The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1876-10-05
Consider for a moment the royal table,


service at Versailles, and what it cost!
There are three sets of tables spread ever
day. One is occupied by august majest
itself, with the princes and princesses;
second is devoted to the great officers &
the household-the Grand Chamberlain
, Grand Marshal, and so on; the third
crowded by two or three hundred of til
court officials; and these tables arc serve
by over a hundred walters. The anntia
expense of this daily feasting is abou
half million dollars. But these ar
only the tables of the King. The men,
bers of his family, it must be remem
bcred, have each separate establishment
of his or her own. Those of the roya
mesdames include two hundred servants
Madame Elizabeth, the sister of Loui
XVI, must be served by sixty-eiglt pair
of diligent hands; the Countesses d'Ar
tots and de Provence, wives of the King
brothers (both of whom were long after
ward to be Kings themselves), are stated,
with households of two hundred and fift1
servitors each; while Marie Antoinette' ):
establishment huns with five hundred at
PENDANTS of high and low degree. Ever
| the little princess royal, afterward to be
come Duchess dan gouleme, after escap
ing the fate of her parents on the guillo
tine and her brother at the Temple-eve1
she, when but a month old absolutely
needs eighty persons to do her service
Charles and Louis, the Kings brothers, are
provided for separately from the King and
from their wives. Louis of Provence has
a "civil household" of 500, and a "mili
tary household of 900; Charles of Artois
as a younger brother, must be content
with 230 men of the military and $50 OF
the civil sort of servants. "Three- fourths
of these" says Tame, care for display
with their embroideries' and laces, their
unembarrassed and polite expression their
attentive and discreet air. their easy way
saluting, walking and smiling, they APP
pear well in an te-chamber placed in
lines, or scattered in groups in gallery
| should have liked to contemplate even
the stable and kitchen array, the figures
filling up the background of the picture.
By these stars of inferior magnitude we
may judge of the splendor of the royal
SUM- The total expense of all the tables
to which the gallant multitudes sat down
daily at Versailles was more than 800, 900
Il year. The wine bill alone was 800, 900,
the meat and game 100000, the fish
SIS, 900. The whole number of persons
employed about and forming the court
ICdCilctl dG IcdSG 1O,UUU, dIlu W ultlutdlll
the court cost not less than $4,000, 900 a
year then, which was equal to what &c.,
100000 would be know; and it was one
tenth Of the total revenue of France.
The head swims with all this multitude
zled even by the thought of so much
pomp and agnificence, such reckless ex-
penditure, such prodigious waste. No
hat nj,
grand seigneur longed to be one of the
glazing proof of how the nobility had de-
cayed, and how all its grandeur and great
ness had been chained to the royal chariot
wheels. There was no one so high that
he did not eagerly join in the adulation
layman, made it "the duty duty in
life to be at all hours and in every place
under the kings eye, within reach of his
voice and his glance" 1t was literally
true that 1.-the true courtier follows the
prince as shadow follows its body"
Even the Duke de Richelieu writes to
Madame de Maintenon that it were pre-
ferable to die rather than be without the
light of the royal countenance for two
months; while the Duke de la Rochefou-
cauld made it boast that he had never
missed the Kings rising and going to bed.
People paid thousands of dollars for
the privilege of being royal valet
or cloak bearer We hear of old
courtiers of eighty, who have spent
half the time of that long life on their
feet, dancing attendance on majesty!
The palace is ever crowded, and with such
crowd! One would think that India
had exhausted her gems, and France her
silks and satins, to provide for the daz-
zling show; that the deft arts and work
manship of the world could scarcely have
sutficed to furnish forth the decorations
and ornaments; that Nature must have
forced the life and juices of the earth to
supply the vast wealth of flowers garland
ed and grouped in corridors and reception
halls. Never was there a period when
the art of dress was carried to greater
perfection in color and shape, in elaborate
taste and fanciful device. "There is not
toilet here, an air of the head, a tone of
the voice, an expression in language,
which is not a masterpiece of worldly cul-
ture, the distilled quintessence Of all that
is exquisitely elaborated by social art"
We can only fully realize the amazement
which Franklin. appearing in plain,
snuff-colored attire, caused the French
Court, when we comprehend the gorgeous
elimination which the art of dress had
reached. The ladies' skirts, ranged in a
circle, or in tiers on the benches, form an
espalier covered with pearls, gold, silver,
jewels, spangles, flowers and fruits, with
their artificial blossoms, gooseberries,
cherries, strawberries-a gigantic, ami
mated bouquet of which the eye can
scarcely support the brilliancy.'' The
men were scarcely less splendid in attire
than the women, with their buckles and
wigs, their lace cuffs and cravats, their
silken coats and vests of the hues of the
fallen leaves, or of delicate rose-tint, or
of celestial blue, embellished with gold
braid and embroidery" their swords with
richly chased hits, and their chapeaur
thick with lace and feathers.
In such gorgeous fashion lived the
French King and his court; and thus
royalty and the court continued till the
time came for the people to rise, and, in
their rage, and hunger, and thirst for ven
geance, to put out the lights of this daz-
zling scene, and lay low this most magniti-
cent of all theatres royal' in smoking
ruins George N. 7oole, In Applesons'
.TOnrnuI foy Icfnhor