette lightly. “If the army eat horse, surely we can eat it. Shame on you, Cecil—you, a great strong man! What would M. Harewood say!" “Jim is probably not dining on horse,” said Bourke cheerfully. ‘Ten to one he's in Bordeaux living like a prince and won- dering how long we Parisians are going to stand it.” “I know,” said Hilde, flushing, “that if he could come back he would come.” “Of course he would,” said Bourke. “He'll come the minute the gates are opened, any- way. It won't be long now, one way or the other.” “There is but one way,” said Hilde grave- ly. “Of course—of course, we must win. I don’t mean to say that the city will sur- render,” said Bourke hastily. “The governor of Paris has promised not to surrender,” announced Red Riding Hood, as though that+settled the matter forever. After a moment Yolette began: “Have you noticed that the cannonade grows louder every evening? I have thought that per- haps the Germans are getting nearer the forts of the south. Today I could see smoke all along the Meudon hills.” Bourke said nothing. He knew that, to the astonishment of the government, the Germans had suddenly unmasked a siege battery and were pounding the barracks of Issy to powder. “I have been thinking,” he said, after a moment, “that perhaps we had better move this week. In fact, I have already engaged three rooms for us in the Rue Serpente.” Yolette looked at him in amazement. “It is well to be prepared,” he continued with a smile. “Our ramparts here are not far from the southern forts, and, in the event of the Prussians establishing siege batteries, they might take it-into their heads to send their big shells safling over the forts to our own ramparts > “And if M. Harewood returns?” said Hil- de faintly. “He'd rather find our house tn ruins than its tenants blown to pieces—wouldn’t he?” smiled Bourke. “Anyway, this house not the place for you at present.” Hilde said nothing. Yolette leaned across the table and began a low, murmured con- versation with Bourke that only ended when Red Riding Hood woke up from the sofa and began to whimper with the cold. The next morning Bourke w2nt to the house in the Rue Serpente, taking a man to carry his personal luggage. By after- noon Yolette’s and Hilde’s slender ward- robes were d>posited in the furnished rooms at 19 Rue Serpente, and in the tiny kitchen Red Riding Hood was installed on a cot. It was the 4th of January; on the 5th they were to take possession, and the house on the ramparts was to remain closed until the end of the siege of Paris. All day long Yolette and Hilde were busy | with the furniture and bedding. They dust- ed and aired the farniliar rooms, packed table linen and plated war? away, arranged {the kitchen dishes, locked and bolted the jiu doors and windows and closed the shutters, There had been a meager distribution of rations that day; Bourke had no mony to buy food, and there was nothing to do but Wait for the morrow. As they sat there by the dining room win- dows late in the afternoon Yolette thought of that afternoon when Bourke had told her tnat he loved her. H» was sitting now just as he had sat that day—the day that seemed already years away. Bourke raised his head. “Are you thinking of {t, too?” he asked, \ gently. ““Yesa, Cecil.” Hild3 rose and slipped away to her own silent chamber. The azure-mantled faience saint lopked down at her with the same complacent smile on her china face, the ro- sary hung beneath. For the last time sha knelt and prayed for the man she loved— for his return if living—for his forgiveness if dead. Her eyes filled, her hot head swam; she sank back against ths bed in a passion of weeping, her hands clasped oyer her head. ‘Through the evening clouds the setting sun gleamed for an instant; a long red ray stole into the room. She rose to h=r knees and looked out a, the clouds, where, for the first time in so many days, the sun glit- tered. As she looked a speck grew before her syes, nearer, nearer, slanting down- ward, seeming to strike her window. She sprang up. A white pigeon fluttered at the pane—a tired, frightened little thing, that let her take it in her hands ard smooth it, and murmur to it s2nseless, pitiful words. Under one wing, fastened to a quill, was the message for the governor of Paris. She touched the quill with hesitating fingers, and, finding it secure, folded back the pigeon’s wings and warmed it in hor breast. Then, knowing it was rested and ready to; resume its journey, she kissed the little feathered head and let it go. The bird rose high in ths alr, circled twice, then slanted westward and was lost in the cannon haze drifting in from the distant forts. An hour later the governor of Paris knew that the army of the east had been annihi- lated. (To be continued.) se SS eas Field Glass That Shows Distances, From the Jewelers’ Weekly. The latest improvement fn optical instru- ments is a gauge attached to a field glass end a prismatic lens in one of the barrels to determine the distance of an object. This is accomplished by producing two images of the object seen, one superimposed upon the other. The prism creates the angle which forms the basis for the mathemati- cal calculation of the Gistance, and the scale contains the solution in advance of the geometrical problem. On the barrels of the glass are human figures—one of an in- fantryman and the other of a cavalryman —with a graduated scale. By observing the portion of the body against which the top of the second image is projected and con- sulting the scale the distance of the object is easily ascertained. Of course, the accur- aey of the test depends upon accurate fo- cusing of thé glasses and careful observa- tion, r Qualified. From Puck. Captain Spudd.—‘Hsndel-Barr has been detailed to take charge of the mule trains.” Lieutenant Ruddy.—‘Why, I didn’t know he had had any experience with mules!" Cepiain Spudd.—‘He hasn't. But did you ever happen to hear him when he a punctured his tire?” (Copyright, 1898, Life Publishing Company.) FAVORITE STATIONS Where Naval Officers Like to Their Cruising. Do CHANGES THE WAR WILL BRING Service in the Mediterranean Has Its Drawbacks. CHEAP LIVING IN CHINA Written for The Evening Sta! We THE WAR IS over, and the two fighting establish- ments again settle down to routine—a vastly amplified rou- tine it is certain to be—there will follow @ rearrangement of the naval cruising statiors. There will be many new waters to “cover,” many newly-acquired ports -to be ship-polic many out-of-the-way harbors, held either for indemnity or for keeps, to be occasion- ally visited by fighting packets wita Uncle Samuel's colors at the mizzen. All of this will demand a pretty elaborate overhauling of the naval assignment map, and It Is 1 improbable that the naval stations t lave for generations been considered the Mest desirable by officers in will then be looked upon as Botany Ba The Mediterranean Station, for example, that has, ever since the estabiishment of the American navy, been the apple in the eye of the younger line of officers, will cer- tainly not, under the rearrangement of cruising stations, remain the distinctly Swell and important cruising space cf all the stations. The two star stations for many years to come, in so far as conceras the work the ships attached to them will be called upon to perform, wil unqa tlonably ‘be the eastern “home” Station, otherwise the North Atlantic station, which includes all of the islands in the Atlantic wherein trouble now reigns, and tha China station, or, officially, the Asiatio statioa, that will henceforth actually, and not nominally, as has beea the case in ths past, take in the Philippine Islands. The Philippines have always ‘een considered as belonging to the China station, but they have scarcely been visitcd by American warships at all since the white cruisers began to attract the world’s admiraticn on far and near seas. Tne cld “wind-jum- mers” cruising on the China station used occasionally to pull into Manila harbor for @ week's stay or so, but the new ships of our navy have practically givea the Philip- pines the go-by. But they will not giv them the go-by in the future, and the off cers who are ambitious to be in the thic of what is known as “em as distinguished from that spe: ing which is the merest lolling about nau- tral waters for the sake of turning ove! the engines and keeping ships’ fore an. aft organizations in a stat? ot polish, will unquestionably want all of the sea duty they can get-on the newly outlined Asfatio Station. Some Like Home Stations, Naval officers’ opinions of the cruising Stations as they are at present mapped out depend a good deal upon the officers’ individual circumstances. The older men, married and with families to lok efter, are naturally fonder of the home stations —that is, the North Atlantic station and the Pacific station. These are men who have been wandering over the world for a sufficient length of time to become aweary of far-seas paddling—men, too, who have a weighty financial end of the assignment proposition to consider on account of their growing families. The middie-aged offi- cer's idea of a life on the ocean wave. un- der the very best circumstances is his as- signment to a receiving ship, housed over and restfully reposing on the mud of @ navy yard stream. Officers assigned to re- ceiving ships get sea pay, whica is a co! siderable figure above shore pay, and, i sides, they get navy yard quarters and are privileged to live with their families. The receiving ship billets are in great demand. But, even if they can't catcn receiving sbip berths, the older officers of the navy like the home stations because of the portunities such crutsin: frequently near to the of the North Atlantic cruising periods when they are away from the navy yard docks on tne Atlantic coast. In the summer they get up around New- port and Bar Haroor for drills, and this enables the officers witn families to plant their families at any of ine line of mer resorts from New York to the midd!y coast of Maine, and io take over-Sundar rvns, on leave, to see tnem. During th cold winter months. the ships of the Nort! Atlantic squadron crvise in the West In- dies, and for many ars it has been the custom of officers with families to move the latter to various accessible points on these islands during the winter cruising. At the Summer Resorts. The young, unmarried, and therefore ro- mantic, officers of the navy are equally fond of the North Atlantic station, espe- cially the summer cruising end of it, The uniform ot an American naval officer makes him a more than welcome guest under most of the roofs that dot the coast line all around this continent, and the young naval officer is distinctly a personage at the eastern watering resorts north of New York. He is invited everywhere and ex- hibited, and the elderly matrons of society make much of him and give him all man- ner of precedence over the most eligibie clvilians in presenting him to their bevies of young women guests. There was an old admiral of the North Atlantic squadron, who used to say, “All the work that I can get out of my ensigns when the pert and retty misses on the beach heave to and egin to flash their eye-signals, I can put into the tail of your eye.” The fleet skip- pers and commanders of ships on the North Atlantic squadron are very indulgent of the young fellows in uniform during the sum- mer cruising, however, and only pretend to make a terrible to-do when the junior officers pile in their incessant and insinuat- ing requests for leaves of absence. Big Stretch of Water. ‘The Pacific station is the other “home” station, It is a home station in name only, fn the opinion of a good many of the offi- cars who get the worst of the assignments fo those waters. The Pacific station ex- tends from Ayepng do © Callao, and it takes in the Hawailan . This is a pretty wide and long ‘etch oF Watey, The ofloers who are fortunate enough td eaten IP het ae only California cruising Ave the luck of the Pacific station. ‘alifornia cosst cruising is gentle and de- Ughtful work. The people who have never visited California bave little idea of the beauty of the flower fiestas that take place in the southern California coast arn | such as Santa Barbara, San Diego Los Angeles, at the close of the . winter season. Business is absolutely suspended during these week-long carnivals, which are the nearest approximation to the car- nivalis of the old world to be found in this nt has got into tho 3- become the guests of the carnival cities. Their “money {s counterfeit,” and they are taken in hand, and given a whirl such as nsval sailcrs do not have in any other part of the world. The of the Pacific sta-~ tion that are permitted to take in these af- fairs, and then return to the Mare Island i pet Rett. still drawing sea pay. Undesirable Billets. But there are drawbacks to an officer's attachment to the Pacific station. He may, for example, catch a small gunboat, that stands by at the Mare Island navy yard at sent on a cruise down the and South American ve while a coasts, for nd he porticuiaer Purpose, but fust to keep t el moving. “These southern eéast cruises last from three to six ronth=, and they are distinctly not pleasant. Thera may be fun in “winging” sharks with Ice rifles down in the insufferably hot snd wet harbor of La Libertad, Salvador, but that is all that caa be said of it. All of the Mexican and Central American por’ Gull_and uninviting to the last degree the Pacific side, that is—and the hospital! of the people has been greatly ated. On the South American cific side, thore are some good none of them as good as the least divert- ing of the ports, say, on the Asiatle sta- tion. No cruising coast line can be pot ular with an American man-o'-war's crow Where good, fresh provisions cannot bo had, and good, fresh provisions of tho sort that people raised in the temperate zono like to eat are not easily procurable on t West coast, south of Los Angeles. A smal cruiser sent down that coast to mako soundings, for example, off the ooast and in the bays of oLwer California, is des cidedly out of luck. The gunboats “hold up” the passing Pacific Mail liners when they can hail them, and grab month-old hewspapers with the eagerness of exiled Prisoners, and the school-boy fashion with which they enjoy the delights of San Fren- cisco when their release and suramoné “home” finally comes is worth watching. There is not an officer in the American navy, moreover, who does not rejoice with- in his soul that the patrolling of the Bering sea sealing waters by warships is now a thing of the past. A sealing season up off the Aleutians is more likely to cause a naval officer to expire of sheer dry rot than any other cruising experience in store for him in any part of the world. His ship simply wallows around in a heavy sea, and through a heavier fog, for months at a time, and the officers who were attached to the sealing patrol fleet were even glad when they had to put into a dismal Alaskan port to coal ship. There was one little Alaska billet that caused several officers assigned to it to quit the service rather than take it. is the Pinta store ship billet. That was the worst Botany Bay in the whole American naval service, and several young ordered to the Pinta, simply would nd for it, and got out of the navy rather than go there, Mediterranenn ts Expensive. The Mediterranean station has always been an alluring proposition, as said, in the eyes of the younger men aft on American Warships, and it has also been popular with married officers who desired to educate their children in European countries. It is picturesque “sailorizing,” this cruising on the Mediterranean station, but the offi- cers who have mored for service thereon have generally been men with private means. It surely costs a naval officer all of his pay, and more if he has it, to cruise on a ehip attached squadron. The United States gov does not, like all of the other cou possesing sizable navies, make any pro- vision whatsoever for the cost of the enter. tainments the fleet captains, commanders, and even the ward room officers, are com- pelled to give in return for frequent and ex- bensively ordered hospitality extended to them by foreign man-o'-war officers, as well as by American colonists ashore, and the American naval officers have to bear this expense themselves. An English ad- miral, at the head of a British fleet cruising in the Mediterranean, ts privileged, and, in fact, desired, to spend whatever amount of money he considers necessary and right in entertaining on the swell stations, and the British government cheerfully foots the bills. Lord Beresford has been known to “blow in” as high as $100,000 in a single year in extending the hospitality of the ritish Mediterranean fleet to man-of-war officers of other nations, as well as to howl- ing somebodies in the big ports, and the admiralty office never called him down for it, but took his vouchers and paid the bills without a murmur. The American admiral does not get a cent from his government for this sort of work, but he has to do @ Geal of inviting, all the same, and so 40 all of his commanders and officers in gen+ eral, Must Pay the Freight. When, for example, the yacht of @ rich American pulis into the harbor of Nice or Naples, where two or three American war ships are anchored, anf the yacht’s prov prictor invites all hands among the offic to take possession of his craft, and gives dances and dinners, and ell that sort of thing to them, it Is, of course, up to the feet 's officers to make some sort of returh ‘or such hospitality, They do, too, but they do it out of their own pockets, and naval officerg with private means are by no means ag thick as huckleberries in July There are American colonies in nearly all of the important Mediterranean ports, and the members of these colonies Invarial make much of their country’s naval o! cers, and wine, and dine and dance them to @ standstill, and these are courtesies that must be reciprocated. If the American offi- cers, feeling their inability to make proper return, declined ajl such courtesies, they would lay themselves opén to the charge of boorishness, so that they have to take the entertaining proposition as it comes along, and pay the freight, After a three-years’ cruise on the Mediterranean station th officers of an American fleet always 4 care, upon their return to this country, that they've had enough of being perpetu- ally broke, and that they are through with the Mediterranean so long as they can help themselves, but there are few of them who do not put in at least three or four appli- cations for Mediterranean service during their naval careers, so pleasurable and in: viting is man-of-war life in those waters. Cruising Around China, There is @ very large contingent of offle cers and men in the American navy who prefer the China station to any other cruis- ing waters in the world. There is a good eal of sense in their estimate of the Asi- atic station, tco. In the first place, life on many parts of that station ts of a “dreamy,” lotus-eating character, that is peculiarly enticing to men who have n plunged in the ewirling stream of actiop in the western world during most of their lives, and when the dolce far niente of Jspan, for example, once gets into an occi- dental’s blood it is not easily worked out of his system. The headquarters of the Asiatic station is Japan, and most of the cruisers sent to that station by the United States wander lazily among the Japancse ports during the greater portion of the year, In every one of the best of the Japanese ports there is a prosperous and hospitable American colony, and officers and men of the United States warships are treated 77” these colonizs with nolable generos£, Most officers who have spent a cruis@ or two in running about between Yokohama, Hakodate, Kove and Nagasaki will confess themselves entirely useless for sallorizing in any other part of the world, and they declare that in Japanese ports, so great is the influence of the beautiful surroundings, they can’t even study an hour or so a day for their future examinations for promo- tion. The officers of Dew>y's Manila fleet, it may be said in passing, seemed to shake themselves together in pretty lively fash- jon, and to erouse themselves from the Japanase trance, when they went into a tion, but some of them probably did with an effort, all the same. Big Ships in Luek. The big ships on the Asiatic station havé all the best of the cruising, like the big ships everywhere. They cruise around only in the largest ports, and a run from Yoko- isma to Hong Kong is no disagreeable bit of oratetn ‘Nettng> will a run from Hong Kong to Manila—a route arestier 0 be frequently traveled by Ameri n-Ore~ war, it may sately be esent any disagreeable features to the naval sailor aft. But the men who catch the mall ships on the China station don’t play in &ny prodigious amount of luck. The small gunboats, that draw but a few feet to the Mediterranean of water, are incontinently s3nt up, some- pon SO distance of 2,000 miles, the un-