The New York Herald Newspaper, November 1, 1872, Page 4

4 ALSICE AND LORRAINE. The Reign of Blood and fron in France— The Wealth, Power and Purpose of the Prussians. POLICY OF PRINCE BISMARCK. The Battle Ground of Twenty Oenturies— Decay of Metz—A Qountry Abandoned to Old Men, Women and Ohildren. 4 DESERTED CITY IN ALSACE. Strasburg in the Hands of the Ger- mans—What Bismarck Means by Annexation. A WAR ON FRENCH COMMERCE. Reports from Herald Correspondents—An Extraordinary Chapter of the History of the Century. Nancy, Oct. 10, 1872, lam afraid this is rather a sad story which has been assignea to your correspondents here—this history of the exodus from Alsace and Lorraine. Your correspondents have made diligent inroads into every part of the territory, and rendezvous here with abundant information, material enough for a book if book-writing were our business, It is very hard to separate what is true from what is false in these stories, so as to give America a fair and true account of what has been done and what is now doing in Alsace and Lorraine. Let it be our business, however, as best we can, to sort this mass ot evidence and information thoroughly and weave together a true story of the annexation, its effects upon France and Europe, the manner of it, ‘what the future threatens and promises, and, above all, to record that unexpected and astonishing manifestation of patriotic feeling which now ex- cites admiration and disappointment and pain throughout Europe. ALSACE AND LORRAINE. Take an old map of France and look at what might be called the right shoulder of the map, and you will find a strip of land about as large appar- ently, in comparison with France, as New Hamp- shire is to our country, and not unlike it in shape, Stretching from Luxembourg and the Belgian frontier down to Switzerland, bulging out on ths line towards Paris so as to include Metz, and taper- ing almost to a point near Switzerland, so as to exclude Belfort. This irregular patch, looking like aninverted Indian club, includes the province of Alsace and a great part of what is calied Lorraine, andis now, perhaps, the most famous strip of ground inthe world; for the eyes of the world are looking here amazed at certain phenomena and historical transactions, and trying to solve their meaning. As you know, it is now a disputed Jand. It has been in dispute for twenty centuries, and its fertile soil has been enriched with the blood of generations of slain men, from the time of Cxsar to Wilhelm of Prussia. Thirteen hundred Years ago Clovis conquered it, and although Charle- Magne was a benefactor the wars that came with his successors channelled and furrowed its fair fields. The Hungarians went through it with fire and = sword, and it suffered under the religions wars which swept over Europe in the sixteenth century, the Swedes “honoring God” in the most extravagant Q@nd bloodthirsty manner, Then Louis XIV.—about 1690--took it. The Germans came to retake it, but were defeated by Turenne, Again they made the effort, but the great Condé drove them over the Rhine. That ended German effort for nearly two hundred years, and Alsace rested at peace under the French rulers until Sedan undid the work of Condé and Turenne, and France, with Prussian cannon at her gates, surrendered it to Prussia. THE VALUE OF THE PROVINCES. In extent this dismembered shoulder of France fs about five thousand five hundred and eighty English square miles—not more than three per cent of the total area of France; in population about one million six hundred thousand souls, or Dearly five per cent of the total population. You will see therefore that the rate of popuiation ex- ceeds the average of the country. It hasa fine canal system and many forests of pine and oak. There are quarries and coal mines, iron and stone Geposits, lead and copper, in limited quan- tities. In the earlier times there were gold and silver, but not enongh to ex- cite any one in these Callfornian days. In the Southern Department of Alsace there are 46,000 acres given to the vine, which produced at the last enumeration 30,000,000 gallons of wine. In the Northern Department there are about 28,000 acres | in vines, yielding 12,000,000 gallons of wine. You may know how generally the land is divided (thanks to the Revolution) when you are told that these 28,000 acres are owned by 36,000 proprietors | ‘The total revenue from cattle and stock raising in the year last on record was 18,000,000 American dol- lars, while from agricuiture the return showed | $28,000,000—one-half from cereals, It might be called | a land of milk and honey, remembering that there | are in this province alone 25,000 beehives, where in- dustry is not interrupted, I take it, by any questions of authority or annexation, An ancient record notes that the people, as become honest farmers, ‘were of a cheerful temper and much given to danc- ing and and fiddling. Among other points note that the population is little more than twice aslarge as it ‘was in 1800, and that if all France had kept grow- ing with the same pace it would now be about 155,000,000 instead ofnearly 37,000,000, that the books have written down. This briefly is the extent, appearance, character aud wealth of that Alsace-Lorraine which France gave to Germany by a treaty signed with the Prus- sian sword at her heart. The two columns upon which the province reste are the cities of Stras- burg and Metz. THE EXODUS FROM METZ. The city of Metz in Ks brightest days must have been an unlucky town, smothered over with forts and ditches and all the elaborate mechanism of en- gineering art. The great Vauban accomplished these results in Louis XIV.’s days, when that King was doing a little royal stealing on hisown accout and was anxious to protect his acquisition, Within ‘a few miles of its gates the great battle of Grave- lotte was fought, where Prussia burst the French army asunder, driving one fragment, under Ba- zaine, into Metz, to starvation and surrender; the other fragment, under MacMahon, up into Sedan, to surrender with its Emperor at the head. Grave- Jotte looks very calm end fruitful this Autumn morning, and shows no trace of the gigantic strife of two years ago, The ficlds are giving forth corn and hops and vines, and the merry laugh of the harvesters is heard where the cannon sounded upon that dreadfui day, As your forrespondent passed down the road along which the King of Prussia advanced, looking out over the rolling, hilly plain, thinking his own thoughts, there came & group which would have been made into a fine picture by the pencil of Teniers, A donkey, with @ ribbon or two around his neck by way of encouragement, was doggedly pulling @ small, rude cart. This was heaped with baskets of ripe grapes. In one corner, cunningly protected from self-de- struction by an ingenious arrangement of baskets, was @ wide-eyed infant, just old enough to stand, ‘not knowing what the demonstrations meant, and Ate eyes Grmly fixed on its mother, who came plod- ding behind, clapping her hands and chanting nur- gery rhymes. An old man, with his stat, mar- shalled the group with grave aspect, thinking, no | have OE ea NEW YORK HERALD, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1872—rRIPLE SHKET. girls—the boysfrom twelve to five—with ruddy, dirty ‘aces, smeared with grape juice. They were shouting, laughing, hurrying home to evening reat with their harvest burdens. The young men had gone, The head of the family had gone. The vin- tage could only be gathered by women and children. The old men and the children only remained. This was a first glimpse of the new aspect of affairs in Alsace and Lorraine, and it seemed odd that this trophy of German rule should make itself manifest on the victorious field of Gravelotte. Now and then we met a group of sager, striding youths marching toward the frontier orto some railway station— youths and middle-aged men, occasionally women in the train with children in their arms, anxious for France, and we thought of what Byron wrote of those wanderers of Israel when they were driven out of the Holy Land:. And we must wander, witheringly, An other lands to die’ And where our father ‘Our own can never lie. METZ IN DECAY. AsThave said, Metz could never at best have been a lovely town, and it is to-day a picture of shabbiness and despair. In other days it lived on 1ts garrison, It had military schools and a large, ifnot a pleasing, variety of pediers and suttlers and tradesmen of many nations, Many were He- brews, who were the first to go, for the exodus began shortly after the German occupa- tion, ‘Ihe Germans patronized their own people, and had no _ occasion for French sutlers and pediers’ from the Orient. When the period came for decision between France and Prussia Metz gave way in a panic, and thou- sands swarmed out of its gates. At least two- thirds of the inhabitants nave gone, and Metz looks as if smitten with a pestilence—a sort ofa city laid out in state for funeral, and a Prussian army as guard of honor over the remains. In ad- dition to the ordinary passenger trains running to Nancy during the last few days of September five extra trains left the city daily with emfgrating in- habitants, The scenes in the railway depot showed all the crowding, anxiety and disturbance of Lord Mayor’s Day in London, or a Fourth of July fire- works in City Hall Park. A railway officgr in- formed your correspondent that on one day 5,000 left from his depot alone. They have swept over the country to Nancy, Luneville, Commercy, Lyons—some to Rheims and Epernay to find work in the champagne harvest—many to Paris. In cities where the Prussians were in occupation they would not permit the exiles to remain, especially the young men fit for duty in the army, but drove them on beyond their lines, With these they were always severe, But the young men, upon accepting the option for Germany, would be compelled to enter the Prussian army. So they leit tor France. in one commune where there were seventeen young men only two remained; of these two one was ill, the other had no means of leaving. And from every quarter, without any exception—except, perhaps, a few communes near the Rhine—your correspondents bring corroborating reports. From thirty alone they estimate the number who have departed as 50,000 souls, REVELRY AND FEASTING. When you are informed that Metz is “literally de- serted”’ it is dimcult to make you feel how exactly true the phrase is. The Rue des Jardins, for in- stance, which boaste:l forty stores, has five or six open. It is estimated that two stores out of three in the whole town are closed, Most of the open stores sell tobacco and Bremen cigars; the old cafés are German beer saloons, Some of the open stores inform you that they are “selling out to close business,” and wherever you look you see houses for sale or to let. And yet, as if in ironical comment upon the events of the day, there was great joy in Metz the evening your correspondent was there. It was an anniversary of something, and the German rrison were celebrating it ina grand banquet. Ynije the conquered were hurry- ing to the frontier the conquerers were celebrating themselves with eating and feasting and music, THE PRUSSIANS COMPLAIN OF BAD PAITH, One circumstance that fills the Prussian mind with anger is that most of those who have left Metz, especially from the farm lands around, have been in receipt of la'ge sums of money from the Prussian treasury. The war, Gravelotte and other transactions of that nature desolated the country and swept away all living things—crops and grain and homesteads and all means of life. And Prus- sia, meaning to be kind to the sufferers and recon- cile them to the new rule, paid them large indem- nities, In some cases more money was paid than the farmer had ever seen before; more than his whole farm was worth. These simple-minaed agri- culturists took the honest King’s money and imime- diately declared for France. The thought, there- fore, that Prussia is really paying the expenses of a good part of the Vers papel that the ungrateful Frenchmen are really crossing into France with the King’s money in their pockets, gives the Pickelhaubers deep anger, and may account for their rudeness to the ex- les, “They take the Kaiser's money,’ says Pickelhauber ruefully, “and then run away.” “Yes,” says the Frenchman, “why don’t you let us stay’ We want tostay and be Frenchmen. Look at Paris. All the Germans who left there during the war to fight France are returning, and we don’t say either be Frenchmen or leave Paris. They stay and become rich; and yet we are not allowed to remain here where we Were born with- out telling a lie and saying we are German. How is that?” “Oh, that,’ says Pickelhaubder, “is quite a different matter.” THE LOWELL OF ALSACE. From this unlovely military town of Metz, which must henceforth be a garrison, we sweep down to Mulhouse, the Lowell or Manchester of Alsace, close to the Swiss frontier, the largest town in Alsace after Strasburg—not an old town as towns go in these countries, but of sudden growth like all manufacturing centres. In 1800 it had 6,000 in- habitants, At the time of the way there were 50,000, & proportion of increase that you sce in few towns in Europe, This ts the centre of the cotton industry; around it is a beehive of towns as industrious and enterprising as Lowell, and Lawrence and Lynn, You can fancy how much it has grown when you know that thirty years ago there were 200,000 spindles, reaching 1,000,000 In 1862 and 2,000,000 when the war came— 10,000 of spindles and 40,000 looms! Your lady dtrs have, no doubt, heard of the calico aud aconct of Alsace, its beauty and usefulness. There are forty manufactories who do this work, making annually 60,000,000 yards, valued at $12,000,000, Here also are the model factories of the world, proprietors renowned for their efforts to insure the comfort and efficiency of their employés, -For in addition to cotton there are manufactories of porcelain and paper and other useful articles, Well, annexation has fallen like a blight upon it all. Many milis are closed for the want of skilled workmen, Others are being removed to Paris; still more to Switzerland, where convenient water streams may be had—proprie- tors, manufacturers and families, with “their money and machinery and business crossing the frontier; and this be said of Colmar, the next in importance, peopied with 000 souls— for some reason I_ know not “The Athens of *—a quiet, old-fashioned place, where pen- sioners and retired neroes live. The young men ed; nor do they fly with pleasent thoughts. A lady born in Carlsruhe, wife of a Colmar exile, Was sitting this morniug at the table anote in Nancy. “Ah,” said an acquaintance, “have you been in Baden lately?” “What do you take me for?’ was the angry 1 Oe “I never want to see those brutes again! This my son, now fifteen, must one day revenge the wrongs of France, and 1 mean to make him a military man.” But this, you know, Was only a woman, and a Woman in anger; and you, who remember New Orleans under Fed- eral rulers, can understand how women will give way toimpatience of speech. The strange thing ‘was that she was German born and spoke the Ger- man tongue, and had probably not a drop of French blood in her veins, A DESERTED CITY. ‘our correspondent visited the little walled town of Bchiettstadt that lies in the way to Switzerland, bo the Colmar and Strasburg, at the beginning of the Vosges range of mountains, which now form the boundary of France. In the distance was the comely mountain range, Fp pling slong the horizon, looking green and tawny on this dreary autumn day. Now and then a casteljated chateau, built on a high, project mountain point, threw its rude, imposing Gothic towers against the sombre sky, rivalling the medieval days when the old German Ritters rode out from under their heavy arched gates and into these plains to do bat- te under the banner of Charlemagne. And yet, if those dead walls could speak they would say that men in the age of steam and telegraphs and rifle cannon are no better than their ancestors in the days of cross-bows and battle-axes, and that this long, rolling, fertile Alsace valley is the scene of hatreds ag intense as were ever known in crusadi times, and threatening again to be the scene ol battles as bloody as were ever known on the Rhin Schlettstadt is some distance back from the rail- road, and was fortified by Vauban in the highest style of engineering art. There are outer works and inner works—two gates, with moats and ‘toullis and bridges, and at the exit the omnipresent pickelhauber, surmounting a light, bright-faced stripling of twenty, whose heart is, most certainly, on the Rhine, and who seems to look enviously at the straggling line of shouting wine-harvesters who come home laden with grapes ready for the vini . We discover, in proper fashion, that our stripling soldier is a native of Wtrtemberg; but his work and disctpline, evi- dently, do not permit of useful conversation; nor is he dispesed to give us his views upon the annex- ation of Alsace and Lorraine. $0 we drift into the town, which should have 10,000 people, and per- haps more Heed you can never tell, they pack families so closely in these queer, quaint old houses). The town seems so dead—so dead! The only life we see is in the rb Ate stream of water which takes ite evening sanitary course along the gutters. Here is @ building large enough fora dozen etoreh, that may have been a hennery or a granary in its time, Every window and door is closed, and a placard informs you in the French tongue that if you want to buy it you have only to accept the price and pay your 4o doubt, of sadder things than grapes and wine. Then come & piraumliog krogession of bays aud money, Well, in time, we come to the centre of the town, We take it ta be the centre, for here is an where three or (pur roads meet, au genious town authority has arrayed paving-stones in the shape of a Snd intended among other tiiuge to bring the tows r e Tuck. But tuo stony incuntation ‘ss failed, here we stand in the heart of the old town and all ig silence. Two-thirds of the stores seem to be shut. There is one store modestly open, where you can buy a rosary or certain works u) the Blessed Heart of Jesus should you be so A little distance away is the ne boucherie, with toothsome shoulders of mutton to your tite. We discover the tavern in the that there will be an index of life. The tavern keeper is mu space, some ti the white tic five-cor- would seem, @ middle- Alsatian matron, who looks at us sharply, and seeing us to be sti rs and Ger- no doubt, gives expression to her feelings by m: the additional vigor with which she cuts her loaf of bread. In one corner isa pretty maiden of eight or nine, with brown hair, ironing a pair of cuils with an tron that seems too heavy for her strength. ‘The maiden smiles in answer to some cheery word of encouragement and presses on in her work. ‘A STILL-LIFE PICTURE, Well, even the town tavern, that never failin fountain head of town life, is dead. Madame wil- lingly gives us a@ glass of yellow beer—quite wil- lingly and with an eager bustle in her manner—for she has discovered that we are not Germans, and not new arrivals from Berlin with instructions to see that the taxes are collected and that the school- masters teach only the German tongue. We look around the room. In one corner is @ Baie desing dler from Jeury, no doypt—the honest man with his wares on table, unsold and unsalable, dream- ing, “Let us trust for better days and higher rices.”” In another is a Prussian soldier drinking beer and crunching his biscuit in’a business-like way, meaning to eat and drink and be off to duty. He Is looking calmly, contemptuously perhaps, at the two perso! in the middle of the room trying tosing. One is a peasant in his blouse who ts mod- eravely drunk and immoderavely happy “Ser he hi found an Alsatian brother, a soldier in the uniform, yea, the very uniform of France, blue coat and red trousers, ana they are celebrating their loves in drink and sovg. This soldier of France, we learn, came here from his station at Avignon. He had business in Alsace in the matter of his option, and is now waiting for the train to carry him to his post. And if we find him sertously under the influence of liquor, who can blame bim or the blue bloused peasants who are plying him with drinks? For to them—drunk or sober—he is a living t: of France, of her glory and her shame, and one day he may come again behind conquer- ing banners and deliver his dear Alsace. Are these really their thoughts? Certainly there are no words spoken to that effect, nor would it be pro- ductive of d, with that wide-lipped Prussian, all eyes and ears, calmly looking on and drinking his beer. So certainly madame thinks, for when the soldier and peasant have a fraternal embrace, and as it were unwittingly break out into a strain of the “Marseillaise,”? madame rushes to him and demands peace as she pats him on the back. “Peace, oh, peace and silence, friends,” she says in the plainest speech that eyes can speak; ‘peace and silence, for 1 am & poor woman with my tavern, and there is the conquerer, and what will come of your son; of revenge?’ It was a_ tri- fling incident and went before the eyes in a flash, and et how much it meant, and what a color it gave to the events now passing into history, and how truly it expressed the struggle in Alsace and Lorraine! The little tavern tableau of a French soldier fraternizing with peasants, and madame striving for peace, and Hans from over the Rhine ready to put his hard hand upon them all if one word is spoken or one deed done against the peace and power of the angi it All Gracious” Kaiser of Deutschland. ‘The so) fer was evidently a proper person in his way when free from liquor and had nota drinking look, but an honest, light-bearded Alsatian face, with steadiness and candor about him, and sure of his morning headache, as all temperance tipplers are said to be, He told us ina little snatch of talk that he was from Avignon, and was going home that night. His speech was discreet. “I would rather,” he said, in a rollicking way, “be hall- starved over there,” POINTING TO FRANCE, “chan to live like a lord here.” And when we gave him a silver piece he was quite polite and gratetul. Itake it he had exhausted his money, for upon re- ceiving his small acquisition he summoned his blouse companions and made at once for the tavern. PRAYING FOR PEACE IN ALSACE, Well, we pass along into the byways of the sleep- ing town—is it sleeping or is it dead, 1 wonder /— and come to the church, a large, square church of the eleventh or twelfth century, black with six centuries of tempest and rain, And having a fancy for churches of the olden time, and knowing few strains of music, a8 well as what Goethe calls the frozen music of architecture, especially the Gothic work of the Middle Ages, we enter, soitly pushing back the black, greasy gate. Itis very dark and cold. The eye soon adapts itself to the gloom, and we see in the shadow the gilding and curtains that surround the altar, and a figure of the Virgin that must have given -_— to many generations of be- lieving men and women, She is black and begrimed, We are sorry to say she looks unbecom- ingin this new-braided, brocaded gown. On the walls are inscriptions, which we only read with an effort through the shadows, and know that here human beings have rested for centuries in peace and expectation, But how still—how awiul ts its still- ness! No life, no sound, no spoken, whispered word, no movement of any living, creeping thing— nothing but the intense, painful silence—and no speech except what the fancy may gather from the high swerving, curving arches and groined col- umns and fantastic groupings and carvings, Surely we shall find in a corner some trembling | ere mother muttering over her beads, or some ir maiden with burning, blushing face, at the feet of the Virgin, the sanctity of whose modest prayers it would be irreverent to divine, only we hope he may prove true to youin the end anda blessing to your life, poor child! or some proud, hopeful mother, in the triumphant fulness of satisfied love, ving back to the Madonna, who has blessed her fe with so perfect an answer to her hopes and rayers, the performance of the mised vow. ‘he writer of these lines has been in many cathe- drais, from those in the far North, where the sons of Odin sromtipoes, to the prodigious piles in sunny Spain, where the soldiers of Castile gave 3 for victories over the Moors; and never until to-day have we seen these divine emblems without a suppliant. Surely some curse must have fallen upon this unhappy land, we think, as we kneel on one of the praying stools— partly for devotion, erty to obtain a better view of the stained glass behind the sanctuary—surely some curse must have fallen upon this unhappy land, when even in their misery the people forget to pray! Thus thinking, we pass to the transept door, and suddenly, as though it were im a vision, we come upon @ group of sisters of some religious order deep in prayer. Five in all, nestled together in silent prayer, heads bent, their white caps look- ing very white in the darkness, so silent and mo- tionless that they might be statues. We move out on tip-toe not to disturb the devotions, and learn that the good sisters have instituted a series of prayers of perpetualintercession for mercy and prosperity to Alsace and Lorraine, and that this motionless group were doing their share of the devotion. THE “CARPET-BAGGERS’ FROM PRUSSIA. But the Jittle town is very dead. We sce no young men. They have all gone to France. They do not mean to serve in the German army. And new men have come here. Full-bearded Prussians to gather taxes and see that Prussian laws are re- spected and that nothing but German is taught in the schools. Wo saw one to-day—a new arrival— parading around with his wife on his arm aad an umbrella in his hand, with which he seemed to poke the walls and paving stones to see if they were really sound. He has been mitre to some loval taxing office, and has come all the way from Pome- rania to fill the place, and is on anerrand of ob- servation. He looks at the walls, at the old, red Mitnster tower, at the cathedral, with his own thoughts, perhaps, as to the heathenism and abom- inations of the place; at the earthworks and the batteries; at the gate from which the French impe- rial arms have been wrenched and the German im- perial arms not yet elevated, as the place is raw and, one would think, bleeding; at the soldiers, to whom he removes his hat, while they stare at the extraordinary mark of attention; at the closed stores; at the old men who look at him from the window and stretch their heads out to follow nim ‘up the street, and he walks with an air of trucu- lent authority, evidently feeling that the town would be none the worse for a good flogging by the way of Pi thn his work. A sound, solid, sub- stantial, severe, but not unfecling man, the new master seemed to be, with his instructions from the Kaiser, which he means to follow, and God be ne to all who will not obey those instructions! ‘his man is @ type of the new class who have come into Alsace and Lorraine. The utter isolation in which the new King’s authority is held by the resi- dont people has compelled the Germans to send for civil servants to Prussia. They are here what our are iers are in the South, with the excep- tion that (Boe &@ better class of people and se- lected from the government service for their fine administrative qualities, and a more worthy breed of men in all respects than the new masters of the conquered South; severe, Prussian rule is essentially severe, and to pone more than Prussian people—severe and just and unre- lenting. But between the two races—those who come to command and those who have not crossed the Vosges Mountains, but remain to obey— there is an intense antagonism. The Frenchman i@ the Prussian as a brute; the Prussi thinks the Frenchman is a little better than a m key, and sorely needing the cane. Neither will see or recognize the good qualities of the other, The veracity and patience and discipline and stabborn id deep-thinking intelligence, the tenacity and porpese of the Prussian character, are lost on the ach, while the Prussians do not see in the French @ grace, vivacity, enthusiasm, thrift and spirit, whi makes them the most aifectionate tre ‘the most tp pinceive enemies, in the world. You can only Win a Frenchimdn’s affections by tact. Tact is the one quality you do not find in the Prus- sian character, and so, from the very outset of this occupation, y find two races arrayed against each oth it, noble races of mei—one con- quered, ir conquering, aud with no element of sympathy or association, This Prussian poking around with fis umbrella was a type. He came to rule, Those who stared and sneered should obey. He meant they should. He gave himself mo co! cern on that he For was he not the Kaiser’ embassador, and behind him was not the Kaiser’ whole army? STRASBURG AND ITS HISTORY, If there was any sentiment in this annexation— and much has been gaid about the old German sen- timent of unity and love for the io ieee oa imagine how it would cluster around iy ptcteen uuudrod Sears” ajuee tye GQepuADs crossed the Rhine and found a Roman city here, at the junction of the Ul and the Rhine. Over fifteen hundred years have since Julien the Emperor was its Governor. Over thirteen hundre pears ago Clovis builded a cathedral on a site which had been used by the savage Celta for their rude offerings, and afterwards by the Romans to Hercuies and Mars. But Clovis had it and he builded his church—long since gone to wreck from lightning and the , and where now stands the highest Gothic spire in the world—foundea in the eleventh century, in the giow and flame of Catholiciam, when a Pope ruled the world with his shepherd’s crook and religious enthusiasm found expression in the Gothic cathe- drals which are all over Europe and in crusades for the Holy Sepulchre. Strasburg was a “great city” in the time of Dagobert, who was King 1,080 ae ago, Charlemagne was proud of it, and did San @ good service. Then Louis the Great seized it, and his successors held it until Bismarck came in 1870, So it was French for 189 years, When Louis took it there were about 30,000 people ; at the time of the French Revolution there were 50,000, reaching to 82,000 in 1861—growing mainly by marriages and births, as an old-fashioned town should grow. So the men and women who live here live in homes in which their ancestors dwelt for centuries, and when they go to France it means the severance from very, very deep roots of ancestry, pride, association and affection. THE TRADITIONS OF STRASBURG. Strasburg has other memories. Here Calvin preached after Geneva quarrelled with him, remain- ipg six years, until the stern city onthe hills re- versed her affections and he went back to expound the gospel and contemplate eternity from the banks of beautiful Lake Leman. Here Kellerman, who won the battle of Marengo and became Duke of vary, under Napoleon, was born, while just perone he walls in a valley, 1rom where a Baden battery played sad havoc with the city, is the monument to Desaix, whose death at Marengo took from Napoleon all pleasure in the victory. Here Kleber was born; and there is.a broad, open, sti square called after him, with a bronze monument of the General in a high state of valor— very French, very unnatural and very absurd. It was here Goethe studied, and along these green terraced walks of Vi and mused, thinking great th cane * dr altho ing great tho nd, although you m: have forgotten it, nae Oné Lotle Napol eon Bone. parte, big with destiny and following his star, came one mori to try @ desperate chance with fate. Well, it is worth remembering, as the world goes, as the beginning of a career that has ended in Chiselhurst. It was on the 80th October, 1836, when the leaves were about fallen, and the skies as dark as they are now, I suppose, at daybreak, when the young Prince, not thirty, with a troop of adventurers, came in at the Gate Austerlitaz—the same through which your cor- respondent passed ti afternoon—and now ten- anted by a Prussian sentry and a drowsy old woman, selling toothsome cakes to all who choose to buy. Tne Prince had bribed some soldiers to join him of the Fourth artillery, and they came ronnie. in, shouting “Vive UEmpereur! They went into the large barracks right at the gate, at whose windows you may see twenty fair-vaired Prussians smoking pipes and thinking their own thoughts as they look towards the Khine, But when they cried “Vive U'Empereur!” to the in- fantry in the barracks, and the infantry only saw a rather stupid young man dressed up in the historic costume of the great Napoleon, it only required the Colonel to come in and denounce him as an im- postor to lead torthe arrest of the whole party. And so Louis was sent out to America, to an exile in Hoboken, and to events thereafter which the world knows, UNDER LIFE IN STRASBURG, Strasburg looks like a well-patched city. The Germans have striven earnestly to repair the evils of the bombardment. You only see traces of the firing in the new spaces on the repaired walls. The vencrable and majestic Cathedralis quite re- paired. The bridges have been bullt. The owners of injured private houses were indemnified and the houses rebuilt. The old Library Building is still a ruin, and I had sad thoughts as [ walked around it and remembered the two hundred thousand vol- umes burned into ashes—some of them never to be replaced—a loss as great in some respects as the Alexandrian Library. But the old city looks bright and busy and full of interest, and to a new eye sutfers little from the exodus. The stores were nearly allopen. The Prussian sentry was every- where, and Prussian officers were always drifting along the warm, inviting streets. In tne evening the Wurtemberg band played on the Broglie Platz, and there was quite a gat ering. But as far as we could see they were wives and families of Prussian officers and a few nursery maids, The townspeo- ple do not go on the ‘Platz’ when the German band plays, It is a mark or patriotism. There are other “marks of patriotism’? welcome to the Yemale mind. One is to speak French. If you en- ters store and ask for anything in German you will certainly have sullen treatment. Youmay buy patriotic sleeve-buttons for a couple of francs, in whitish metal, bearing the coat of arms of Alsace and Lorraine linked by a chain. Some ‘take their revenge” in rosettes of red, white and blue; by wearing full mourning, and others by wearing a peculiar elastic strip in the same colors, oined t by a buckle, and which a well-inlormed shopkeeper told me were garters. Of these he sold a large quantity, as well as of & small stud, representing an exfoliating flower, colored red, white and blue, and meant to do modest and needful duty in un- derciothing. There is a picture also of a young woman wearing the waving Alsatian headdress, her face tearful, in full mourning, with a small tri- color tte in the hair, Sus je Alsace, In the corner is the motto, “#lWe attend !—“She waits,” This had a great sale; and likewise a picture of France as an angry female, Seep attired, hold- ing @ drawn sword, and waiting for something. “Revenge’—most likely. There are cafés where fou see no Prussians; others where you see no Frenchmen. Generally the Prussian is ignored by the people; but the garrison is building up its own circle of wives and mothers and friends from home, and I take it the officers are not lonely. I have seen many mousing around the shops or on the parade ground purchasing knicknacks or listening to the music, and good honest wives or sweet- hearts on their arms, and very comfortable to all appearances, HOW THE CITY 18 REGENERATED, But the young men have gone, That is the one fact. Now, under the French law of conscription, the number of recruits, based upon the po) tion who reported to the French commandant in 1870, was hearly two hundred. Under the Prussian law, which exempis no one, and which should have had double the number, there were just ten who reported. Only ten young men in all Strasbourg for the Kaiser! And the resi ll fled over the moun- tains to France, and are jow shuffling up and down the Paris boulevards asking for work or pening the yine-growera in Champagne gather their harvests. The young men have certainly gone, and this is the loss to Strasburg. It ts very difficult to induce an Alsatian to converse with you asa stranger, for you may be a mouchard ‘and go around the corner and report him ifhe is patriotic. But from some conversations I gathered these griev- ances: “Sir and friend,” said _an Alsatian, “we do not complain, we wait. The Prussian officers are civil enough. They do us no harm. The civil officers are the worst, See how they have changed our streets. All the Frenci names fiave been taken down and German names painted instead. Why, @ man don’t know where he lives any more, and the cabbies do nothing but swear about it. Our schools are all taught in German, French is not allowed unless you pay extra. See those fellows at the railway station. They are all as surly as pickpockets, You speak French and they answer inGerman, A girl ofmine, born in Paris, went to the office and askea fora ticket inFrench. ‘If you don’t speak German I won’t answer you,’ said the man in the window. All the towns have changed names. Thionville last year is now called Diedenhofen. Ask that railway man fora ticket to Thionville, and he will say he neyer heard of the place, and it is one of the largest towns in Lorraine, The day of the French surrender here there was a /éfe, and the spire of the cathedral illuminated. “Was that pleasant—pleasant to think or the time when German shells rained upon our city and we had to dig holes in the em- bankments and live like moles and rats? We liked the Germans as neighbors over the Rhine. We think they mean to do well enough now. Perhaps we did belong to Germany once, and should be Germans now. But that was 200 years ago. Two hundred years is along time. You Americans have not been a hundred yearsirom England, You speak the same language, ‘have the same books and the same laws. How would you like to have New York seized by England? That is our situation, We are seized by Germany, and must learn a new lan- guage, observe new laws, and go out and make war, when the German King commands, upon men whom we regard as brothers.’ PRUSSIAN FIRMNES3 AND KINDNESS. So far as carpenters and painters and cunning workmen can go, Strasburg and Metz and all Alsa- tian towns are thoroughly changed. You walk through Strasburg and you find every corner has a new sign, certifying in the German tongue the street has a new name. In some side streets the old French names remain; but nearly every corner has a fresh glaring verman sign in lea lue letters, The railways ave Geri signs tel ling. you where to eat, where to wait and where to deliver and ob- tain your baggage. The cabmen are much distressed about this, one of them explaining, not without rofanity, that he did not know his head from his feels since the new signs were put up. But in all matters of administration, so far as the army is concerned, the people have been treated with kind- ness and generosity. The Prussian officer, in a view you may take of him,is not what woul be regarded as a model father-in-law. He would rather be insolent than not, if you give him occasion, But in Alsace the officers seem to be- long to an amiable race. The orders from Berlin are to ‘‘win the people back to the Fatherland,” and go the Alsatians are in the Lig 9 attitude of receiv. and spurnin; e givers, All who lost money in the bombardment have been well paid. Iam sorry to that many of them as soon as they received ir money declared for France, and left for Parts to become martyrs on the Boulevards. The Prussian only shows lis Prus- sian nature jn dealing with the emigrants. There ig no doubt that great brutality has been shown to those Alsatians who declared for France and emi- grated. ey were ill-used at the railway station, crammed into inferior cats and every discomfort heaped Spon them, Apart from this, the Prussian role in Strasbourg and th out Alsace has been as kind as ever the French was—far kinder than you will find it in Germany. PRUSSIA MEANS TO STAY. Wherever you you meet the Pickelhauhen. Over all you sce the soldier standing guard. You gee that the bayonet is master of Alsace and Lor- raine. The activity and be) 34 and industry shown by the Prussians in military matters are everywhere visible to the eye of a travel- ler, and seem 4 mere sojourner prodigious, iy every barrack yard wen are constantly drilling, New. forta are being built the fortified cities, Metz, sinays strong, is now stronger than ever; while if Strasburg is over to be taken it must be by some species of balloon ar- tillery—there would seem to no other human way. The railways are in superb condition, with an unusual quantity of rolling stock. The Prussian is exhausting art in making himself strong aud building forts with French money. A PRUSSIAN VIRW OF ANNEXATION. The Prussians have very little to ay. about Alsace and Lorraine. This eminently pi people are not given to waste words In idle conversation. “We took Alsace,” said an ofticer, “! we wanted it. We took Lorraine, to keep Alsace. We would have taken Champagne had tt been necessary. I have not studied the in- ternational law on ‘the rc ee, do we have any interest in it, or what the outside ayaipathising world says. We fought the French, we whippe: them, and we did what the French would have done—we took every advan' . Why, Germany don’t keep an army for a toy. We are an army to build up a nation, to make @ Germany that will not japoleon cor jay one German prince it another, like clessmen, and keep the duebies and loms in a constant flutter, poor Germany was a prey for whoever came to plunder, for Napoleon, for Louis, for any am- bitious Czar; and in time we would have become like tie Scandinavian countries or Turkey and ran into political decay, until compact France on one side and Russia on the other, ever making mis- chief, fomenting trouble, came in to rob when ever it suited tiem. Now, by heavens! there is an end of it, and, that it may end we have taken and Lorraine. If any one wants a reason give them that. There is no other. Why talk meta- physics when you have an army and cannon. We were strong enough to take Alsace, we are strong enough to keep it, and before these poor French- men to revenge for Alsace and Lorraine they better be sure we are out of Champagne. It would not take many more speeches of Gambetta, ry ee eee o savation ‘tred at of occup: cent a Rheims. Of course, ti ges wants e have we want more expected and don’t want to be disturbed. am one of several hundred thousand Prussians whose business is war, and if war must come, as they all say it will, we cannot be too earnest and too well prepared. le here we mean ey will make better jermans because of their having been so good Frenchmen. As to the away itis rather a vexation. But if they will leave their farms and homes there are Germans enough up in -poor ster- ile Pommern and Brandenburg who will gladly come into these fertile fields, Instead of emigrating to America they will come down to the Rhine. We have Germans enough to fil up this country, and once these - restless, onbappy Frenchmen are well sifted out and all Paris begging at the cafés the Germans will come in. @ would rather the people would have remained, but it may be best as it is, We can hold the country better with Pomeranians living on these flelds than it would have been possible with Alsatians. Ten years from now and you will find Alsace the richest, happiest and most con- tented province of the Fatherland. Prussia means to have it so, and Prussia generally succeeds in doing what she purposes,’? HIGH POLITICAL CONSIDERATIONS—THE DIRBOT ROUTE TO INDIA, It would be unjust to suppose that this is a mere brutal wresting of territory from France by Prince Bismarck, Nor would you understand this move- ment at all without loping, at those high political and commercial considerations which controlled the Prussian statesman and bade him bid deflance to the public sentiment of Europe and the world. Look atthe map of Europe and you will find that the route to the Indies is now the con- tending question in a commercial sense. That question underlay the Crimean war. With the tun- nel at Mont Cenis and the Isthmus of Suez Canal France had her hand upon that route, was master of a great international highway, while Ger- many was shoved up out of the way. With the Possession of Alsace, Bismarck has his lines direct from Landen to Bale, He has the Rhine and its trafic. You remember some time since what was known as the Franco-Belgian Railway war. Napo- leon desired to exercise certain rights over the railways in Belgium and Luxemburg. The clamor arose that this was his first step in an intrigue for the occupation of Belgium. The idea that Napoleon was compelled to abandon under Prussian and English pressure Bismarck is about to realize. When the tunnel through the Alps, at St. Gothard, is completed he will have a through route from the North Sea to the Adriatic, in no place going through French territory. Years ago those who watched the policy of Bismarck foresaw and announced this as his purpose, ‘Those who will go back to the Franco-Belgian Railway trouble and read up the diplomatic correspondence will see that Bismarck was then in conflict with France—almost to the point of war; they will understand his and especially understand the scorn with which he viewed the Benedetti scheme to divide the Low Countries. between France and Prussia, and his ferocity when France proposed to buy Luxemburg from Holland. The necessary steps in that policy, after the victory at Sedan, were to take Alsace and enough of Lorraine to protect it. With the St. Gothard tunnel complete Germany has the whole trade of the Rhine, and she has a through highway ae Fame North Sea to the Adriatic, a highway to A BLOW AT FRENCH COMMERCIAL SUPREMACY. This first high political consideration could only ‘be obtained with Alsace, You will understand its value when TOR see that in obtaining this territory Germany obtained one of the finest railway sys- tems in Europe. Not less than seven passenger trains run daily between Bale and Strasburg, three being express. They connect Switzerland, South- ern Germany and Austria with Ostend and Ant- werp without touching French territory, Some time since one of your correspondents here illus- trated the importance of this in a letter to the HERALD. He mentioned, on the authority of no less a man than M, Thiers himself, that cotton and petroleum, the two. great American staples, shipped from the Belgian seaboard to any point in Switzerland or Bavaria, were carried at rates varying from $11 to $12 per ton, while the rates between the French seaboard and the same points were from $15 to $16 per ton, As France her financial extremities must raise money from every source, and is compelled to create a tonuuge tax or transit dues, Germany is mm the position of a successful competitor, and already has struck her commerce a severe blow. This blow was implied in the accession of Alsace. In addition to this there were two branches of industry, almost exclusively Alsatian, upon which France depended, which ve her large revenues—the making of beer and the manu- facture of cotton goods. The cotton industry of France was centred in Alsace. Thus, in the south- ern district of the province there were 2,000,000 of spindles in the cotton mills, while the whole Ger- man Empire barely showed 3,000,000, so that sixty per cent or more is added to the cotton industry of the German Empire. Paris obtained her beer from Alsace, You may imagine how large that industry must be, and how much France must lose in Wweaith, in tax yielding industries and in commer- cial power by the transfer to Germany, Here is the cepecial cruelty of the separation of Alsace and Lorraine from France, and it is a cruelty that is not apparent. France Joses something more than pride; Germany gains a great deal more than terri- tory. So you see why it is that France should quiver with anguish at the loss of an important life- giving member, and why Germany should regard the two provinces as having a value far above mili- tary or territorial considerations. WILL THE ANNEXATION BE A WEAKNESS OR A STRENGTH ? Germany, therefore, obtains this railway system. France was allowed to deduct the value of the railways and rolling stock from the indemnity, and to repay the owners. Anyhow Germany took the road and it now belongs to the German Empire. Having to pay no dividend the king can run it at any rate he ae and always carry freight cheaper than France. This is a severe blow to the commerce of France. Then come the com- mereial and financial relations between the masters of the cotton and_ beer and other industries and ris. In_ other times Paris capital nourished these industries; now the Paris banker withdraws his capital. Where is the Alsatian trader and manufacturer to look for credit? He is severed from Paris, which is rich, and must look to Frankfort, which will not lend money on these securities, its dealings being of a different character, or to berlin, which is poor and cannot. His French capital and his financial con- nections with Paris are withdrawn, and he finds himself among foreigners, compelled to deal with foreigners who are not familiar with his wants or prepared to aid him; nay more, to ask his conqueror and master for credit. And is he at all certain that he will obtain credit? His conqueror knows he is an enemy, an enemy at heart, and cannot be trusted. Isitany wonder that the Alsatian has been driven to a sore trial, and should we be sur- prised that he has followed his sympathies, and, abandoning his home and business, has gone to live in France? Some will remain, like the faithfal He- brews in Spain, during the dread time of the In- juisition, who worshi] the Christ of the Chris- tians before men and the Hebrew Jehovah in the silence and security of home, They remain, think- ing and hoping, as the Venetians thought and Lae when Austria became master of the Adri- atic Queen. Venice, under herGerman master, and abandoned by her aristocracy, remained more Ital- fan than Florence or Turin; the Teutonic power never took root, and when the day of deliverance came it foated away like the surface foam from the ocean waves when the storm is over. So do those patient, hoping Frenchmen think, who still remain in Alsace and Lorraine. The on may come. They will bow to his imperial will, But they wilt hold their hearts and honor pure for that happy day when the tricolor will doat from the dizzy spire of Strasbourg Cathedral and the Marseillaise again be heard upon the banks of tbe Rhine. A SEAMAN ORUSHED TO DEATH BY A OAR, Coroner Young was yesterday called to hold an inquest on the body of John A. Olster, a Swedish sailor, who was killed on Wednesday evening near the corner of Chatham square and James street by being knocked down and run over by car 131 of the Third Avenue Railroad Company. Deceased was sick, and, with a friend, attempted tocross the track ahead of the four-horse team attached to the car, but being too slow was knocked down and killed as stated. Olster, who had few acquaint- ances, was to have gone to the Hospital to-day. James Garmon, the driver of the car, was yer released, and will appear at the investigation on piel next. Deceased,was only twenty-dour years of age. ersistence, THE HOUSE OF REFUGE. The Fight for the Religious Lib- erty of the Inmates, oa ee et The Managers and Officers Find Themselves In- nocent of the Charges Against Them—Sharp Criticism of the Managers’ Report by the Chaplain of the Isand. Aletter received from the Jesuit Father Renaud directs attention to areport made by the mana- gers of the House of Refuge on the crueities which have been perpetrated therem and on the re- ligious condition of the inmates. As will be seem from the appended letter, the chaplain confines himself exclusively to the religious question, he having had nothing to do with the charges of cruelty made against the officials. The following is the communication of Father Renaud :— : New York, Oct. 25, 1872. To THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD:— There is now in circulation a pamphlet entitled Manage! “Report. of Special Committee vo the rs of the House of Refuge on the Inv On, &C.,”? state of t in said held last July about the Refuge. e honorable Commissioners of State Charities, Nathan Bishop and John Orgronaux, who conducted the investigation, have to do with this report. The ty of it lies entirely on the managers of the Refuge, who wrote ft, and on the whole Board of the same, who unanimously approved and adopted it September 23, 1872, For these gentlemen, self-constituted judges of their own case, it is of life interest to Make the best they can of the cl 8 brought against them, and indeed they spare no exertions to that effect. They ought not, ver, to that all will take thesame view of their case ag they do themselv: especially when tne means they employ to attain their aim will have been ex- Peaving aside the charges against the. Institution, aving aside the charges st the which are out of my 8) mere and with which I have made it a point from the beginning to have iothing to do, I confine myself to the sixth charge—on the religion of the Refuge. It occupies the greatest rt of the report, which on this point is DY mixture of untruths with some fragments of truth, I de not intend at present to refute all weak arguments and false asser- tions which said report contains, but I would surely feel derelict to conscientious duties did I allow its gross misrepresentations to pass uncon- tradicted. Having last July claimed the constitu- tional rights (no privileges) of liberty of conscience for all the ‘tholic inmates of the Refuge my silence in face of said report would place the whole Catholic body in a very false and undeserved light before the public. No matter how reluctantly, I Must again bring up this unpleasant matter through the HERALD, so kindly opened to me:— First—The report says, age, 9:—“Rev. I, Re- naud will go security that if our house (the nye al is surrendered to the control of himself and associates we may have nearly a thousand” in- mates. When and where did I ever ask the Ref uge to be “surrendered to my control and to that of my associates?” Is it really honest to say so? When Dr, Pierce, the ex-chaplain, con- ducted the (untruthfully called) unsectarian chape service, did the managers surrender their house to him? How, then, can they so misconstrue my sim- ple request to have Catholic service (mass and sacraments) for the Catholic inmates of the Ref uge? Were this allowed, as it ought to be in sheer justice, Isaid that the number of inmates would increase—not that 1 have any control of the com- mitments to this jail, I should think—but obviously because, by ceasing to violate liberty of conscience, the managers would, by the very fact, remove the objections of all liberal men to commit Catholic children toan institution where these children are violently debarred from the free exercise of their religion. ‘seond—The game erroneous report, page 16, gives as part of my testimony, ‘That if any of our Refuge) inmates, termed Roman Catholics, should from ‘any other motive than curiosity enter our chapel for religious service, they would be com- mitting mortal sin impossible of forgiveness.’* (Sic.) The same ridiculous assertion is repeated ‘with emphasis, page 28. I must say that I did not expect that the ‘gentlemen managers of the Retuge, after inviting me to attend their investi- gation, would descend so low as to distort my words in such a shocking manner. In plain English, then, I am compelled to say to these gentlemen, “I never did say 80.” No Catholia cculd say so and remain such. Any Catholia child, attending Catholic Sunday school, knows better, for he is taught, the world over, that by a hearty sorrow for his sing any of them can be for- given in the sacrament ef penance. Here I cannot well help saying that I regret that the authentic poiputes of the whole ipyestigation are the prop- erty of the managers of the “tbs 1 trust that nothing is falsified in them; still I would prefer to see these minutes with persons other than those who impute to me the above assertion. Third—Anotner slanderous Si ao ig found on page 23. ‘Rev. Mr. naud,”’ says the report, “is understood to have expr with qualification the belief that salvation was un- attainable by any not Roman Catholics,” and @ little lower follows an attempt to set me at va- riance on this point with the belief of ‘mi wise and excellent persons who are Roman Catholics’? and who disagree with me “both on the general question and on this particular one.’ 'y not have the fairness of quoting my whole argument? 1 distinctly remember saying that Protestants, who have no doubt that their religion is the true one and who keep God's commandments, will be saved. For the benefit of those who can speak or write on Catholic doctrines without ns a them with something false, I state that Catholics are taught from their childhood that their Church is the only true one, and that for them salvation is attainable through her alone. This I said in tt testimony, to show how wrong it was, in this lant of civil and religious liberty, for the managersto say by their acts to the hundreds of Catholic in- mates of the Refuge, You shall not practise your religion here; you shall have no priest to attend to your souls; you shall have no mass and no sacra- ments, but every Sabbath we will take you to what ‘we call a creedless chapel, and there our unsecta- rian Methodist chaplain will read for you the un- ‘sectarian Bible of James II., &c., &c., 80 as to train you to ignore or forget the little you know of the religion of your parents. Non-Catholics, we teach, will be saved, if being baptized they be convinced that their creed is true and keep God’s commandments, including the eighth— ‘fhou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.’ If they become aware that their system of religion is false, and yet that they still cling to 1t with obstinacy unto death, then they shall be punished forever, together with bad Catholics who die in mortal sin. Whoever may be the ‘many and excellent persons who are Roman Catholics and disagree” from this doctrine, I submit that they are not stanch Catholics, and I humbly think that 1am a more competent judge of such matters than the very unsectarian signers of the report I am reviewing. Fourth—The managers, who, for a reason, gene- rally make it a point to ignore how many Catholics they have in their institution, tell the public, on page 24, “We believe that less than half our in- mates are of Roman Catholic parentage.” This Ida not believe, and challenge the proof. In the hospi- tal—the only place where the priest is occasionally allowed—I often found none but Catholics, and the Protestants, when found, were always the small exception. Whenever I questioned the little beamed as to the proportion of Catholics and rotestants their answers were invariably, “A great many Catholics,” or “nearly all,” or ‘almost all.” 1do likewise deny the assertion of the report that the Catholic inmates of the Refuge do not de- sire to see the priest. I know better; they are most anxious to see him, and they hate to go ta the Protestant chapel of the Refuge. Many other points in the report could be denied, but I cannot waste any more time on it. What i said of it is enough to show what the whole of ii i¢ worth, and how miserable the cause that must be upheld by such despicable means. It is also a relies to know that when the honorable Commissioners of State Charities meet to pronounce on the Refuge Unsectarianism only the testimnny given during the investigation will -be taken into consideration and the aforesaid report be nowhere. Thanking you, Mr. Editor, for affording me meang to reach the ears of thousands, I remain jours truly, IGNATIUS RENAUD, 8. J., Catholic Chaplain of Randall's Isiand. SHOCKING SUICIDE, An Aged German Blows the Top of His Head Off—Physical Suffering the Cause. For many years past Mr. John Voight, a German, sixty-nine years of age, of very respectable charac- ter and temperate habits, has dived with his son- in-law, F, G. Kleist, who keeps @ saloon and lodg- ing house at No. 203 South street, corner of Catha- rine. Mr. Voight, being badly ruptured, has suf tered intensely, and on several occasions has been heard to say rather than linger along in such agony he would prefer to say goodby to his friends and terminate his misery by seeking a violent death. His relatives used all their efforts to divert his mind, little sus- pectin that he contemplated carrying his threat into execution. On more than one occasion Mr. Voight exhibited a single-barretied pistol, with an immense bore, and repeated his former threats, - but still without being t! Pg to be in earnest. On Wednesday evening Mr. Voight retired to. hia room on the third floor, apparently tn his usual health and spirits; but about half past ten o'clock Pp. M. the report of a pistol was heard up stall and, search being made, it waa discoverdéd that Mr. Voight had shot himself, He sat noright in @ chair near the wiulow, with the whole right sido of his head carried away, the blood and. braind soattered around the room, and the corpse pre. senting @ ghastly appearance, ‘The body waa laced on the bed and the blood washed off by tha lends, Coroner Young yestertlay, on being n0- tifled, hoid an inquest over the remains, aml the jary rendered @ verdict im accordance with the foregoing tacts,