Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-01-31
SCENES IN PARIS.
FROM THE NEW YORK "AIbros. /"

Inc graphic ana apparently truthful style OF the
following sketches must be our excuse for furnish
ing our readers with yet another picture Of
with which they are probably famiiarized;
We were three Engshmen, travelling by the mail train
from London to Dover, way Paris, evening
in this present month Of December 1851 The extensive
householder in the multiplicity of thick great coats the
quiet Cambridge man reading shilling reprint of Ma
caulay, and the present writer did find the eighty
miles so lying between London bridge and the custom
house quay at Dover hang at all heavy their hands,
There was thick white fog outside, and trife Of
drizzng rain and enough frost make the rails slip
perry but we were oyal Notwithstanding old ira
vellers ought be- The householder talked voumi-
nously Of divers parties, having knowledge of
little mares and told u.s. quite eonfdentiay, that he
intended to put the brown horse in harness next week
The Cantab discoursed of "men' who going up
to the university; Of Brown of Maudlin wneing
what too copously with Jones Of Trinity Of how Mufie
beat the Bargee, and how Snafe Of Trinity had been
chased four miles through ploughed field by deter
mined proctor anxious to ascertain his and college
AS to the scribe he passed uncomfortable portion Of
the time in endeayorng to pull pair Of worsted stock
ings over his boots in talking little, sleeping little
and reading little for change
Now, on the Tuesday Immediately preceding the Of
journey there had been an intricate political evou
ton performed in Paris called coup deta People have
grown SO accustomed to revolutions that they took this
hast revolution very quietly expecting, doubtless rec
proca tranquility the other side of the channel There
harvest Of the evening papers, of luck for the
gossps IN i'll wind blowing considerable good to the
patters who pervaded the fashionable squares until
late HOUR proclaming with sonorous solemnty Paris
in flames the red flag waving, and the President
snated.
We wont about our business however very comforta-
bly, and uietly crossed the channel and started from
BouognS with the mail bags and locomotive post office,
at two morning Of Thursday seeing nothing of
volution and nothing Of arms army, very
mposinggendarme-a prize gendarme with wonderful
cooked HIT beard and moustache most martial, sword
prodigoJsy long and calculated generally, to strike
terror into the dsaected, and to awe the malcontents
But, ash had seen him in the marvellous costume
several times before q think remember him
before hey changed the uniform and when he jack
boots and feathers and know him to be peaceful
warrior, willing, when off duty, to partake Of verre
fanni$He Cassis with you, did not argue, from
his grdde tenu, any very alarming state Of things.
The stations in the gray dawn we whrled past
them, we're all filed with soldiers. This had ugly
look My Of the carriage made various mani
festaons The pretty traveller from America began to
get ghtened-a pretty girl in pretty bonnet showing
subsequent events disclosed preter face She had
large fur MANTLE and soft voice with slight lisp, had
come straight from New Orleans to New York. from New
York to Liverpool from Liverpool to London and So by
this mail to Paris alone Comet The world is not SO bad
would accuse it of being, when timd girl,
twenty years of age can travel many thousands Of
miles, and talk with smile of travelling back again.
when she has seen her friend in Paris
The horse-dealer the Cantab, the writer and grieve
to say the dsagreeable gentleman with the sealsn cap
made divers futile aemptsto Sleep andmany
full to converse from Lille to Paris In the carriage like
wisv, very large cloak which, partially disclosing
despatch box and button with crown on it, conec-
ured to form aporton of sleeping Queens messenger.
So, in the cold foggy morning past Beauvas Clermont
Crel, st. Denis; and by nine o'clock into the Paris
terminus
The look Of things in general assumed ugier appear
The dwarfsh little soldiers, with their shabby
great and bright muskets swarmed in waiting
observation-disclosures, and Offices The gallant officers why
WM they wear staysy) in baggy trousers promenaded
gravely and inspected suspciousy. Yet asked
US for passports the inspection of lngGaga want
quict'y as usual, and we were free to depart.
Now, dwell, when in Paris in a hosiery in the Rue
st. Honore close the church Of St Roch To reach
its hospabe por-cocere is apt when tired sleepy
and incumbered with carpet-bag, hatbox and great
coat or tive, to take CABS and being resolved to take
one sailed forth into the courtyard of the terminus
There cabs omnbuses, vehicles of any de-
scrption, not even wheebarrow. Berlines citadnes
hacrcs danes blanches sylphides, coucous voitures
bourgeosesal the mularous varieties Of French equi-
pages had disappeared. The shops shut and the
streets apparently deserted though impossible The
truth was, had stepped into besieged city
asked one OF the railway porers where could get
hclef Monsieur, he replied very politely nowhere "
Boulevards into the St Honore? Monsieur, il is
impossible circulation is impeded." What was to do
My friend the porter had got hour for his breakfast
and he would be encan to carry my bag and to conduct
to my destination by streets where there appre
hension of disturbance.
And we set out. longed for the extortonate
Of cabmen. could have embraced the nsolent of
omnibus conductors Tramp tramp, tramp, through
dreadful little streets choked with mud stopped by
barricades in Of construction Of demolition
now, entangled in mob Of the lowest r-raf thieves,
gds vagabonds Of every description flying before the
gendarmes now stopped by Gordon Of sodiery drawn
street. hustled into the presence Of the command
ing officer Intercepted, brow-beaten, and dismissed
When l state that the railway terminus is Mont
martre and that / entered Paris by the Barriere de
PEtoe the courteous reader who knows Paris form
some idea Of how very muddy weary and savage
pered when arrived at mine inn earnestly desr-
ing to be able to take " mine ease in il.
Every body knows the courtyard of q French hotel
How the host of walters, chambermads, porters and
general hangerson all appearing to have nothing do
lounge about doing it thoroughly all day long How the
landlord sits placidy In species of acove
smoking cigarettes, drinking sugar and water and
yeying each with the satisfied look of boa
constructor just getting the digestion Of his last rabbit
and ready for one; how the cook" chsn we beg
his pardonfirts whte-capped and white jackeed with
the pretty daughter Of the concierge On the momentous
morning of my arrival all these things were changed
Walters chambermads boots, landlord cook comrnis-
sionndirc concierge huddled together in the hall
The cabmen nttached to the hotel sumbered within their
vehicles reduced to state Of compulsory inactivity The
porter-a torpid Aupergndt-vaguely impressed with
conviction that there danger somewhere had let loose
dog with rather of the wolf in his CON-
position than agreeable The concrges pretty daugh
ter had disappeared from human ken altogether the con
eege himself deprived Of his usual solace of the acfon