The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1858-02-13
European Correspondence OF the Min.
nesOtian..--NO. =.
TRIP TO PARIS

necessary steps to get my passport, without
which you cannot travel in any Of the coun-
tries Of Europe, with the exception OF Eng
land. In the first place, went to the once
of the U. S. Ambassador No. "A, Portland
Place. This is in rather aristocratic part
of London, and the way the houses are num-
bered is a caution, it is something alter thiS
style: II, G., l, 2, ID, II, so, and SO on up
to "a On my gaining admission, 1ouna
three or four Americans in waiting tor yarl-
Gus purposes, and must say that m'nS me
americans are the most gentlemaniy IN their
,cays and actions Of any people came across;
they are independent in their bearing, and
free and easy ia their manner. whereas most
of the upper class of English are naughty
and reserved, until You get to be intimate
with them and then it wears Off measure
After got my passport, which is given
free and contained a thorough description Of
nv person, including my height, age, color Of
nv hair and eyes, shape of my nose and
mouth, &C., &c. was told in order to save
some trouble, l had better get it piSed in
London, as l should have to get it done
there or at the first port landed in France
therefore went to the office of the French
Consul, whose charge for cising (Which is
merely stamping it, was Sl.02. This is one
of the many ways of fleeing travellers.
took the cars at London for Folkestone,
il was very fine morning when | was at the
latter place and the coast Of France was to
be seen quite plain with the naked eye. The
distance across is about twenty-five miles, or
about % hours voyage in the steamships
that ply across. | landed at BolOgne. On
our arrival all the passengers were conducted
10 the Custom House through path made
by the officers holding ropes, so that none
could escape without the ordeal of Custom
House scrutiny. In the Custom House the
Passengers have to produce their passport,
which is handed to clerk who copies part
of it, and then it is returned to the owner.
The baggage is thoroughly examined.
The appearance of the houses in BOlogne
are much more like the houses in the United
States than those in England. The wharves
here are also very wide and well built; the
English language is spoken at nearly all the
hotels. The railroad depot here is very
fine building; think it is built of glass and
iron: one end is fitted up as a restaurant, and
one thing very noticeable is, to see wine in
such general use-almost every one that sits
down gets bottle. On entering the cars. l
found them built in the same style as the
English cars, with the doors Of entrance at
the side. The second-class cars are much
better than the English-being altogether
more roomy-with places to hang up a car
pet bag, hat or umbrella. The sets and backs
are also cushioned but covered with common
ticking. l observed that many of the French
ladies wear caps instead of bonnets. Some
of the female passengers went from B0l0gne
TO Paris. distance of $50 miles without bon
nets, and afterwards found it was quite COM
mon to do so, especially among the poorer
class Of females, and l should Judge from
what l have seen since, that more than one
half of the French females never wear bon
ing as well a. the old, although many
OF the former are gay and have them fixed
CO with ribbons.
The country between Bologne and Paris
Is not near so fine or SO we'll cultivated as in
England, and the houses as general thing
have not SO comfortable appearance, and l
noticed that there are a great many wind
mills all through that part of the country
have been. Paris is built on very level
part of the country, and has therefore re-
quired but little grading, and l think taking
1t altogether, it is the prettiest city l was
ever in. The houses are built very uniform,
the streets are pretty wide, with some splen-
did sidewalks, and splendid public walks and
carriage drives. At the hotel where l stop
ped, was given to understand that all the
walters could talk English; but some of them
put me forcibly in mind of the Irishman's
French, which was this way: Last summer
Prince De Joinville was OH tour through
Great Britain and Ireland, and at one of the
cities in the latter, a deputation of the city
authorities waited on him, and as the sheriff
had 4attered himself that he could talk
French, he was appointed by the deputation
to welcome the Prince in the French tongue.
At the proper time and place he commenced
his address, and had been speaking some
minutes when the Prince interrupted him,
said, that unfortunately he did not under
stand the Irish language, and as he would be
probably expected to make reply, he should
feel much obliged if he would speak it in
English, as he understood little of that Ian
guage. This was the way some of the wait
ers could talk English.
The morning after my arrival at the hotel
one of the female walters came up and ask
ed me for my passport. Ipulled out the i'm
portant document and handed it to her, at
keep it, and she replied, Monsieur can go
along with me-" followed her to an Of
flee in the Hotel, over the door of which was
the word Bureau" A lady was seated at
The desk, and my passport was handed to her.
While opening # she said, "ths passport sys-
TEN is very great trouble to you, Monsieur,
but YOU see it is not our fault, as we are only
doing our duty On opening and reading it
she says, Monsieur g., an American 1 Sec
America must be fine country, they are
all such gentlemen" After copying down a
part, it was returned to me.
The Hotels are kept much after our style,
only that many of them only serve up two
meals per day. which is dinner and breakfast.
The dinner is generally very good affair, but
the other meals are generally taken at the
Restaurant or Cafes, which places are very
numerous in the city, and in fine wealth
er most of the people eat and drink out
side the restaurants in the open air. The
Cabs and Omnibuses are much superior to
tie English, and the omnibus system like
better than the system practiced in the Uni
ted States, as all the lines of Omnibuses con-
meet with each other, and passengers can 60
to any part of the city for one fare, even i
they have to change buses seven or eight
times; to do this the conductor gives ticket
called correspondence to such as want t.
change. La the top of each Omnibus is the
name of its starting point and its destination
and this is so fixed that its destination al
ways appears in front, which 1 think is very
convenient for strangers. When the Omni
bus is full on the inside the word complete
is nut up, so that you are always able to tel
if there is room without stopping or mailing
the driver.
One thing that all American would notice
would be to see so many soldiers on duty, ant
lounging around the City. You can see then
standing in groups from three to twelve al
over Paris, and they are also on duty at al
the Public Buildings, and quite number G
them were dressed in Turkish Costume.
was told that there were near 10000 so
d.ers on duty and in the Barracks in Paris a
tho fip,o / Most nf the Rarrar,