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Matilda Betham-Edwards - East of Paris
said, one of the saddest effects of annexation. Without and within, the group of buildings forming the
University is of great splendour. Alike architecture and decoration are on a costly scale; the vast
corridors with tesselated marble floors, marble columns, domes covered with frescoes, statuary, stained
glass, and gilded panels, must impress the mind of the poorer students. Less agreeable is the reflection of
the taxpayer. This new Imperial quarter represents millions of marks, whilst the defences of Strasburg
alone represent many millions more. One of the five facultes is devoted to Natural Science. The Museum
of Natural History, the mineralogical collections, and the chemical laboratories have each their separate
building, whilst at the extreme end of the University gardens is the handsome new observatory, with
covered way leading to the equally handsome residence of the astronomer in charge. Thus the learned
star-gazer can reach his telescope under cover in wintry weather. In addition to the University library
described above, the various class-rooms have each small separate libraries, sections of history,
literature, etc., on which the students can immediately lay their hands. All the buildings are heated with
gas or water.
Just beyond these precincts we come upon a striking contrast - row after row of brand-new barracks,
military bakeries, foundries, and stores; piles of cannon balls, powder magazines, war material, one
would think, sufficient to blow up all Europe. Incongruous indeed is this juxtaposition of a noble seat of
learning and militarism only commensurate with barbaric times. A good way off is the School of
Medicine. This, indeed, owes little or nothing to the new regime, having been founded by the French
Government long before 1870. It is a vast group of buildings, one of which can only be glanced at with a
shudder. My friend pointed out to me an annexe or "vivisection department." Here, as he expressed it, is
maintained quite a menagerie of unhappy animals destined for the tortures of the vivisector's knife. The
very thought sickened me, and I was glad to give up sight- seeing and drop in for half-an-hour's chat with
a charming old lady, French to the backbone, living under the mighty shadow of the Cathedral. She
entertained me with her experiences during the bombardment, when cooped up with a hundred persons,
rich and poor, Jew and Gentile, all passing fifteen days in a dark, damp cellar. Many horrible stories she
related, but somehow they seemed less horrible than the thought of tame, timid, and even affectionate
and intelligent creatures, slowly and deliberately tortured to death, for the sake, forsooth, of what? Of this
corporeal frame man himself has done his best to vitiate and dishonour, mere clayey envelope - so
theologians tell us - of an immortal soul!
Strasburg, like Metz, is one vast camp, at the time of this second visit the forty thousand soldiers in
garrison here were away for the manoeuvres. In another week or two the town would swarm with them.
I will now say a few words about the administration of the annexed provinces, a subject on which exists
much misapprehension.
As I have explained, no liberty, as we understand it, exists for the French subjects of the German
Emperor, neither freedom of speech, nor of the press, nor of public meeting are enjoyed in Alsace and
the portion of Lorraine no longer French. A rigorous censorship of books as well as newspapers is carried
on. Even religious worship is under perpetual surveillance. One by one French pastors and priests are
supplanted by their German brethren. A much respected pastor of Mulhouse, long resident in that city
and ardently French, told me some years ago that he expected to be the last of his countrymen permitted
to officiate. Police officers wearing plain clothes attend the churches in which French is still permitted on
Sunday. There is nothing that can be called representative or real parliamentary government. The
Stadtholder or Governor is in reality a dictator armed with autocratic powers. He can, at a moment's
notice, expel citizens, or stop newspapers. As to administration, it rests in the hands of the State
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