Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1856-05-03
Correspondents of the Spy
Journal of n Traveller in Europe.
NO. XII

Is used for the court and walks, about sixteen
acres of ground. 1t is Home for the officers and
soldiers of the French army, who are disabled by
their wounds, or have served thirty years, and
have been honorably discharged. 1t has been in
existence nearly two hundred years. The estab-
lishment will accommodate several thousand in
mates; and here they are boarded and clothed at
the expense of the Nation. They are all we'll
dressed in dark blue uniform and wear cooked
hats. There were about four thousand men in it
when We visited it, nearly all of whom had served
IN the armies of Napoleon Bonaparte 1t was an
interesting, although sad and melancholy sight
to see hundreds of them, grey headed old men,
limping and hobbling about, with crutches and
canes, some with but one leg, and Others, with
an arm or an eye missng-nearly all in some
way manned and disabled, while fighting s'for
the glory of France" as some of them told US
1t is certainly creditable and honorable in the
Government, to take such good care of the poor
fellows, after they used up in fighting its
bloody battles. But, how infinitely better for them
ed in the horrid work
Our attention was often called, to notice how
the old soldiers revered the name of Napoleon
Whenever his name was mentioned, their enthu.
siasm seemed to be kindIed to its highest pitch
the tears rolled down their cheeks, while they
related some of the exciting scenes they had
encountered with him; and, "shouldering their
crutches, showed us how battles were won''
Latterly there have been so many English and
American visitors in Paris, that some of the
shopkeepers, to attract customers, post up no.
tices in their windows that they can speak Eng
ish. We have seen signs hung out, announcing
that A1glisch is spoken beer, but, upon en-
tering their Shops we have generally found, that
they made as poor work in attempting to speak
it, as we had noticed they did in spelling it. In
some Instances, person who can speak little
English is used by all his neighbors, who send
for him when they have foreign customer In
many places, and, indeed, believe it is so all
over the continent, they seem to feel assured that
all English and American travellers are very rich
and not unfrequently many articles are used to
fleece the unwary stranger; often asking price
more than double the amount they will finally
take for an article, if the offer is made them
although they have prir fare" hung up in their
windows. There are of course very many excep-
tons to this mean practice; honorable, fair-dea.
ing shopkeepers are to be found in Paris, as we'll
in other cities.
The retail dry goods stores in Paris are not as
snowy, or so elegantly fitted up, as one might
suppose they would be, knowing the usual good
taste of the French people, Asa whole, they are
not as handsome are those in the large cities of
our own country. great part of them occupy
quite small rooms say twelve or fifteen by twenty
five feet--to lessen rents, probably. There are,
however, some very large and elegant establish
ments for dry goods, glass and silver ware, &c.
and some of the grocery stores are very nicely
and handsomely arranged. The numerous shops
of Paris, for the sale of all kinds of iewelry,
fancy articles, &C., &c., are noted for the daz-
cling beauty and elegance of their CONTENTS
They abound everywhere, all over the city. Prob.
ably, no other city in che world has half as many
rich and fancy jewelry shops, IN proportion to
their population, as there are in Paris. All the
shopkeepers complains las usual, high rents and
should judge they were some higher than they are
with US, for the same accommodations.
The complete Ignorance, in regard to almost
everything relative to our country, which seems
to prevail everywhere, here is sometimes anus
ing, as well as annoying, to us. We have been
asked, by quite respectable and apparently intel
gent people, what language was spoken in New
York And they seem reluctant to believe that
the Americans really are white people da.
guerreotype likeness of the wife of one of our
friends was being shown in a company, and sur
prise was expressed that she was so fair -
"Why, she is as white as we are % said brown
looking German, one of the company. Not
long since, we met with young Scotch clergy
man, who upon our being introduced to him as
Americans, and after an exchange of salutations,
exclaimed, "Americans indeed can it be nos.
sible you are Americans /? why, you speak very
good EnglishP 1t occurred to us, that our Ian
guage was purer English than his broad Scotch
dialect. 1t seems hardly credible, that an intel
igent person, just from college, who prided him.
self upon his knowledge, should show such an
utter ignorance of the world as he BETRAYED dur
ing our short intercourse with him His reading
had evidently been more thorough in theology,
than in history. He was one of those conceited,
narrow,minded individuals sometimes INST with.
who seem to think that the place they were born
in is the centre of the world; that all the talents
and genius in it is concentrated in one favored
spot, and that large portion fell to them
selves.
We visited the celebrated cathedral, "Notre
Dame," stupendous edlfce, covering nearly two
acres of ground. 1t is very ancient building,
supposed to be more than eight hundred years
old; and, from its historical recollections. is
highly interesting to the visitor But must de-
fer for the present, any further description of it
as, also, of our visits to the very many other OBJ
jects of great interest the stranger, for which
Paris is so justly celebrated, and which, to give
them even cursory examination would require
several weeks time.
This evening, we took our accustomed stroll in
the Garden of the Tuilleries, and IL The Elysian
Fields, for the last time, as tomorrow we bid a
final adieu to the gay city of Paris. As usual,
one of the Government bands of music, with its
forty or fifty performers, is playing, as they do
nearly every evening from five to seven o'clock,
in all the public gardens, for the amusement of
the people THE walks are thronged with thou
sands of pleasure apparently full of hilar-
ity and enjoyment; with myriads of brilliant gas
lights blazing in every direction -rendering the
whole scene one of dazzling enchantment and al
most bewdering to the stranger
But there is another side to this pleasant pic
ture The apparent happiness and enjoyment Of
the gay multitude is not without some alloys
''He who dances, must pay the fiddler" The
question naturally arises, Who pays the enor-
NOUS expenses necessary for keeping all these
public places in such admirable order i-the ele-