New-York tribune., 1878-05-14
HOW THE PARIS FAIR BEGAN.
RAIN, CONFUSION AND GRUMBLING.

| WANT OF sYSTEM-AMERICAN FOREIGN MINIS
IEHs NOT SHOWN PROPER ATTFNTIoN-rHE
RAIN" RED TRoUsERED DEVILS THE OPENING
| CEREMONIEs-PROGREss or THE PROCESSION
ILUMlNATIONs AT NIGHT.
IFRoM A STAFF CORRESPONDENT THE TRIBUSE.l
| PARIS, May 1.-Except the Marshal and bali
dozen Princes and score of other great people, no
body can well have seen the whole OF the opening
ceremony of the Exhibition which has been per-
formed to-day. / have seen something of it hut not
all. My colleagues have seen. hope what / have
missed or seen it SO far it possible that jour
nalists with some special help from two per-
sOnages who are not jOurnalsts) should see it, How
they have Jared don't yet know, but suspect we
shall be Of one mind in beginning with grumble.
The truth is that the press whether French OF 1or-
egn, has been pretty much left to take care OF IT
self; far at any rate, as the French authorities
are concerned. The French papers, am told, were
allowed two tickets apiece whether their loud re-
monstrances and complaints were fruitful OF any
more, | can't say. But there were no press tickets
at ALL in the proper sense of the word There were
no tickets which allowed you to about at viii.
and no place set apart for Journalists rs such.
The performances began in the TrocadGrO and ter
minated half a mile away in the Champ de Mars;
it is tOerably Obvious therefore, that nobody could
legtlmacly witness the whole of it unless he were
dtJUOTiIcu 10 20 WUtTc anu NllOu uc hOhiu' wv
such passes were gwen. For my own part. had a
ticket which was understood to give admission to
the best place open to the public in the TrOcadGro
Palace. Ii was given IN good faith and accepted in
good faitn, but if | had stayed where was put,
should have seen nothing There was, however, no
difficulty in going anywhere You liked outside the
lines of troOps The grounds of the TrOcadero were
Opcu to all cOmers without distinction, once you
had passed the entrance gates All the elabor-
ate devices for distributing the $4,000 guests of the
day amounted TO little nothing. The lower gallery
surrounding the Sale des FGtes, which went by the
name of the Tribune Of the Duchess of Magenta,
was perhaps kept for invited guests. cannot say.
/ did not fry to enter it but judging from what
went on elsewhere should suppose that, too might
easily have been invaded. The upper, first floor
gallery for which about 1000 tickets were issued,
was seized upon by the irst-cOmers and ast-comers,
and long before the hour of opening 1000 or 5000
people were crammed into it. There was
nothing to prevent anybody going there. Not
only was there no policeman to bar the
way but no policeman to show the way until you
had hunted him up. The throng of human beings
which poured through the two entrances to the
TrocadGro was left to find its way best it could
amid a labyrinth of stairways and passages, and
distribute itself as it liked among the seven distinct
places to which seven distinct sets of tickets were
supposed TO give admission. What actually hap
pcned was that people tried the gallery porch
they liked best, and if they found it crowded, wan
dcrcd off to another in search of better
! accommodation. l never saw the police
SO badly handled in Paris, or so i'll
instructed in their duties | arrived so early
that there was 10 overflow pressure of people as
| and my party passed on but the officers on duty
were already bcwildered past help Perfectly civil,
but perfectly at a loss what to give to the
simplest question beyond shrug of the shoulders,
| and " Mon Dicu, Monsieur you had better Keep
/ straight on.n White tickets gilt, white tickets
with yellow stripe, with yellow cross with pink
cross, with pink stripe, with green stripes, with
green crosses had dazzled and dazed the poor men
| ill they no longer saw anything but mingling
of the whole in Kaleidoscope. whirl.
1t was the samo thing In the grounds be-
| low. Whether you had red or yellow
card. PARIS side or PasSy side mattercd nothing.
| You chose your own ground and followed your own
route | suspect things were no better in the
! Champ de Mars. | know, at any rate, that the
| grand cortcge Of the Marshal-if may anticipate q
! little and have done with this subject of tickets
was broken into on its entrance into the Champ de
Mars after passing the Jena Bridge, il not sooner
The authorities, who had steadily refused to allow
tickets of circulation to the Press, had the pleasure
of seeing the Marshal closely followed along the
central avenue by a!cOrps of reporters correspond
cnts notebooks and pencils III hand, sheltered by
umbrellas and great coats, and ndustrousy Jottlng
down memoranda-Of a kind probably not too fiat
terng to the managers of this entertainment. And
of what went on altogether IN the Champ de Mars
hear such droll accounts as write that begin to
regret | did not station myself there. But L
was elsewhere and will not poach in my friends
manors.
You know already that the great Sale DIES F6tes
meant for tho celebration of to-day, was unfinished
and could not be used. BY way of n makeshIft, a
pavilion of crimson and gold was built out from the
gallery on the ground tier just above the fountains
and looking toward the Champ de Mars. should
think if might hold 200 people, and on this narrow
platform the spoken solemnities of this worlds fos
tiyal actually took place. Right and left of 1t
stretched the Duchesss tribune, receding until the
pavilion became at the ends invisible; whatever
was said in it must have been quite
inaudib!c. except to those next the speaker
From the favored and exceptional spot
which | first occupied, an imperfect view
might be hatof the Opof one cOrncrOf the pavilion
| razcd down on il with respect but | presently
fouud a protracted contemplation of crimson vel
vets and silks and gold laco become mOnOtonous
If the great hall had been ready, matters might
have gone better. but no conceivable ingenuity
could put a dignifed face on proceedings which had
70 be conducted in a horse-box. There certainly
WAS not room for twentieth part of the great dig
pitaries of State who were invited to be present.
AMERICAN MINISTER'S ILL-TREAJED.
That the authorities felt themselves singulary
hampered may be judged from what befel foreign
diplomatsts The Ministers of the United States to
England and Germany, Mr.. Welsh and Mr.. Bayard
! Taylor, were both in town. Next after royal or
princely parsonage, foreign ambassador or minis
ter receives as n rule the greatest attention. and is
treated with tho greatest distinction. Our envoy