Paris War Days | Page 2

Commander of the Army of Paris, August 26, 1914
Étienne Alexandre Millerand, Minister of War, August 27, 1914
Parisians watching the German air craft that drop bombs on the city
Eiffel Tower's searchlight to reveal bomb-throwing air craft and air
scouts of the Germans
Wounded French soldiers returning to Paris with trophies from the
battlefields
29th Infantry Reserves, Army of the Defence of Paris
General Joffre, Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Armies in France
M. Émile Laurent, appointed Prefect of Police of Paris, September 3,
1914
Workmen erecting a barricade in Paris
"Sauf-Conduit" issued by the Prefecture of Police to persons wishing to
travel
One of the wards in the American Ambulance Hospital at Neuilly

PARIS WAR DAYS

Saturday, August 1, 1914
This war comes like the traditional "Bolt from the Blue!" I had made
arrangements to retire from active journalism and relinquish the duties
of Paris correspondent of the New York Tribune, which I had fulfilled
for sixteen consecutive years. In reply to a request from Mr. Ogden
Reid, I had expressed willingness to remain at my post in Paris until the

early autumn, inasmuch as "a quiet summer was expected." Spring was
a busy time for newspaper men. There had been the sensational
assassination of Gaston Calmette, editor of the Figaro, by Mme.
Caillaux, wife of the cabinet minister. Then there was the "caving-in"
of the streets of Paris, owing to the effect of storms on the thin surface
left by the underground tunnelling for the electric tramways, and for the
new metropolitan "tubes." The big prize fight between Jack Johnson
and Frank Moran for the heavy-weight championship of the world
followed. Next came the trial of Mme. Caillaux and her acquittal. Then
followed the newspaper campaign of the brothers, MM. Paul and Guy
de Cassagnac, against German newspaper correspondents in Paris. The
Cassagnacs demanded that certain German correspondents should quit
French territory within twenty-four hours. As several German
correspondents were members of the "Association of the Foreign
Press," of which I happen to be president, I was able to smooth matters
over a little. Although my personal sympathies were strongly with the
Cassagnacs, who are editors of L'Autorité, especially in their
condemnation of the severity of the German Government in regard to
"Hansi," the Alsatian caricaturist and author of Mon Village, I managed
with the help of some of my Russian, Italian, English, and Spanish
colleagues to avoid needless duels and quarrels between French and
German journalists. Finally, the day of the "Grand Prix de Paris"
brought the news of the murder at Sarajevo of the heir to the
Austro-Hungarian throne. My friend, Mr. Edward Schuler, was
despatched by the Associated Press to Vienna, and when he returned, I
readily saw, from the state of feeling that he described as existing in
Vienna, that war between Austria and Servia was inevitable, and that
unless some supreme effort should be made for peace by Emperor
William, a general European war must follow.
Wednesday, July 29, the day after Austria's declaration of war against
Servia, I lunched at the Hotel Ritz with Mrs. Marshall Field and her
nephew, Mr. Spencer Eddy. Mrs. Field was about to leave Paris for
Aix-les-Bains. We talked about the probability of Russia being forced
to make war with Germany. I warned Mrs. Field of the risk she would
run in going to Aix-les-Bains, and in the event of mobilization, of being
deprived of her motor-car and of all means of getting away. At that

time no one seemed to think that war really would break out. Mrs. Field
finally gave up her plan of going to Aix-les-Bains and went to London.
The following evening Maître Charles Philippe of the Paris Bar and M.
Max-Lyon, a French railroad engineer who had built many of the
Turkish and Servian railroads, dined with me. They both felt that
nothing could now avert war between France and Germany.
Yesterday (July 31) a sort of war fever permeated the air. A cabinet
minister assured me that at whatever capital there was the slightest
hope of engaging in negotiations and compromise, at that very point the
"mailed fist" diplomacy of the Kaiser William dealt an unexpected
blow. There seems no longer any hope for peace, because it is evident
that the Military Pretorian Guard, advisers to the German and Austrian
emperors, are in the ascendency, and they want war. "Very well, they
will have it!" remarked the veteran French statesman, M. Georges
Clemençeau.
After dinner last evening I happened to be near the Café du Croissant
near the Bourse and in the heart of the newspaper quarter of Paris.
Suddenly an excited crowd collected. "Jaurès has been assassinated!"
shouted a waiter. The French deputy and anti-war agitator was sitting
with his friends at a table near an open window in the