Paris War Days: Diary of an AmericanBarnard, Charles Inman
History
Paris War Days: Diary of an American
Barnard, Charles Inman
Paris (France) -- History -- 1914-1918; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
I drove out in the Bois de Boulogne after lunch with the Duc de Loubat.
The Bois was rather deserted; only a few couples were strolling about or
seated on benches reading newspapers. Went to the Cercle des Patineurs,
where fences were being put up on the lawns to enclose sheep and oxen to
provision Paris. In the tennis court we saw about two hundred Kabyles
from Algeria, who had been found astray in Paris. They sleep on straw
beds in the tennis court and are provided with rations. They are all
men, and will be drafted into the Algerian reserves.
Madame Waddington, formerly Miss King of New York, and widow of the late
William Henry Waddington, senator, and member of several French
Cabinets, and one of the French delegates to the Berlin Conference in
1878, remains in Paris, and is stopping with her sister, Miss King, at
her apartment in the Rue de La Tremouille. Madame Waddington was a great
friend of the late King Edward VII, who never passed through Paris
without calling to see her and lunching with her and her family. Madame
Waddington, who is in excellent health and spirits, told me that the
feeling was so strong against the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador, Count
Szecsen de Temerin, during the last few days of his stay here after
hostilities had begun with Germany, that one evening, as he was about to
sit down to dinner with his fellow diplomatist, M. Alexandre Lahovary,
the Roumanian Minister, at the Cercle de l'Union, which is one of the
most select and restricted clubs of Paris, the secretary of the club
requested M. Lahovary to announce to the Austrian Ambassador that the
committee of the club expressed the wish that he should no longer take
his meals at the club nor appear on the premises, because his presence
under prevailing political conditions rendered the Austrian Ambassador
an "undesirable personage." The Austrian Ambassador, who had just
ordered an excellent bottle of Mouton Rothschild claret for his dinner,
at once left the club.
[Illustration: French Negro troops from Africa entraining in Paris.
Photo by Paul Thompson.]
Parisians flocked in thousands to-day to the basilica of the Sacre Coeur
of Montmartre, where special services were held. This church was planned
and built in expiation of the war of 1870. It was finished only a few
months ago, and was to have been definitely "inaugurated" next month.
A detachment of about four thousand men of the Naval Reserve, most of
whom are Bretons, is encamped to the north of Paris at Le Bourget, and
there have been stirring scenes in the little church there. It has been
crowded with sailors and soldiers at every service, for Bretons are
among the most religious of all peoples of France.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account