Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-02-22

A Heminiscence Of n Famous Partisan
PaFk-French Extrava Eance and Caprice
Righty Years Ago-PrOdIgality of the
Duke de Chartres.
The Paris correspondent of the New Or
leans PicGyune writes in his last letter;
The Straight line" is the god to which
every thing is sacrificed here at present
the Pare de Moneeau is the last offering
laid upon the altar of this implaeable god
It was formed eighty odd years ago, by the
Duke de Chartres, afteTwsrd the infamous
Egalite, in obedience to the reigning fashion
of that distant day, when every person of
fortune had their .folie somewhere or another
in the neighborhood of Paris. Heaven
knows the vast sums Of money spent upon
these fragile follies Not one Of them now
remains. What millions have been wasted /
This park forced the Duke de Chartres to
surround the Palais Royal with those arcades
of shops which despite all the changes of
Paris continues to be the favorite resort Of
the idle on rainy days and cold nights.
Many were the jests, great was the ridicule
heaped upon the Duke de Chartres for his
speculation. When the shops were finished
and to let, the folks at Versailles sneered-
.'Monseigneur rarely comes to Court since he
has turned shopkeeper." A caricature ap-
peared in Paris representing him as a rag
picker, with the accustomed stick in hand
busy picking up rags ON the ground, and
this legend was underneath il: HE is look
3 ing for rags on the ground" the fun being
in the bubble between this phrase and ten
ants.
lfa man were to sit by the sea shore, and
throw in Napoleon after Napoleon, he could
not get rid faster of his money than if he
summons architects and their innumerable
followers to convert his money into brick
and mortar. So the Duke of Chartres found
it; especially as he gave orders to his archi-
tect to make him toLie which should sur
pass all the .totes to be found around Paris.
Carmontal planned the gardens, and filed
them, not only with the rarest and most
beautiful trees and shrubs, but with ruins.
pyramids, Mosques, grottos, hermitages,
temples, circular colonnades, splendid hot
houses, belvideres, Gothic towers, in fine,
with all the beauties of nature and archi-
tectural art.
He accumulated there, too, all those sur
prises and tricks and practical iol1es,n so
much in vogue in old times, and which are
still favored ornaments of Dutch and Ger
man gardens. There were shower.baths
which Unexpectedly drenched the stroller.
sometimes in the midst Of the tenderest
amorous collOquy, and there were trap
doors, carefully concealed beneath the green
sward, which suddenly plunged the pro-
menader into dark vault; and benches
where if you sat down you could not get up
again; and beautiful grotto where, the
moment you entered it, the stones fell from
the roof and blocked the entrance, leaving
you in absolute darkness; and artillery
which pealed when you least expected it.
There was an artificial lake in the middle
path, and in the middle ofthe lake there was
an island, reached by two bridges; one of
these bridges was hung on sort of pivot
persons who attempted to reach the island
by it, were thrown into the water; the other
changed position the moment persons en-
tered 1t, and moved around SO as to
stand in the middle of the lake, which
obliged the person upon it to remain there
until boat could put off from tine shore and
bring the bridge to its original position.
The Duke de Chartres took great delight
in this garden, and he gave many and many
festival there-so little did he dream the
end OF all this was to be on the guillotine
Some Of his suppers were licentious as his
grandfather's the Regents. His state enter
talnments were more splendid than those of
Versailles. IL was at a festiYa there King
Gustave III heard he was no longer Prince
Royal but King of Sweden.
During an entertainment where the pref
test and most gallant women of Paris, and
the most amiable" (tfastest," is the epithet
nowG young fellows about town, were coll
lected, and when the revelry was at its
hight, messenger made his appearance
with a dispatch to be delivered with "hast,
post haste" The Prince Royal read the an
nouncement of his fathers death; he rose,
and said to the Duke: "The Prince Royal
accepted with pleasure your invitation, but
beg you to allow the King of Sweden to
retire" The extravaganza of these enter
tainments was something incredible. The
festival he gave to the Emperor Joseph ii,
cost him $l60,0o0-think of $3.50, 900 spent
in one evening You remember his fortune
was enormous; his wife's estate was 5000,
900 year, and he must have had an annual
income Of well l will not shock your
ears by the enormous sam.