OLD PHILADELPHIA LADY.

Paris, December 24, 1899.




_Monday, September 7_.


Thirty-sixth day of the war. Hot September weather, with brisk east
wind. Temperature at five P.M. 24 degrees centigrade.

The great battle begun Sunday morning continues with slight advantages
obtained by the allies and extends over a front of one hundred and
thirty miles, from Nanteuil le Haudoin, on the allied left, to Verdun.
The allies occupy very strong positions. Their left is supported by
Paris, their right by the fortresses of Verdun, and their center by the
entrenched camps of Mailly, just south of Vitry-le-Francois.

About thirty American and English newspaper men met at lunch to-day at
the restaurant Hubin, Number 22 Rue Brouot. Among those present were
Fullerton, Grundy, MacAlpin, Williams, Knox, Reeves, O'Niel, Sims, and
others. Every one was in fine spirits, the trend of feeling being that
Paris was the most interesting place to be in just now, and that perhaps
the best story of the war may yet be written in Paris.

I drove in a cab with MacAlpin to the Gare du Nord to meet a train of
British wounded that was expected to arrive there. We found the station
almost deserted. A reserve captain of the Forty-sixth Infantry, whose