Paris under the Commune: The Seventy-Three Days of the Second Siege; with Numerous Illustrations, Sketches Taken on the Spot, and Portraits (from the Original Photographs)Leighton, John
History
Paris under the Commune: The Seventy-Three Days of the Second Siege; with Numerous Illustrations, Sketches Taken on the Spot, and Portraits (from the Original Photographs)
Leighton, John
Paris (France) -- History -- Commune, 1871
“Monsieur Thiers, recognising the impossibility for a great part of the
population, now deprived of work, to live without the allotted pay,
will continue to distribute that pay for several weeks longer. “Such,
citizens, is, etc., etc.”
This report is signed by A. Dessonnaz, A. Adam, and Donvallet. Alas! we
had foreseen what the result of the honourable attempt made by the
delegates of the Republican Union would be. And this result proves that
not only is the National Guard at war with the regular troops, but that
a persistent opposition is also made by the National Assembly of
Versailles to the most reasonable portion of the people of Paris. And
yet the Assembly represents France, and speaks and acts only as she is
commissioned to speak and act. The truth then is this,—Paris is
republican and France is not republican; there is division between the
capital and the country. The present convulsion, brought about by a
group of madmen, has its source in this divergence of feeling. And what
will happen? Will Paris, once more vanquished by universal suffrage,
bend her neck and accept the yoke of the provincials and rustics? The
right of these is incontestable; but will it, by reason of superiority
of numbers, take precedence of our right, as incontestable as theirs?
These are dark questions, which hold the minds of men in suspense, and
which, in spite of our desire to bring the National Assembly over to
our side, the greater part of whose members could not join us without
betraying their trust, cause us to bear the intolerable tyranny of the
men of the Hôtel de Ville, even while their sinister lucubrations
inspire us with disgust.
L.
During this time the walls resound with fun. Paris of the street and
gutter—Paris, Gavroche and blackguard, rolls with laughter before the
caricatures which ingenious salesmen stick with pins on shutters and
house doors. Who designed these wild pictures, glaringly coloured and
common, seldom amusing and often outrageously coarse? They are signed
with unknown names—pseudonyms doubtless; their authors, amongst whom it
is sad to think that artists of talent must be counted, are like women,
high born and depraved, mixing with their faces masked in hideous
orgies.
These vile pictures with their infamous calumnies keep up and even
kindle contempt and hatred in ignorant minds. Laughter is often far
from innocent. But the passers-by think little of this, and are amused
enough when they see Jules Favre’s head represented by a radish, or the
_embonpoint_ of Monsieur Picard by a pumpkin. Where will all this
unwholesome stuff be scattered in a few days? Flown away and dispersed.
Eccentric amateurs will tear their hair at the impossibility of
obtaining for their collections these frivolous witnesses of troubled
times. I will make a few notes so as to diminish their despair as far
as I am able.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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