Part 12

I met at the War Office, M. Pégoud, inventor of "looping the loop," who was being congratulated by M. Messimy, Minister of War. He came here to get a new aeroplane, his own having been riddled through the wings by ninety-seven bullets and two shells when he was making a raid of one hundred and eighty miles into German territory. He naturally did not tell me where he went, but simply said he crossed the Rhine with an official observer and blew up, by means of bombs, two German convoys. "Captain Fink," he stated, "destroyed the Frascati airship shed near Metz, where there was a Zeppelin which was wrecked. He also destroyed three Taube aeroplanes, which were also in the shed."

General Bonnal, formerly professor of strategy at the Ecole Militaire, says: "The greatest piece of good fortune for France that can be expected, is that Emperor William will take personal command of all the German armies. This is now an accomplished fact, and it gives us all immense encouragement."

Friday, August 21.

Twentieth day of mobilization. Threatening weather with overcast sky. Northwesterly wind. Temperature at five P.M. 19 degrees centigrade. No clouds prevented the eclipse of the sun from being seen in Paris. Most people however were profoundly indifferent to the celestial phenomena.

Thousands of foreign volunteers assembled on the Esplanade des Invalides this morning to offer their services for the war. These young foreigners are mostly strong, active youths and have all received more or less military training. They marched through the streets in detachments of from two to six hundred, grouped together according to nationalities, bearing French flags alongside flags of their own countries. There were about five thousand Russians, five thousand Italians, two thousand Belgians, numerous Czecs, Slavs, Roumanians, and Armenians, together with smaller contingents of Americans, British, and Greeks. Mr. Arthur Bles and his second in command, Mr. Victor Little, are busy organizing the "Rough Riders" in a riding-school in Rue Avenue des Chasseurs.

M. Geissler, manager of the Hotel Astoria, who was recently reported as having been shot as a spy for arranging disks on the roof of his hotel to interfere with the French wireless telegraphy, was tried today, not by court martial, but by a civil judge, M. Tortat, to whom the court martial had referred the matter for further evidence. It appears that M. Geissler had been denounced on insufficient grounds by a clerk in his employment. His innocence was established, this morning, and he was released from the Santé prison and handed over to the military authorities, who will probably let the matter drop.

Saturday, August 22.

Mobilization is now completed. This is the nineteenth day since the declaration of war (August 3). A sultry day with light northwesterly breezes. Thermometer at five P.M. 22 degrees centigrade.

"All that I can say to you is that the battle has begun. That is all I know," is the statement made by M. Malvy, Minister of the Interior, as he stepped into his motor-car at the Elysée Palace on his way home this evening after the meeting of the Council of National Defence. Remarkable, impressive silence prevails everywhere. If people speak, it seems to be in a whisper. Never before was Paris so full of motor-ambulances, all driving hurriedly hither and thither, bearing nurses or Red Cross attendants, but never a wounded. The whole of the Rue François-Premier is lined on both sides with Red Cross motor-cars. The railway stations have an unusual appearance, with hundreds of wooden booths forming a sort of barrier to approaches. The calm, confident, silent, patriotic expectation augurs well for the future and vividly contrasts with the noisy, braggadocio spirit of 1870. Paris at the present moment is the most orderly, well-behaved city in the world.

I met at the Café Napolitain, a favorite resort of journalists, my friend Laurence Jerrold, chief Paris correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph. We spoke of the stories showing the amazing ignorance in which German officers have been kept regarding the situation. Mr. Jerrold told me that a relative of his, who is a French officer, saw yesterday two Prussian lieutenants, who, as prisoners of war, were being taken around Paris, to a town in western France. Both spoke French perfectly. At Juvisy station, where the train stopped, they said to the French officer: "Of course, we know why you are taking us around Paris and not into Paris. Paris is in a state of revolution, and you don't want us to see what is going on there." Argument followed; the Prussian officers persisted that Paris was in revolt, that France stood alone, that England had declared neutrality, that an Italian army had already crossed the French frontier and had invaded the department of Haute Savoie, etc. The French officer rushed to the waiting-room, bought all the newspapers he could find, and brought them back to the Prussian prisoners, who fell aghast and read them in silence, as the train proceeded.

The curator of the Louvre Museum has taken every possible precaution to ensure the safety of the works of art under his care. The Venus of Milo has been placed in a strong-room lined with steel plates--a sort of gigantic safe--and stands in absolute security from any stray Zeppelin bombs. The Winged Victory of Samothrace is also protected by armor plates. Mona Lisa once more smiles in darkness. The Salle Greque, containing masterpieces of Phidias, is protected by sand bags. Many unique treasures of statuary and painting are placed in the cellars. Similar precautions are taken at the Luxembourg and at other museums. The upper stories of the Louvre, which are roofed in glass, are being converted into hospital wards, and thus the collections of the national museum, which belong to all time and to all nations, enjoy the protection of the Red Cross flag.

I made a brief trip to Versailles, which has been transformed into an arsenal and a vast supply depot for food and forage. Troops of the military commissariat train are cantoned in the parks and shooting preserves of Prince Murat and of Mr. James Gordon Bennett. The attractive little summer residence of Miss Elsie de Wolff and Miss Elizabeth Marbury is occupied by cavalry officers. Versailles is the mobilization center or assembly for the southwestern military regions, and over fifty thousand men have been equipped here and sent on to their destinations at the front. Herds of cattle and flocks of sheep are grazing contentedly on the lawns and meadows of the chateau.

The membership of the executive committee of the women's committee of the American Ambulance has been increased by the addition of Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss, Mrs. Cooper Hewitt, and Mrs. Barton French.

Among the American women who have volunteered to serve as nurses in the hospital now being established in the Lycée Pasteur, in Neuilly, are the following: Mrs. H. Herman Harjes, Mrs. Frederick H. Allen, Mrs. Laurence V. Benét, Mrs. Whitney Warren, Mrs. Charles Carroll, Miss Ives, Miss Edith Deacon, Mrs. Barton French and Miss Treadwell.

Sunday, August 23.

Twenty-first day of the war. A hot sultry day, with southerly wind. Temperature at five P.M. 25 degrees centigrade.

The fourth Sunday of August finds Paris silently awaiting news from the great battle going on for a distance of one hundred and five miles extending from Mons to the Luxemburg frontier, and which is expected to rage for several days. Parisians receive with enthusiasm the news communicated by M. Iswolski, the Russian Ambassador, announcing that three of the five army corps which Germany has in East Prussia have been defeated by the army of General Rennekampf, near Gumbinnen.

I drove to-day with the Duke de Loubat, who is a close friend of Cardinal Ferrata, now spoken of as foremost favorite among the Papabili Cardinals. Monseigneur Ferrata enjoys great popularity not only at Rome but abroad, and is a warm friend of the United States. He has also a keen sense of humor. Not long ago a distinguished member of the French parliament lunched with Monseigneur Ferrata and remarked: "How is it that the Church requires such a long lapse of time before pronouncing a decree of nullity of marriage?" "Well," replied Cardinal Ferrata, "before the end of the ten years' delay, it is usually found that one of the three dies or disappears, and that the petition consequently is no longer pressed!" A great change is noticeable in the Paris churches. They have been more crowded since the war than for many years past. I entered the Madeleine to-day and found, to my surprise, an unusually large proportion of men among the congregation. Most of them were reservists called to arms. In other churches the congregations were almost entirely composed of women and children.

Our Ambassador, Herrick, is a sort of guardian angel for Americans in Paris. I saw him to-day working with Mr. Robert Woods Bliss, first secretary of the Embassy. He rose at six in the morning, and except for a brief repose for breakfast and dinner, is constantly ready to give advice to Americans or to attend to intricate diplomatic duties that crop up here at every turn. Our Ambassador also has on his shoulders the affairs of all the Germans and Austrians who remain in France. Some of our countrymen are very hard to please. Everything possible is being done for those who wish to return home, and money, when necessary, is advanced to them for the purpose. But they strongly object to waiting in line for their turn, whether at the Embassy, the Consulate, or at the Transatlantic Company, where, owing to the crowd of applicants, there is some necessary delay in attending to them.

A number of complications have arisen by discharged servants filing statements against their former employers, denouncing them as "probable spies." Several examples of this have already occurred with prominent American ladies who permanently reside here. I spoke with M. Hennion, the prefect of police, on the subject, and he said that "such malicious accusations"--and he showed me a pile of denunciations nearly a yard high--"were never acted upon, unless under really suspicious circumstances."

One of Mr. Herrick's callers at the American Embassy was Mme. Henri de Sinçay, a grand-daughter of General Logan, of Civil War fame. She is the wife of a French army officer and when the war broke out was living in a chateau near Liege. She fled to Brussels with her child, and then, leaving the latter there with her sister-in-law, came to Paris to say good-by to her husband, who is attached to the aviation corps near Versailles. Now Mme. de Sinçay cannot return to her child, but she is not worrying over the situation and has offered her services to the American Ambulance here in Paris.

The earnest, practical way in which General Victor Constant Michel, Military Governor of Paris, carries out his work, is admirable. General Michel has quietly despatched large numbers of the unruly youths of Belleville, Montmartre, and Montparnasse,--known as the "apaches"--to the country, in small gangs, to reap the wheat harvest, and he also employs them in the government cartridge and ammunition factories. In Paris, they have completely vanished from sight. The prohibition of the drinking and sale of absinthe, not only in Paris, but throughout France, was also due to the foresight of the Military Governor. General Michel, although a rigid disciplinarian and a masterful organizer, is extremely affable and agreeable. He was born at Auteuil in 1850, and after graduation from Saint-Cyr, the French West Point, served in the war of 1870-1871 as second lieutenant of infantry. In 1894 he was made colonel of an infantry regiment and showed such proficiency during the manoeuvers that he became general-of-brigade in 1897. He was made general-of-division in 1902; he is member of the Supreme War Council, and in 1910 was awarded the high distinction of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor.

Monday, August 24.

Twenty-second day of the war. Hot day with bright blue sky and southeasterly wind. Thermometer at five P.M. 27 degrees centigrade.

Terrific night and day fighting continues on the Sambre and Meuse. The French attack seems to have been repulsed. The allies remain on the defensive, awaiting further German attacks. The losses on both sides are terrible. Some days yet must elapse before the final result of the great battle can be known. Meanwhile, Paris waits with patriotic confidence. Russian victories in East Prussia, the Japanese bombardment of Tsin-Tao, in Kiao-Chow, the advance of the Servians, and the increasing probability of Italy claiming eventually her "irredenta" territory, are all encouraging factors in this world-wide war.

The American volunteers mustered to-day at their recruiting offices in the Rue de Valais and marched to the Invalides, where they passed the French medical test prior to enrolment in the French army. The men are wonderfully fit, and their splendid muscular, wiry physique was greatly admired as they marched through the streets. Out of the two hundred present, only one was not passed by the army surgeons, and even he was not definitely refused. The corps will proceed to-morrow to the Gare Saint-Lazare for entrainment. They will be sent, at first, to Rouen.

M.F.A. Granger, a young Frenchman, arrived to-day in Paris from New York, where he left his wife and family. He sailed on the Rochambeau with many of his countrymen, coming, like himself, to join the colors. M. Granger tells me that he saw near Lisieux a train of German prisoners, mostly cavalrymen, some of whom had been wounded by lance thrusts. They seemed resigned to their fate, without enthusiasm, and on the whole rather pleased at the prospect of being confined and fed in France, instead of remaining at the front. They said that they had no idea that England and Belgium were fighting against them, until they crossed swords with the Belgian cavalry, which they at first supposed were French.

Tuesday, August 25.