The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1878-07-25
Opening the Paris Show.

Not many minutes later retreat from
the tribune and u comnotion in the gal
lery announced the forming and starting
of the procession. Ill luck awaited it
and attended i. Scarcely had the Mar
shall put his foot on the path when fresh
shower came pouring down. The Prince
of Wales, who was near him. looked up
and looked back, ~ if not quite sure
whether he would go on or not. But the
stout Old Marshal had no notion. of Civ
ing in; he marched straight through the
rain, needless of the drenching he got.
The Prince, with English practical pru.
dence, spread his umbrella. The arch
bishop of Paris fairly tucked up his pur-
pie petticoats over his arm and strobe
through the mud with much the same
gait you have seen in the heroine of the
burlesque when the heroine is a man.
Not far behind, the Chinese ambassador
waddled painfully along in his queer
junk shoes. Senators and scarfed depu-
ties were abreast of the Marshal, and
ought to have been mentioned with him;
for you are to remark that the legislative
bodies had insisted on their equal prece-
dence with the executive, and had de-
clined to appear on the scene as guests,
preferring to play the part of hosts con-
jointly with the president of the republic.
The president of the Senate, Due d'Audif-
fert Pasquier. hated of the Bonapartists,
and the prcsidentof the chamber of depu-
ties, NJ. Grcvy, once of the predestned
successors of Marshal McMahon in the
chair of the republic, each at the head of
his colleagues, marched sturdiy forward
on n line with the Marshal. The police
scattered about outside had thus far made
feint of keeping the public on the paths
and off the turf, but curiosity broke all
bounds as soon as this cortege appeared,
and men and women rushed up to the
very bayonets of the troops. who formed
the two walls of the aisle along which
this motley throng of great men ad-
vanced.
For white, perhaps, till they had got
half way down the hill, some sort of or
der was kept in the official array. Not
insecure beneath; the rain above was
pitiess, and soon the column began to
show gaps here and there; stretching out
into parti-colored line one moment, and
the next all huddled into groups and
patches of men. 1t had no more SEM
blance of order than the exhibition it
was on its way to open. 1t became
scramble. The cheers of the people,
which were not very hearty or loud, could
not inspirit it, and the members of it
who were not in uniform, but wore only
the swallowtail and white tie of the ci-
william, began to stray away from the files
and to minglc with the crowd, the SOL
diers readily opening their ranks to make
way for the fugitives. BY the time it
had reached the bridge it had lost half
its strength. On the bridge it wavered
to and fro. A strip of red cloth divided
the floor of this structure, but oddly
enough the Marshal would not walk on
it; he walked on one side of it, and some
of his train on either side, as if it were
too sacred to be trodden by human feet.
Soon the procession and the people be-
came confused and intermingled. You
could no longer distinguish from the
heights in the rear even the line of red
trousers, and once in the Champ de Mars
all effort to keep order was abandoned,
for time at least. Here it was that the
reporters broke in. Here also the police
made Il desperate effort to re-arrange mat
tiers, succeeding only in shutting out
numbers of official people and shutting
in numbers of the public, who enjoyed
the joke. And in that mixed and humili-
ating state the Marshal and his retinue
passed out of the sight of those who
were standing, as was, on the slopes of
the Trocadere Hill.-G. W. Smdliey, in
the N. Y. Tribune.