Eighth day of mobilization. Hot summer day, with light southwesterly
breezes. Temperature at five P. M. 26 degrees centigrade.

This may be regarded as the first Sunday of the war. Last Sunday was a
day of rush and clamor in Paris. All shops were open and filled with
eager customers; the streets were crammed with shouting crowds and
hurrying vehicles; everything was forgotten in the outburst of national
enthusiasm. In the afternoon and evening the city was the scene of riots
and pillage.

To-day Paris presented a strong contrast. The news of French and Belgian
successes at the front had cheered the hearts of Parisians, and, in
spite of the strange aspect of the boulevards, denuded of their gay
terraces, and of most of the ordinary means of locomotion, the city had
something of a holiday aspect about it.

In the afternoon the city was crowded with promenaders dressed in Sunday
garb. The proportion of women to men has largely increased, but the
arrival of numerous reservists from the provinces caused Paris to
appear, temporarily at least, somewhat less empty of men.

Indeed, the aspect of the city very much resembled that of any Sunday in
summer, when the city is normally far from crowded.

I met MacAlpin of the _Daily Mail_, who said to me:

"I took a walk in the Bois de Boulogne yesterday afternoon. In a lonely
alley I was stopped by three cyclist policemen. They asked for my