The Portland daily press., 1870-03-14
DAILY PRESS.
ND
Monday Morning, March IA, 1870.
Letter from Paris.
PARIS. FRANCE. Feb. 10, 1870.

eoi"uuS vi your newspaper 10 duureSS GULL
pendiously friends who desire to be informed
OF my progress and to see through my eyes
some of the many objects of interest witnessed
in foreign lands.
After traversing 5000 miles of stormy ocean
in mid winter, after experiencing the dreaded
NAL de mer" or sea sickness. finally on Feb.
1st, France appeared like dim line In the
morning Twilight, then the rocky shores of
the Port of Brest rose out of the waves. The
hills IRE green with grass and winter grain.
The season is far in advance Of our own. 1t
seems to be the first of May. Hail, belle
France! beautiful even now, but how much
more enchanting when the warm breezes of
Spring shall have breathed on the trees and
when their naked branches shall have been
covered with leafy garments. We pass along
the English channel to the music of the sono-
rous bass of the surf beating on the coast of
Brittany, and on the I'd, eleven days from our
embarkation at New York, we enter Havre or
harbor, as its name signifies, thrice welcome
haven of rest. We recognize the landscapes
drawn by the magic pencil of Turner, the
engravinss from which we had so often pom
dered with delight.
We land on terra Jirma but the land is far
from stable. 1t partakes of the roll of the sea.
The houses and all objects seem to vibrate.
Havre at the mouth of the Seine is the har-
Dor of Paris and succeeds Harfeur an ancient
port higher up the river which formerly had an
extensive commerce, but in the process of ages
it was gradually filled up by deposits of sand
and other refuse materials, a fate which may
eventually happen to interior ports in Maine
from the accumulation Of saw dust and other
debris unless laws are seasonably enacted and
rigidly enforced to prevent.
The city was founded bv Louis 18th, in
1909 and is therefore comparatively modern
city. In the first century OF its existence it
was thrice destroyed by an inundation of the
sea which afterwards was effectually walled
out with great industry by its energetic inhab-
itants and now possesses substantial stone
wharves and basins. In foreign commerce it
Is only excelled by Marseiles. Its population
is $4,000.
We now, for the first time, experience the
long anticipated pleasure of wandering
through foreign town, unknowing and un-
known, turning from street to street, from
building to building, from group to group,
gazing at queer old gables and dormer win
dows, staring at new faces, foreign language
in our ears, new manners, customs and habi-
tations before our eyes. The French Ian
mn oo xvb ioI, xvo in, loor,od ,tb l;c
ficulty in college, the youngest children in the
streets speak with all the fluency of natives,
but they all laugh in good English.
We begin to air with hesitation our French
and generally succeed in making ourselves
understood, but once making simple in
quiry in French of a stupid servant, she re-
plies, 'je ne comprend pas Anglais" Il do
not understapd EnglishD
Attracted by the sight of elegant houses on
the brow Of bill in the rear of the city, we
ascend to street called Rue de rCote, from
which we obtained one of the most magnif-
cent views we ever beheld. Before US lay
Havre in the form of an amphitheatre with
its ancient and modern structures mingled to.
SCtuSAs 1OyOuU W tnC Ctob CAtCuuCu tuS
Seine far inward tn the distant hari.nr -u,.l
numerous villages nesting under its banks
In front we could descry in the clear morn
ing atmosphere the beautiful bay indentine
the coasts of Normandy for miles. Yondcl
are the bold rocks of the Cape la Hive once
the favorite haunt of Benardin st. Pierre, the
author of Paul and Virginia. This landscape
this marine view, so beautiful, so extensive, is
said to be only surpassed by the famous Gold
en- Horn Of Constantinople. 1t is photo
graphed in the tablets OF the memory to be in
the recollection a joy forever in the future.
Here the predatory Mortimer, our ancestors
long ago made incursions and conquered the
country hence they sailed for the conquest
OF Great Britain. They were rowing race
fond of influence, power, dominion. From
them their descendants, the English and
| Americans inherit the same characteristics
From them came the blood of the English
nobility of which they are so proud.
We pass along the street gazing at the ele
CANT mansions of the wealthy with ampl
lawns in front containing shrubs and trees
and flower beds cut in the turf. They ar
similar in style, different in detail. You SCI
| varying gables, arcades, balconies, dorme
windows, wings, towers, porches.
The windows are all like folding doors, AM
in this mild day are open for ventilation.
These houses are substantially built of light
| fawn colored calcareous stone or of bricks.
Some of the more modern are constructed ol
bricks of different colors arranged in bands
and so as to form beautiful geometrical figures
| in the Venetian method. The caves and
cornice go entirely around the house, and the
roofs are generally steep and go in straight
lines TO ridgepole which is about one third
the length of the front, and often contain
both dormer and circular windows. The
more modern have the popular Mansard roos
On no occasion did we see the concave roof
so common in the Anglo-American houses in
Maine, though some of the towers are GOV
cred with concave and convex roofs. Th'
front door of these houses is never approach
ed from the street by straight path, but th'
grounds are entered by gate in a corner o
near keepers lodge from which a circular
| Walk UT IOdu CuENSS HCuuu III hoHt, Oitch
bordered by Towering shrubs, such as in oul
climate can only be preserved during the
winter in a cold frame or glass structure
Under the influence Of the genial air the
buds were swelling and the colored petal:
| give promise of abundant eflorescence. The
earlier flowers had already appeared. TIE
little eyes of the daisy bright with the morn
| ing dew were peeping out from the greer
turf, and fain would we have seized and ap
propriated this harbinger of spring, but car,
canem, the watchful mastif bade us beware
We also ascended another eminence nea
| st. Address 800 or 400 feet above the sea. o.
its summit is beautiful little chapel of Notr
Dame des flots, which is always open and i
often visited by mariners 10 return thank
for preservation during great peril, and it
walls were covered with marble tablets will
inscriptions detailing the time when theI
were saved In answer to their intercessions
| and the poorer classes had also piousiy
brought their little gifts for the decoration o.
the church. The little rectory attached is
yery unisue. Its whsle end gable IS artistic
allv constructed of shell work. AT this spot
in full view of the Atlantic whose danger
ons navigation in midwnter l had so
RECENTLY encountered, my heart, too, warmed
with gratitude to that Almighty Power
| - ..,xl, T. L. L