The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-08-12

Oh uuuOIm lhsttlutiOus just IKE the next village
ana the village further on. The milestones and
signposts are Of one pattern throughout France
prim iron affairs, painted blue, with white letters,
like the plates Of the corners OF Partisan streets;
ana every mafrie is like anothe. naaire both as to
the o1icia notices posted on its door and as to its
outward aspect. Local traditions customs and
architecture having been brought to such dead
level that II you were to drop French peasant
out Of balloon hundred miles away from his
home II would take him . Quarter OF an hour to
discover that he was not IN his own village. Again,
you need not expect to meet with any such ro-
mantle incident as pretty lace on the road.
PRETTY FACES
have become, like all other things in this pinched
country, articles OF trade and export. Hawk-eyed
women from Paris regularly scour the French
villages to recruit pretty girls for the ballet corps
of large city theatres and also for foreign cities
st. Petersburg, Moscow, Copenhagen ana Rio
Janeiro being four Of the places that bid highest.
AS those who are not pretty are simply shorn
OF their hair for the chignon trade, and they are
so well content to part with that which women ofa
less enlightened age considered their chief orna-
ment that peasant girl thinks 1t somehow dis
grace not to wear that short, ciOse-Gttng
cap which denotes that she has parted with her
locks for forty franc piece. Some heads OF hair
bright golden, for instance, and abundant silver
white-fetch much more than forty francs and an
old innkeeper told me with mixed feelings OF Salts
faction and pride that his wife, who was past
sixty, had sold all her hair for 125 francs month
ago. In despite OF all this my friend, the conserva
tive General, who has come over to Treport with
me, kept on exclaiming at every moment, "QaeHe
prosperttei que ces braves gems sorat aoorieu1!
Quel ecemple pour le maudt people de Paris +"
We got out Of the diligence at
TWO MILES FROM TREPoRr,
and branched Off to Eu in a gig which was waiting
to convey US to the country house of a gentleman
who had hidden us to breakfast. The ancestors OF
this gentleman owned twenty square miles Of
county; but two of them were beheaded In 1898
for the greater glory OF fraternal principles their
lands were cOnfscated and their castle RACED to
the ground, after being handsomely plundered by
an enthusiastic peasantry For all this our host
maintains the reputation Of being naughty and
bloated aristocrat because he wrings revenue of
something like eight hundred pounds year from
what he has been enabled to buy back of his avita
domain, and he Is haunted by the idea that some
new agraran revolution may return and strip him
once again. The General tried to reassure him,
but evidently felt but half sure himself, "for"
said he "until we have suppressed all radical
newspapers and stump orators q mans coat and
hat are the only goods he may feel secure Of un-
less, inoeed, they may happen to be new in which
case he can feel no more sure Of them than OF his
fields. After luncheon We drove to the Chateau
dEu, which used to be the favorite country seat Of
Louis Philippe and is now being reiurnlshed anew
for the Count of Paris, after being unnhabited for
twenty years. 1t is pretty place enough, and az
fcrded us the first glimpse Of picturesque scenery
we had beheld since starting-that is, picturesque
In my eyes, for, repeat, the Generals notions OF
the picturesque are derived from chessbOard, and
consist OF fields, mapped out in equal Sizes and de.
voted to the growth OF corn and potatoes alter.
nately. At Eu we gave gardener o crown piece
to take us over the grounds and show US the spot
where
THE NOBLE HOUSE OF GUIsE
held their reasonable councils during the six.
teenth century, when the castle belonged to them
and was the stronghold Of the League. An iron
railing, with an inscription, rails Off the propitious
spot, and q man who should be tempted to climb
in ana cOnspre too, out OF respect for the memories
OF the place, would risk shedding his blood then
and then on the spikes. After this VIC called on
the Marie OF Eu, who rules over borough Of 1000
souls, and wanted us to stay 70 dinner and watch
the trial OF new fire engine, which has been
exciting the town for the past twelve months.
But we were due at Treport and SO bent our steps
to the Cygne Hotel, where our gig horse was
enjoying himself with some beans. All the praise
that applies to city hotels in France does
not extend to country inns nor to the
hotels OF small towns. These cut Q sorry
figure beside the small cozey inns Of
England beside the al0erght OF Italy and the
posadas Of Spain when these last are not too
strongly garrisoned with neas. The landlord Of
the Cygne-a fat, mOurnful man-looked as If he
were only waiting for a stranger to sheer him to
the quick and SO revenge himself for the total and
persistent absence Of customers, which leaves him.
his wife and three servants solitary inside their
hos nj Qa n ms ho
doing the man wrong, for he was anxious that our
horse should have stint of the BEANS and II the
said horse seemed as anxious to be of as we were
it is probably because equine, like human, nature
is ungrateful the whole world over. An hours
drive brought US to Treport, and alighted the
Hotel de rEurope towards three, that 49, in time to
do many sensible things before dinner. Thus we
looked up my dramatic friend and xalked with
him up flight OF q hundred ana twenty steps
Quilt Ia the fourteenth century, TO the church,
whose beadle wants new swallow tail. We ad.
mired market cross where
PROTEsTANTs' EARS
were cropped In the good days OF old, and their
town hall, which has hidden itself under vault
like wine cellar. and is remarkable for having
been used as temporary prison for forty Norman
noplemen during the Reign OF Terror. These ILL.,
conditioned forty refusing to come out and be be-
headed near the market cross, as one would have
thought they would have been too happy to do had
they been imbued in the least degree with the love
of progress had to be smoked with pans of sui
phur. AS it was they kicked and struggled unbe-
comingly as they emerged, sneezing, one by one,
and their execution was by no means an easy
business and consequently rejected the
utmost credit on the revOlutionists, who
had the patience to carry 1t to q tri-
umphant conclusion. Twenty minutes devoted to
q saunter down Treport's main street, half hour
to stroll on the beach in the sweet company of little
gray crabs who wriggle as crookedly as If their
walking education had been undertaken by cabinet
politicians, then an hour at the Casino over
absinthe and cigar, and 80 to dinner at the table
d'h0te Of the Hotel de Europe, where O fiery