Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1876-06-08

the conquered nation paid the conquer
Ors would have proved curse to those
who received it, and it's loss no seri-
Gus blow to those who paid it. But
you have only to cross the border to
realize a wonder, Germany complains
of hard times and stagnant business
as you do, groans under enormous tax
es which are eaten up in military
Preparations, and helplessly sees thy
cost of living. In France taxes are
high and living has indeed advanced,
but these are little felt in the general
activity of business life, the revenue
exceeds the estimates of expense, and
you notice i buOyant feeling which is
based upon an active and rewarded in
dustry. France is, we are accustomed
to say, the richest country in the
world, because it's people are the most
industrious, and the most economical;
whatever their earnings they always
save something. But you would not
say, ut least here in Paris, that the
people generally live mcanly or deny
themselves amusements. have been
inside no theater that was not filled,
and the prices of places are cOnsidera.
bly higher than in New York. Strang.
ers add greatly to the opera and thea
tire audiences but the bulk of the audi
ences seem to be Parisians. This of
course has nothing to do with the
poorer masses, whose amrsements, it
they afford any, are of 4 cheaper and
humber sort, but it forms feature
in the present prosperous appearance
of Paris.
For myself, I can see small dimin-
ution in the gayety and attractiveness
of Paris since the empire. 1t is still
the bright, the surprisingly clean, the
entertaining city. In no other will
the stranger feel less lonesome, for he
has only to step into the street to be
amused, or ut least diverted, by 4
thousand novelties and elegancies. 1t
is true that the gaping ruin of the
Tuilleries cOnfronts him, and it is with
q singular sensation that he reads,
chiseled upon it's blackened tortering
west portal, the hooking legend: Lib
erte, Egalite, Fraternite. It is trueI
that the gendarme is not dressed so
trigly and smartly us he used to be,
but he is just rs courteous and atten.
tive, and of all policemen the least
violent and the best preserver of
order. 1t is true that the American
may miss Il certain imperial flavor and
gloss-very dear to the republican
mind-in the absence from the Champs
Elysees of those dashing equipages
which We'd with the turn-outs Of their
m;ljesties, and he may be conscious of
the lack Of a certain underlined expec-
tatiOn of excitement which the pres
ence of the court gave to Paris but
otherwise the city goes on as before,
and offers to native and foreigner the
same almost perfect protection of life
and property, the same ease of living,
the same choice of i dinner for two
francs or Il couple of Napoleons. Per-
haps you are conscious of q little more
freedom in the air and in the press
certainly, where the writer's are no
longer required to sign their names to
their contributions although most Of
them do so, either from habit or from
vanity.
AS was saying, do not see how
the Paris civilization, 50 far rs ease of
life, good living, amusement personal
safety and comfort, and the cultiva-
ton of the arts go, could he much i'm.
proved. But for all that, it would be
melancholy to think this was the
last word of civilization. 1t seems to
have no future except of it's own kind,
and is after all, only the old story of
Il perfectly material success. And it
is not new. I do not mean to say that
Paris is any more Babylon than New
York or London is. But it seems to
me just the old experiment in civiliza-
ton of Babylon-of Thebes probably
before Babylon-of Rome in the En-.
pirc. 1t runs in the same course, and
to the same end-intO luxury, into
sensual culture, with the highest aims
lost sight of. You cannot but think,
as you are amazed, perhaps delighted,
in beholding its shining success,
whether it was worth while to repeat
the old experiment, and you philosopll.
ically wonder that the race, after so
many thousand years of essentially the
same thing, has not risen to anything
better. You wonder, and then, being
a man of this age, you go out and en-.
joy the shifting delightful panorama
of your Paris. You linger along the
the shop windows; you step into an
open church where a sweet voiced
choir is singing 4 miserere for your
sins; you watch the wlirl of the innu-
merable vehicles, and get to like the
roar of wheels that does not Stacker,
night or day; You study the passing
throngs that endlessly fill the
streets wherever you go; you take
your place in the theatre and
are not much bored, since the art
is perfect, although the play is little
fade, and the fun you are offered is
only the heel-taps of fun, the lees out
of which all the spontaneous sparkle
has been squeezed: and perhaps-for
nature is not very dead or distant
you may heer the voice of a country
girl who tramps down the middle OF
the Rue Neuve des Petits Champs, cry
ing ''Sweet. fresh cream" in accents
fit to break your heart.
There was, perhaps you don't re-
member it,a civilization started in New
England many years ago which we
have been accustomed to think of as
quite different from that of Paris, and
OCA WILL " ACssu w niger UcVcAOpIllcltS.
It had vigor and purity, and a spiritual
q,lality-did you call it a civilization
of plain living and high thinking |!
And did you not say it was spreading
over the continent?
don't know what has become of it,
and whether it has gone the way of
Paris and Babylon, the old road. The
reports you have been sending over
here for year or two are not encourage
ing. And especially lately you have
contrived to mortify every American
traveller who is called upon to register
his name. do not refer to the Bel
KNAPP exposures and that sort of thing;
you will pardon me, but that does not
surprise us any more we might be &C.
cused of dullness if we did not expect
it. We can explain it as a temporary
condition; not affecting the general
sOundness of the American character,
incident to an accidental reign of shod-
dy. But we cannot explain Mr.. .Dana's
rejection. 1t is an open notice from
the highest body our government that
no gentleman need apply. in politics.