REMINISCENCE OF THE SEIGE OF PARIS.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 6, Issue 296, 9 October 1883, Page 5

REMINISCENCE OF THE SEIGE OF PARIS.

Much interesting imformation, some ■ > of which recalls the stirring incidents t_ of the siege of Paris, is given 1 by M. iSteenachers, a friend of M. .Gambefcfca, in a sketch he has written of the j^orky , done by the French Postoffice during the war with Germany. M. Steenachers waa.appointed ; yireetflr^qj^he^^ Postoffice by the Government of the National Defense^ and it ' fell 'within

his province, after the investment of Paris by. the, Germans, TtpJapganize^^ the dispatch of baUoons 1 wjith letters, to the inhabitants of the departments* iVI . Steenachers deeribes at some length. , the way in which this service was start- jf ed, and he states that the cars in many, :;: cases carried as much as half a toru of « * letters, to say nothing of two .or three 1 ; " r ; passengers and the aeronaut himself. >'".! The first balloon left Paris on the 23pdU of September, afl^d the last on the 28th ' ■ of January, and during the [interval'; 6?} b four months 65 balloons, carrying. ,16.4, ■•' passengers, 3Bl pigeons, five dogs,ta<n&, , ten tons of letters and newspapers, j • left the invested city. Seven of these";were captured by the, enemy, aud two. [ : } have never since been heard of. One of these, the Jacquard, left Paris onci the 18th of November, and was seenf'f above Plymouth the following day;'' '„ All trace of it was subsequently lost ;,'_,«' and the Sir Eichard Wallace,: which *h left on the 27 th January, also diß- lappeared for ever from human gazei ' M. iSteenachers also describes" the „' voyages of various balloons, such as..'. the Armand-Barbes,in which Gambetta left Paris on the 7th of October ; the <■ Ville d'Orleans, which effected a de- Jl scent north of Christiana, and the Yille '[' f de Paris, which came down at Wetzlar,.,^ and was, of course^ captured by the?. Germans. M. Steenachers describes.}, also the unsuccessful efforts made to ■ \ use well trained shee^> dogs, which 1 ' were taken out of Paris in ballpons, aa' v " messengers for bringing letters^ into the besieged city. Hollow, collars .. were placed round their necks aadfill-,- . , ed with letters, but none of the dogs, ever got back into Paris. Out of the „ 381 pigeons started from the departments all but 61 reached their destination, and one of them made, the voyage no fewer than four times. M. Oteenacher describes in some detail • the efforts made to steer balloons, and it is no surprise to read that all of these were unsuccessful.