PARIS IN WAR TIME.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 50, 27 February 1915, Page 13

PARIS IN WAR TIME.

PARIS, December Sβ, 1914. A MERRY CHRISTMAS. Paris observed "Keveillon" -wain dignity. There were no signs of the feasting and revelry of former years, and I Christmas dawned with the sun smiling down on a silent city. Later on in the day the boulevards began to fill, the cafes were well patronised, and the booths did a good trade. The restaurants, too, were quite' busy with family parties—oysters, boudin and champagne forming the bases of the Christmas repast. There ivere few poor children in.. Paris who were not made happy with a. gift from a Christmas tree, and dinner*: and entertainments were given everywhere to distressed "refugees. Soldier dolls in the uniforms of the Allies, but more especially in those of Tommy Atkins, were everywhere at the head of the poll of popularity. IN THE HOSPITAXS. Everything was done at the Paris hospitals to make Christmas as brfeht as j possible, and particularly so a*-far as. I the wounded were concerned* At Claridge's Ambulance Hospital in the Champs Elysees, -where there an a. hundred wounded, the soldiers had a rightdown good Christmas. The waide were brightened by flowere and plants and gay paper decorations, and those visiting the wounded never went with their hands empty. In the afternoon, "tea was served, and in the evening a ladies' or- ~ <>.hestra enlivened the wounded heroes with various choice selections, and there were recitations and short, plays. IN A TEA-SHOR - English visitors to-Paris.--jraesing"-.»-" tea-shop in -the —Rue —de I'Eebelle oa Christmas Day, were- thrilled by the strains of "Tipperary" coming from the interior. A number of British soldiers were being entertained to tea, and were holding an impromptu concert among themselves. Thus passed Christmas Bay in Paris—enjoyable, but naturally shorn of much of its frivolity, for there were . few who could refrain from letting -fchefc thoughts turn to those in the trenches.Merry Christmas! Parisian s said it, aed could keep their eyes looking above-the ground. . . . , . .-.l'_ FORTY-FOUR TEARS AGO. " "The days that try men's souls ar* no new thing." On Christmas Day fortyfour years ago everyone knew that a - general bombardment of the city, Trtiich had been only desultory thus far, was only a matter of a few hours, and, aa a matter of fact, the rain of shell 3 began on the eastern forts at half-past seven o'clock on the morning of December 27Our fathers and grandfathers forty-four years ago, who ate Christmas dinner in - Paris, were fortunate to have one course, and if they had two conrsesythere was always the danger of having the second interrupted in the rough-way of war. Horses, dogs, cats and rats ■were called upon to supply family larders in those days. In Paris to-day there were many, perhaps, who ■complained if their turkey was not properly "stuffed," ior their goose "overdone." . j . HOPEFUL OUTLOOK TO-DAY. If German prowess was unhappily invincible then,: it is now checked. The handwriting of inevitable defeat is on the wall. "The. enemy's situation is der\_ cidedly gloomy/ In this phrase Lieu-tenant-Colonel Rbusset, the French, military expert, sums up the situation,:and Major Morarth, the German military expert, in the "Berliner- Tageblatt,'? admits that the Allies have ■ scored over the Germans, and are now fin a position to await calmly the landing of the new British, army. Therefore, in all the ' gloom, let us bear in mind that: the Allies are not ■battling in vain, and' are fighting the mankind. CHRISTMAS IK THE TRENCHES. -"What would - "first-Aigtoers". and , j opera-goers give to -be able to witness a ! cabaret performance in-the trenches-* I writes a soldier in a letter to .a-irlen<? jin Paris. "I saw one on Christmas Eve,. •at . More than six hundred officer* and men assembled in a trench, and li* tened for two hours and a-half to a well* . combined programme of first-class e*--tists, -with the music supplied: by tht regiment. An exhibition of one* step was given by a sergeant and a pri-va-te, both from London town, and'_» Highlander danced the sword dance with ' much entrain. While the performance : was going on the roaring "of the g™ l *. was sometimes so terrible that y«B ' could scarcely hear what the artist !wa* j singing. A shell burst about 150 yards fc to the right of the trench at 10 pm* , while a Zouave was giving a comic recital. He stopped for a second or twoi, t till the din was past, and then saids I; 'Gentlemen, open your umbrellas! -"W* j shall proceed!'- He - was-heartily a>- > plauded for his cool behaviour, for everyone believed the tomb had burst in the trench cabaret." j BRAVE CliOVnß.^ _7,.'" 3 A remarkable feat by a'French sd- - dier, who has some celebrity in the French circuses as an "English.-clown/ , i and ■ calls himself professionally "Williams," svas been told by' one of: lus ■1 company officers. A French-trench 'WS'S i enfiladed by a German machine-gun, and i the kmses in consequence became so seriI o*us that the lieutenant in charge remarked aloud, "If we only had somer body up there, ■Wβ might be able to deal t with them," pointing to the tottering Temnant of a chimney stack, the,jagged top of which Tvae. thirty ieet.aboye the. ground. He knew nothing.of the.pecUT liar abilities of Williams, and when the latter saluted and said, "I think I can t get up there," he merely shrugged and j nodded. Throwing , off his leavy overcoat, the t clown-solder rushed to the chimney stack, and climbed up It like a monkey, , resting momentarily on projections 5 which cruimMfd beneath his touch, till, [ from the summit, he -was able to shout the exact .position and distance of the j deadly German gun. Then he coolly . began firing himself. The trembling . brick-work seemed to 6way with every a movement he made, and it was too much . for bis comrades' nerves to watch him. . They begged him to come down, and: ; finally, an officer peremptorily ordered ( (him to descend. In a few minutes he was on the ground. Frst he dropped his [ rifle, and then, bringing the hearts ot [ all who witnessed the feat into their '. mouths, he literally took a header at a . low tiled roof twenty feet below, and I rebounded from it like a ball of india- , rubber, landing on his feet, and pkyf ally [ striking a clownish attitude, wlt\ his i fingers behind bis ears, saying Mith a I grin, in the peculiar Anglo-French he . affects: "My row 'turn—the of . death." He is to have the cross of the Legion of Honour ifor his 'lean of,