The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1878-10-02
From Our Regular Correspondent.
OUR PARIS LETTER.


Ice lsfeNCc4ole telsalcy OF ctgtli-
cation is from the East 10 the West
We have heard that axiom before.
The movement is from sunrise to sun.
SET ; SO that, when "all earthly things
shall come to GLOOM" aud the saa
himself shall die" as the poet, Camp
bell, gloomily sings, it will b. 10 the
remotest of Occidenls that fashion
will expire. The Palais Royal has
only experienced the application Of .
universal law. Fashionable ciriliza-
ton spreading westward, spreading
to innumerable new b~ouleyards,
spreading 10 the Pare Monceaux,
o%verruBning the Champs Elysees, and
threatening TO overlap the B3is de
Boulogae, has contemporary pso-
nouaeed the Palais Royal to be stu
ated, as things go. out Of the world
II Is no bngeT a place to dine, to
promenade. ID firt. OF evea to con
spire in. IL is too far away. Il Is,
~fashionably considered, az Pekin.
The great restaurants, Velour ex-
cepted, have deserted the eaceiats Ut
the Palais Royal for tue western
b%oulevards. The cafes are, socially
and intellectually, only the shadows
Of their former selves; aud fnally the
ediice has-temporariIy perchauce-
lost the slight political Importance
which under the Second Empire it
possessed. The side Of the vast
quadrangle facing the Rue ST. H)a-
ore ia, as most people know, a mag
nifcent palace, erst the town resi-
dence Of the Dukes Of Orleans.
Thither did the proaigate cynic
Philippe Egalite turn sad eyes as tho
death tumbril bore him through o
hooliog mob, past the old splendid
home Of his fcretathers, to where the
guillotine awaited him in the Place
de la Revolution-now the Place Of
Concord, And ia July, 1880, from
the wiadows Of that self.same Palais
Royal, did the son of Egalite look
wistfully, half fearfGlly, half hopeful
ly, on another mob, pouring yelling
and triumphant from the SQUIRE,
which they had jus, saeked-screeeh-
ing the Marseillaise, roaring "Viye Ia
Charte!n ''Vive 10 Repu5iique !"
give Lafayette! !" give Louis
P~hilippe!" The last cry won the day,
and Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans,
went forth from the Pa!ais Royal a
citizen King. Eighteen years after
wards the mob came back TO his house
to turn it out Of windows. The Pal
ais Royal had, however, enjoyed full
twenty years Of splendor. Even be-
fore the re establishment Of the En-
pire, it had been the residence Of old
Jerome Bonaparte, ex-King Of West
phalia, the uncle Of Napoleon l., and
the consort Of the ill-used Miss Pater-
son Of Baltimore, and whom his In
perial nephew, not knowing very
well what TO do, made at last Gov
ernor of the lnvolide. The old gen
tleman was q Waterloo man-it was
bis corps that had opened the battle
on that fatal wet morning-ard he
hal not behaved badly in the fight.
BY the Pari>ians be was generally,
in vir.ue Of an atr0ciously twisted
cunundrum, called 'l'0ncle Tom"
since, il was argued, Napoleon !. be-
ing lie Grand Homme," aud Nap0l-
con Ill. "le Petit Homme," old Je-
rome must necessarily stand iG the
relation Of "Uncle Tom" or "t'hom-
me" to the latter. His sou, Napoleon
jerome, kept high state at the Palais
Royal, gave good dinners and bad
cigars, end hatched vain intrigues
there against his cousin and bsnefac-
tor, until the Empire tumbled to
pieces like d paJk of cards-eards
marked by gamblers who bad lost
their cunning aud could no longer
"sauter le coup" Very dreaTy must
be the salcous Of the Palais Royal
now. Very dark and dismal must
be the empty stables and coach hous-
es in the courtyard adjoining the
Galerie d. Orleans. The ghos. Of the
Napoleonic era is a very woebegone
one, and Bonapariism, for the mo-
ment, seems to exercise less influence
over the minds of the multitude than
a. any former time during this eentu-
~. Still it must be admitted that
the Second Empire, while it lasted,
did things very handsomely indeed.
The pieces in lis r~epertotres were
got up regardless Of expenses, and its
pourboires were uHstinted.
D;sestablished politically, ostracis-
ed by the fashionable world, the Pal
ais Royal might ostensibly u the
risk of sinking TO the level of a tenth
rate neighborhood. 1t is not only
the great eating house and coffee
house keepers who have quilted it
for the boulevards. To o great ex-
tent it has suffered abandonment at
the hands Of cheap t%ailors. who have
discovered that a coin de rue" or
corner Of a populous street, is a ne
cessitv in carrying 90 the business of
a slop shop palace on q large scale.
There yet remain slop.shops ia the
Palais Royal but they are few in
number, and subdued 10 aspect.
Their dummies look dasly. elammily,
pallid and generally detected. from
obvious inability to c'pe wilh the
preten;ious lsy-fgures Of lie coin
de rue" slop palace: Ice boys in
glen-garry jackets, knicks. 1ekers,
purple hose. aud preposter0usly
rough faces; the aristocratic coach
nsn with BUG great-coats, reaching
down to their ieet, while neekclotns,
basby black whiskers, and gold.laced
hats with monstrous cockades; the
dashing Amazjns with Tyrolese hats
and golden and coral handed whips,
and who never forget 10 lift u corner
Of their habits ID a sufficient al i,ude
TO assure the spectator that they are
provided With undergarments OF
chano.s leather, WITH black feet.
The artistic eKuberaEccs are beyond
the poor old Palais Royal. Fhe
Palais Rayal, baiIt in deliberate mi
tatioa Of the Piszz. San Marco, aad
presenting a really noble, albeit i'm
perfect copy, must always bear q
E~!easSatlg din resemblance to its
peerless venetian original. Unfortu-
nateIy The iacqsatIe naafa OF the
FRENCH for The over orpamen. alton of