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PARIS WAR DAYS
PARIS WAR DAYS
DIARY OF AN AMERICAN
CHARLES INMAN BARNARD, LL.B. (HARVARD)
Knight of the Legion of Honor Paris Correspondent of The New York Tribune President of The Association of the Foreign Press in Paris Chairman of the Harvard Club of Paris
TO Ogden Mills Reid EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE THIS DIARY IS DEDICATED IN AFFECTIONATE MEMORY OF HIS FATHER, THE LATE Whitelaw Reid
PREFACE
This is not a story of the world-wide war. These notes, jotted down at odd moments in a diary, are published with the idea of recording, day by day, the aspect, temper, mood, and humor of Paris, when the entire manhood of France responds with profound spontaneous patriotism to the call of mobilization in defense of national existence. France is herself again. Her capital, during this supreme trial, is a new Paris, the like of which, after the present crisis is over, will probably not be seen again by any one now living.
As a youth in the spring of 1871, I witnessed Paris, partly in ruins, emerging from the scourges of German invasion and of the Commune. As a correspondent of the New York Herald, under the personal direction of my chief, Mr. James Gordon Bennett--for whom I retain a deep-rooted friendship and admiration for his sterling, rugged qualities of a true American and a masterly journalist--it was my good fortune, during fourteen years, to share the joys and charms of Parisian life. I was in Paris during the throes of the Dreyfus affair when, at the call of the late Whitelaw Reid, I began my duties as resident correspondent of the New York Tribune. I saw Paris suffer the winter floods of 1910. Whether in storm or in sunshine, I have always found myself among friends in this vivacious center of humanity, intelligence, art, science, and sentiment, where our countrymen, and above all our countrywomen, realize that they have a second home. With a finger on the pulse, as it were, of Paris, I have sought to register the throbs and feelings of Parisians and Americans during these war days.
I acknowledge deep indebtedness to the European edition of the New York Herald, and to the Continental edition of the Daily Mail, from whose columns useful data and information have been freely drawn.
C. I. B.
Paris, October, 1914.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Myron T. Herrick, American Ambassador in Paris. Frontispiece
Shop of a German merchant in Paris, wrecked by French mobs
Sewing-girls at work in the American Episcopal Church
American Ambulance Hospital at Neuilly
Paris workmen hastening to join the colors
Woman replacing man in traffic work
General Victor Constant Michel, Military Governor of Paris until August 27, 1914
The Statue of Strasbourg, after the capture of Altkirch in Alsace by French troops
Americans in Paris besieging the American Express Company's office for funds for their daily bread
French Negro troops from Africa entraining in Paris
Flag of the 132nd German Infantry Regiment, captured at Saint-Blaise by the 1st Battalion of Chasseurs à Pied
Robert Woods Bliss, First Secretary of the United States Embassy in Paris, September, 1914
A party of American volunteers crossing the Place de l'Opéra in Paris on their way to enlist
General Joseph Simon Galliéni, appointed Military Governor and Commander of the Army of Paris, August 26, 1914
Paris War Days: Diary of an American · The Wunder Library — complete classics, free to read, with narration.