Paris War Days: Diary of an American

by Charles Inman Barnard

This proclamation had a good effect on the population.

The wife of my concierge voiced the popular sentiment when she said this evening: "Ah! Monsieur! We may have some pretty bad quarts d'heures here, but we have such confidence that all must end well, that my husband's old mother and our little children will remain in Paris with us." This remark was made five minutes after a German air-lieutenant had flown over the roof of the houses in my street, Rue Théodule-Ribot, and had dropped near the Parc Monceau a bomb that made a terrific noise, but did no damage.

Thursday, September 3.

Thirty-second day of the war. Dazzling sunshine, cloudless sky, and light northeasterly wind. Thermometer at five P.M. 27 degrees centigrade.

The forward movement of the Germans, the "Paris or Death" rush of the Kaiser, seems, for a moment at least, to have come to a standstill. Although precautions had been taken in expectation of a German attack from the region of Compiègne-Senlis, no contact, says the French official communiqué, occurred to-day. In the northeast all is reported quiet.

Disappointed Parisians scanned the sky in vain for their five o'clock taube. A marchand-de-vin on the famous "Butte" of Montmartre arranged a tribune with numbered seats commanding a splendid view of the city. Field-glasses were on hand for hire. Orchestra stalls were paid for at the rate of ten cents a seat. The performance was announced to begin at half-past five. This worked very well yesterday, when the evolutions of the two German air-lieutenants, accompanied by pyrotechnic display, netted a lucrative harvest. To-day, however, the enterprising theatrical manager was forced by his public to return the money at the "box office;" this was promptly done, the performance "being postponed." The postponement was due to the appearance of several French aeroplanes, which evidently had been sighted by the Germans.

Now that the French Government has gone to Bordeaux and temporarily transferred the capital to Gascony, the only heads of the diplomatic corps remaining in Paris are the American Ambassador; the Spanish Ambassador, the Marquis de Villa Urrutia; the Swiss Minister, M. C. Lardy; the Danish Minister, M. H.A. Bernhoft; and the Norwegian Minister, Baron de Wedel Jarlsberg.

That American property may be safeguarded, in the extremely improbable event of an occupation of the city by the Germans, Ambassador Herrick requests all American citizens owning or leasing houses or apartments in the city of Paris or its vicinity to register their names, with descriptions of their dwellings, at the Embassy. If worse comes to the worst, notices will be posted on American dwellings, giving them the protection of the American flag.

Mr. Robert Bacon, former Ambassador to France, is stopping at the Hôtel de Crillon in the Place Vendome. He lunched to-day with Mr. Herrick, and both express optimistic views of the situation from military, diplomatic, and financial standpoints.

My servant, Félicien, telephoned me from Aubervillier, some ten kilometers from Paris, saying that he, together with four men of his squadron, had become separated from his regiment, the Thirty-second Dragoons. They had lost their horses in the marshes and woods near Chantilly during a cavalry engagement and had been instructed to make their way to Paris and rejoin their regimental dépôt at Versailles. The party was in charge of their sergeant, who explained that the regiment had at first been sent towards Metz, where they took part in the daily fighting all along the line there, and that suddenly they were entrained and rushed across country to Péronne, to check the advance of the Germans in their march upon Paris. This seems to indicate that the French generals did not fully appreciate until too late the really vital importance of the concentrated rush upon Paris of the right wing of the German armies, where all their strength had been assembled. The dragoons seemed pretty worn out, but were in good spirits and anxious to get back again in the fighting line. But they must go to Versailles to obtain their remounts. Sophie made a succulent lunch for them in the kitchen. They ate beefsteak, potatoes, cabbage, fruit, rice, and cheese, washed down with half a dozen bottles of light claret.