furniture whose use was unknown to them.

At first the theatres were closed, and some of them were turned
into military hospitals; but by the beginning of November it was
thought better to reopen them. At one theatre, Victor Hugo's "Les
Châtiments" was recited,--that bitterest arraignment of Napoleon
III. and the Second Empire; at another, Beethoven and Mendelssohn
were played, with apologies for their being Germans.

The hospital parts of the theatres were railed off, and in the
corridors ballet-girls, actors, and sisters of charity mingled together.

Victor Hugo was in Paris during the siege, but he lent his name
to no party or demonstration. The recitation of his verses at the
theatre afforded him great delight, but the triumph was short-lived.
The attraction of "Les Châtiments" soon died away.

The most popular places of resort for idle men were the clubs. On
November 21, one of these was visited by our American observer.
He says,--

"The hall was filled to suffocation. Every man present had a pipe
or cigar in his mouth. It was a sulphurous place, a Pandemonium,
a Zoological Garden, a Pantomime, a Comedy, a Backwoods Fourth of
July, and a Donnybrook Fair, all combined. Women too were there,
the fiercest in the place. Orators roared, and fingers were shaken.
One speech was on the infringement of the liberties of the citizen
because soldiers were made to march left or right according to the
will of their officers. Another considered that the sluggards who
went on hospital service with red crosses on their caps were no