OCR Text |
Show PARIS. Paris assumes to be the capital of the world. Though not the first in population it has stood the first in fashion, and .in a thousand forms of luxurious civilization of the age it has put forth claims to give precedents to the great capitals of the nations. Its magnificent buildings, beautiful boulevards, boule-vards, imperial splendors and immense fortifications made it a nation within itself, proud of its glories and greatness. great-ness. But the Paris of to-day is sadly changed, and its fate seems certain in a few weeks, unless an offensive movement move-ment from the outside can be successfully success-fully made against the beleaguring hosts that surround it, simultaneously with one from the inside. A correspondent of the New York U:rald, writing from the inside of the city on October 18th, gives the population popu-lation at that date, within the walls, at one million four hundred and thirty thousand souls, some nine hundred and Bixty thousand having fled from it before the siege, and three hundred and thirty thousand being added to the population, of whom a hundred and thirty thousand were soldiers from the provinces, the rest having been driven in before the Germans from the surrounding country. Of the present population of Paris five hundred hun-dred and sixty thousand are set down as soldiers armed and unarmed, including inclu-ding sixty thousand uniformed boys not under arm'. Six hundred thousand thous-and of the remainder are said to have a struggle for existence, while there are twenty thousand beg ears and twenty thousand more fed by (lie charity of the government. This vast number of people require daily a quantity of food lor consumption that must quickly reduce re-duce tho stores of the city, no mailer how vast they may have been: and itarvalion is not a remote prospect. Throughout ! ranee, aruiieu are ling organized; but vast masses of German troops overrun the country, and outside out-side aid for the beleagured city seems almost hopeless. The vast number of men required to man the forts and fortifications for-tifications arou- ! the city leave an effective ef-fective force comparatively small for sorties and hard fighting outside the wails; for though there may be a hundred hun-dred and fifty thousand men for such duty, that number would be insufficient insuffi-cient to cope with the war-inured aud veteran armies now surrounding the city. The prospect for the great capita! cap-ita! of France is not, therefore, at pie v ent very hopeful. |