The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1878-06-21
From our Regular Correspcndent.l
PARIS LETTER.

4 Day at Versailles. The Paloces, Parks,
Fountains, and F6Nies Of the French Mon
archs. The apartments Of Madame Main
tenon and Josephine, Of Napoleon and of
Louis the fourteenth. The SDiss viltage of
Marie AntOinette, ETC., etc.
We were to start at in the morning to
see the palaces and parks of the French
Kings at Versailles, Our guide, an old Pol
ish polyglot of twenty-five years residence
in Paris, seedy, threadbare and nervous,
was promptly on hand, and we stopped to
take cup of coffee at little cafe opposite
the Bourse. Our cafe was one of the many
that depends on the brokers who frequent
the Bourse for patronage. There was no
exchange that day ,and it was so long before
| We were served, that we missed the train and
| had to wait thirty minutes for the next.
Soon, however, we were on the root of the
unhandsome little black french cars, run
ming at the rate of mile in two minutes,
and in less than half hour were in signt of
| the palaces of Louis the fourteenth. l will
not attempt to describe the edifces, parks,
statuary and fountains, to which the treas
ure and blood and genius of Europe have 30
lavishly contributed. Wood cuts and pho
tographs would be unsatisfactory enough,
how much more pen sketch. We spent
the day in a maze of avenues, grottees, toun-
tains, lakes, palaces, and statuary-statuary
NEUROLOGICAL, classical, medieval and mod
ern. There were statues in heroic size of
Ney, Murat, Dessaix, and Foult, the gener-
ais who led the legions Of the first Napoleon
on hundred fields, and there also were
Conde and Louis the fourteenth, the so call
ed great Monarch because he impoverished
France to build and beautify Versailles, near
by were statues of Demosthenes, of Sopho-
cles, of Apollo, Minerva, the Venus of Mi
10, in fact it seemed the entire Greek Pan
theon reproduced in these beautiful grounds.
What surprises an American most is not SO
much the excellence of these works in
bronze and marble, as their profusion. We
have in few galleries specimens as good al
these since they are in most instances copies
; made by measure from the original, but here
; you come upon works in bronze and marble
; at every turn, and it is little exaggeration to
say that works of art exist here in the profu-
sion of toys in the United States. We
walked and looked until our eyes and legs
were tired no horses or carriages are per.
mitted on the ground, pedestrians only are
, allowed to traverse these magnificent distan.
ces. 1t was now noon, and we sat down 10
y little cafe for refreshments, and left after
our veteran little Pole had pocSeted the
. Jumps of sugar that remained on the plate;
" this is a custom with Parisians who are sci-
= entifcally and yiciously economical. Alter
e luncheon we went through the picture gal
lerses full of the paintings of the so-called
masters, who prostituted their genius in pic
toral apotheoses of royal brigands, pimps,
and courtesans. In the different palaces We
l. saw the chairs in which the Kings and the
III Emperors of France had sat, the desks at
Of which they had written, the beds on which
D. they slept, the chambers that had witnessed
e. the loves and humiliation of Madame Main-
t. tenon and Josephine. In densely shaded
ne park was the plain country residence OF Ma
rs rie Antoinette, surrounded by the pictures
e. que cottages of the Swiss village she had
lis built and near by, amid lakes, grottoes trees
sc and fountains, of pardisiacal beauty was the
At pavilion where she delighted to meet thu
mt ladies and gentlemen of her court, all ar
ng rayed as Swiss peasants, play the life of |
o. simple pastoral people, trying to ignore th'
ITS black cloud surcharged with the yndictiye
he ness of years of oppression, that was already
he -, ~ ho. 6 ria
i' No matter how thoroughly informed tn
~, foreign reader may be in French history an
:, literature, visit to France will be scarcely
''a less valuable as revelation than as an in
., terpretation There is much to admire bu
~ more to pity, in all that we see in this riff
if not rotten civilization, whose inspiration
a, has been military glory, and whose pose
e. not SO much that of the dying gladiato
IA prone in defense, as that of the brigand VIII
Or chooses his life and deserves his doom.
1t is not remarkable that the French Q
49,. rather the Parisians are nation of artst'
~ that they have attained an indescribable e,
> ;, quisiteness in every variety Of ornaments
~ ton, that they excel all other people o
"a canvass and in marble-in everything SUI
ana gested by the comprehensive "to Ralon" {
;no the Greeks. They have had before thel
1, for generations the treasures of the esthet
ave world, their infant eyes have opened upo
Iaa and their youthful taste has been nurture
ose by the most splendid specimens in every d
io, partmentoi the fine arts; and if theories {
aht new school of science may be true the
h., have had the advantage of hereditary imp
ion tus, or prenatal bias.
for 1t is quite common to hear our fello
unit countrymen deplore our modest attanmen
en- in art, and regret that We have no promise
end reaching the excellence of the French. The
ort- do not know at what pose the distinctic
has been attained by this people, and thu
forget that we are commissioned by our al
rip tecedents, and by the age, with sublime
nil sterner duties than the enjoyment of eve
suit the most refined of sensuous beauties.
@. A. s.