The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-05-10

Special Correspondence Of the CRESCENT
PARIS. April Is. 1858,
SO Rne Neuve des Petts Champs. (
FKEscH PAINTING.


The Exhibition Of Paintings is about to be opened.
At every step in the street one meets with 3
picture travelling along leisurely on the back of q
cOIHfalsst0ndtTe. ssw, the other morning, a
Marry" coming down the Rue Berger. and a
Napoleon " crossing the Rue Gregoire. They
met about the Place de la Concorde; but could
20 Longer keep hem IN sight, Tor they both sud
denly vanished into wine shop. These paintings
were travelling towards the Palace OF Industry
This palace has q peculiarly abont Il OF which
few exhibitions or palaces either can boast this
is that in il are held alternately shows Of fat
oxen. horses and artists. You md here prize
qusdTupeds the ground floor, and decorated
painters on the second. A vague smell Of the
stable fills the salons reserved for works of art
The distribution OF rewards accorded to the
finest paintings and the bes-fed cows takes place
stimuli sDeo usiy. young landscape painter a
friend OF miDe-was telling me the other day that
the Jury had made error: they had sent MIN
large medal which he took at FIRST for decora
ZION, and on which was traced In noble Roman
characters, Race Bovine. Premier Accessit
Honneur ct PatTie." He told me he did not in
tend to make any reclamation in the matter, but
that next time he went iuto the sale be would
wear the medal tied TO his buttonhOle France
Is the only country in Europe which yet possesses
her school Of painting. How is it that the French
College Of Painting has not house Of its own,
not even barn or q she'd where il can TRANQUILITY
exhibit its works Il IL shameful. To day pai1t
ing exists as an art nowhere bat in France This
Is so tue that foreign artists are Of necessity
compelled to live 10 Psris. And for all this,
nothing Is done for painting. while millions are
spent IN the building and decoration Of the new
QDeTa. ! do not regret these millions but what
90 they plsy at the opera? The work, of RossIni,
who. rs Italian; Of Verdi, who is Italian; of
Donizeth, who is Italian; of Meyerbeer, who is
German. Whom do they applaud at the opera?
Culveh, who Is Italian; Borghi mamo, who is
Italian, and Mile Nilsson, who is a Swede do
not speak of the dancers who are Russians. Ger.
mans and English. And yet some of the Paris
journals, even the official ones, speak of the
opera as being "nai0nal monument" Had
Ingres, Delacr0ix, Diaz, Rousseau, etc., belonged
10 the fair sex; had they been agile in going up
the back stairs, aud smart in caiOing the officers
Of ciTcumloeutiOn, there is no saying but France
might now have bad her edidce of painting as
well as OF dancing. But Ingres Delacroix aud
the rest were stubborn fellows in their day, and
would not bend 10 ask as a favor What they de-
msDded as right. No one can say how much
tho destinies OF the French school of painting
spirit towards the art which perhaps more than
any other, elevates and ennobles civilization.
"REMINISCENCES OF THE EMPEROR.
On the 10th of this month the emperor will have
reached his sixtieth year. This near approach to
the line which usually divides glorious man.
hood " from "revered old ager has been the
occasion for launching innumeTable retros pective
anecdotes of the imperial habits aud disposition.
may give you one among the many | have heard. /
which seems about as reliable the most OF
mem, anu more interesting. Inc general tone OF
the stories, and leading theme, Is TO show the
wonderful presence OF mind and magnanimous
generosity OF the emperor, and these qualities are
illustrated by examples from the Italian cOmpsign
attempted assassinations, endowments, and SO on.
On one OF the last days in June. 1913, a man. yet
young elegantly dressed, and accompanied BY |
servant, arrived in Paris by the Nord Railway. At
one Of the last stations the lice he left the rail-
way and took cab which conducted him to the
BarTiere du Trone He had taken the idea to re.
y EQnh - Anfo -
be better able to judge his way of the disorder
caused by the terrible insurrection which had !
scarcely yet been suppressed II directed his
steps towards the street OF the faubourg, where |
he was not long in falling in with group of work
people, men and women, occupied in arranging
the pavements which had been taken 40 for the |
construction of the barrcades. Scarcely had he !
placed himself IN the middle Of this scene, which
he was contemplating with certain curiosity, |
when an old woman raising her head, stopped him |
and cried II say, you, the gentleman with the |
yellow gloves instead of ssunterng about amongst
US. you would DO better to help 70 replace the
pavemenss and put things in order" . You are |
right, my good wOman,' replied the unknown, II /
have come among you both to re-establish order |
and 10 replace the pavements ~ and giving his |
cane and gloves 10 his servant, he knelt down, j
took one Of the large stones, and arranged it by |
the side OF the others. He then continued his |
walk, after having ssluted the good old wOma IN,
who, all abashed, saw him go away. This man |
was the Prince Louis Napoleon, to-day emperor Of |
the French.
M. Victor Nsir gives some details which are
very little known, regarding the walks OF the
emperor. Two pOlicemen-pOcemen is, per
haps, not respectful enough let US say sgeats
OF the police-are the only companions Of the en-
peror in his sorties. They are generally the same;
follow or precede the emperor at a certain dis
lance and await HIM at his getting into or coming
out of his carriage; they are not armed with pis-
tolls as one might suppose, but simply carry /
loaded canes. Cert, the ordinary coachman of
the emperor. has been in his service for nearly
twenty years; he was formerly coachman to
Louis Philip. The emperor has great confidence
IN him, and he is fanatlcally devoted TO his mas
ter, as may be supposed. He is the inventor of
a special bit. which at one stroke can break the
horse's jaw were he 10 run away, besides he has
only TO have recourse TO a simple expedent aud
the shafts of tue carriage become detached, while
the carriage itself remains quietly standing.
oPERATIC.
Never was there a more successful piece
played In Paris-l mean in regard TO the re-
the opera of Hamlet" The re-
ceipts have been on the average, for the last
six weeks, upwards of III 600 francs q night.
The LibretIon Of NJ Ambrose Thomas's opera
Of Hamlet is based not SO much on the tragedy
Df the immortal Williams as on M. Alexander
Dumas's version OF the same. Those distin-
yuished operate poets, NM. Jules Barber and
Michel Care 1.-THE former, 1t is said, supplies
he masculine rhymes, the latter the feminine
have abstained from marrying 0phelia 90 Ham
let in the last act as in the last act of their
shameful sentimental parody of wilhelm
NeisieT," they married Mignon to Wilhelm. This
abstinence seems 10 have caused general feel
Dg Of surprise among those who were ct once
familiar with the story Of Hamlet, and with the
dramatic method Of NM. Barber and Care. 1t
IS only fair to the. authors TO add that they
don't kilt Hamlet, who, as far as we can make
out, becomes a sort OF constitutional king the
music. as the curtain falls. expressing that he
IS about TO grant a charter, and TO summon
two houses Of parliament TO share with him the
reigubg power. The part of Hamlet is played
by M. Fsure, whose make up is after the figure
Of Hamlet in Eugene Delacroixs celebrated
picture Of Hamlet and the grave digger; and in
his, as in other operas, al that NJ. Faure has
to do is well done; the soliloques are set, not
TO cantabile music, but TO measured recitative.
The following may be taken as specimens OF the
verselets TO which the ingenious librettists have
contrived to reduce Shakspeare's magnificent
poetry:
Etre pas 5tre-0 mysterei
Observation-Disclosures.
All III m'etait perms pour taller rstrouver,
lie biiser ie lieu qai m'sitacne a Ia terrell