Litchfield enquirer., 1876-12-28
kied and demolished in the way of arch
 iAnckurp. Tk was Shenstone who said

sswho'er has travelled Hfes dull rou.d. May eieh to think ke still has found
 Ills warmest welcome at an inn.
 The foreign traveller will scarcely be in- cained to sigh over that. If he is, he will have cause to sigh in many an English village and in most of the leading cities across the Channel. know of one party shat can think with nothing but gratitude of their reception at the Hotel, one raw April night after a stormy passage from Dover to Calais and a cheerless railway ride thence to Paris. Rooms had been bespoken by telegraph, and when the wanderers arrived at the Rue de Rivoll they found such exquisite preparation for their coming as seemed to have been made by the well-known gentle hands reaching across the Atlantic. In a small salon adjoining the parl0r assigned to the paxey. the wax candles threw a soft light over the glass and silver appointments of . table spread for their repast. A waiter arranging a dish of fruit at the buffet greeted them with good evening, as if he had been their servitor for years. in- stead of nov laying eyes upon them for the first time. In the open chimney-place of the parlor was a wood-fire blazing cheexfulIy on the backs of a couple of brass grilEins who did not seem to mind it. On the mantel-piece was an antique clock. hanked by bronze candlesticks that would have taken your heart m a brsc-a-brac shop. The furniture, the draperies, and the hundred and one nick nacks lying around on tables, showed the touch of a woman's hand. It might have been 6 ChGteGu. It was as unlike as possible to those gaudy barracks-fit- k-2 2www~m mk wawH a anTrIlnqa uphofssaref-whieh we call parlors at our own hotels. Beyond this were the sleeping apartments, in the center of one of which stood the neatest of Jensnscs de eknwsbre. with the demurest of dark eyes, and the pinkest of ribbons on her cap. She held in her hand a small copper pitcher of. hot water, and looked like Lio- tard's pretty painting of the Chocolate G1rl come to life. On toilette table un der draped mirror was a slender vase of Bohemian glass holding two or three fresh tea-rOses. What beau of the old regime had slipped out of his tomb to pay mad am that gallantry?
 Outside of the larger cities on the Con- tinent you can get as wretched accOmmo- dations as you can desire for an enemy. In most of the German and Italian prov inces aside from the main routes of travel, the inns are abominable beyond descrip. tiOn; but the people ere invariably courte- Ous. hardly know how to account for the pOliteness which seems to character ize every class abroad. Possibly it is part. ly explained by the military system which in many countries requires of each man c certain term of service; the soldier is disciplined in the severest school of manners; he is taught to treat both his nI h.a sx.fa SuiRh Anfaronnos courtesy becomes second nature. Ger. tainly it is the rule and not the exception among continental nations. From the threshold of a broken down chalet in some loneliest Alpine pass you will be sa- luted graciously. You grow skeptical as to that ''rude Carinthian boor" who, in Goldsmith's poem,-
 Against the houseless stranger shuts the door,"
 am aware that all this is strangely at variance with the statements of other chroniclers. Every man must accept his own experlence. There are small uncom- fortable souls everywhere, if one is mind- ed to look for them. My memory, lucki- ly, is so coarsely woven a sieve that par ticularly small. uncomfortable souls sift through. think it has caught nothing in this sort, except the landlord of the Argyll Arms at Inverary, and him havn't the slightest use for. For me, the bru- tality of the Saxons still lies exclusively between the covers of Mir. Julian Haw- thorne's Saxon Studies. His criticisms may be as just as they are lively; MT. Hawthorne passed three or four years in SaxonY, and I spent ten or twelve days there; my experience weighs nothing against his; but I would not exchange with him.
 No French, Italian, or Saxon gentleman so far as have observed, enters or leaves a cafe of the better class without lifting his hat, especially if there are ladies pres ent. As he hurries from the railway car riage at his station,-a station at which the train halts for perhaps only few sec- onds--he seldom neglects to turn on the step, and salute his fellow passengers. It is true, for the last hour or two he sat staring over the top of journal at your wife or sister; but to be breaker of the female heart is what they all seem to as- pire to, over there. It appears to be reg ognized as not ill-bred to stare at lady so long as there is anything left of her. 1t Is in that fashion American ladies are stared at by Frenchmen and Germans and Italians, who, aside from this, are very polite to our countrywomen,- n,--marvelous lY polite when we reflect that the geuer ality of untraveled foreigners, beyond the Straits of Dover, regard us down in their hearts, as only superior race of barba- rians.
 They would miss us sadly if we were to become an extinct race. Not to mention other advantages resulting from our ex- istence, our desire to behold their paint ings and statuary and the marvels of their architecture--to which they them selves are for the most part only half alive, especially in Italy-keeps a thous- and of their lovely, musty old towns from collapsing They understand this perfectly, and do whatever lies with in them to. interest us; they are even SO Obliging as to invent tombs and historic localities for our edification, and come at last to believe in them them selves. In that same Wittemberg of which have spoken, they will show you the house of Hamlet and at Ferrara, high strung sympathetic Vatet-de.place, if properly encouraged. will throw tears into his voice as he stands with you in small cellar where by no chance is it possible that Tasso was immured for seven years. or even seven minutes. PRIGIoNE DI TAsso! have as genuine prison of Tasso at Ponkapog. Though their opinion of us is not always fattering as we could wish, it shallnotprevent me from saying that these people are the most charming and courte- ous people on the globe, and that shall forget the Madonna at Dresden, the Venus in the Louvre, and the Piazza ot St. Mark as saw it once by moonlight, before forget an interview witnessed one day in the Rue de l'Ecole de Mede- cine, between fat, red faced concierge and very much battered elderly French gAntleman, whose redingote, buttoned closely up to his chin, threw vague but still damaging suspicious on his supply of linen.
 Pardon. madame" said the decayed old gentleman. lifting his threadbare silk hat by it's cnrled brim with indescriBable grace as he approached, ''is M within?'
 II think not but will see.'' ~..
 ''[ am pained" (Je suis desot) ito give you the trouble"
 ''It is no trouble. Monsieur"