The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1878-08-31
Our Letter from Europe.

XVI.
Broadbrim Goes Traveling--DIon---A
Missing Train--Scenes by the Way
side---His Dutch Experiences--Geneva
and the Donkey Chorus.
"You don't look we'll, Broadbrim,"
said my friend Gubbs, as I stood look
ing at the monkeys in the Jardin
d'AccIimatisation, about two weeks
ago - / think little travel would do
yeu good" Gubbs was right. Nearly
four months of continuous work had
made me wish for a holiday; besides,
everybody who was anybody was de-
parting from Paris; SO | thought |
would just take run into Switzer-
land; dash through the mountains;
dive in the Lakes take peep at the
big Strasburg clock float down the
Rhine get a sniff at Cologne; see
Brussels run over to London; drop
in at Edinburgh and Glasgow; take
a sight at the Highlands and the
Lochs; whip across the Channel /;
take in Giants Causeway and the
Lakes of Killarney; and then, with q
light heart and lighter pocket, re-
turn to my post at the Exposition,
and stay there contentedly till the
curtain rang down on the last day of
October.
My preparations were brief. Gubbs
was not troubled with much bag
gage neither was /. 1t is true, / had
started life in Paris, a few short
months before, with a respectable
stock of collars, handkerchiefs, socks,
shirts, and such small gear, but tile
fraudulent returns of the average
| French bLanchisSeuse had gradually
sapped the foundation of my supplies,
| so that what was once considered re-
spectacle stuffing for moderate
sized valise, was now easily disposed
in the pockets of my overeoat, in ad-
dition to small parcel improvised in
the crown OF my hat
Shaking the dust Of the Exposition
from my feet, and commencing my
foreign correspondence to the care oi
the good angels-that is, if the good
angels ever have anything to do with
/" Our Own Correspondent "-I jump.
ed Or the early train, and started foi
Switzerland. Fnntainebleau lay in
my way, so Gubbs and l got off.
was disappointed. The appearance oi
this celebrated palace, seen from the
ontside, is anything but impressive,
1t has dirty, neglected sort of air,
like place that had been abandoned
To the bats and the owls. Once in
side, however, every thing is changed
The rooms are furnished with a Law
ish magnificence that the eyes ache tC
look at Gold, silks, velvets, frescoes
tapestries, paintings, carvings, stat
uary, mosaies, and articles of pertt
and ornament are around you every
where. They are beautiful, very
beautiful and yet these things were
| gathered together to feed the ostenta-
cious pomp and vanity of single
man, and they were wrung from the
| toll, and the sweat, an the tears, aud
the blood of millions and millions oi
men, women and children, through
ages and ages untold. The wicked
extravagance of the past told the
cause of the terrible Revolution ; and
it was with a feeling of relief, that
the progress of the present ago had
made recurrence of this thing i'm
possible, that | turned my back Oh
the palace of Fontainebleau, and pro-
eeeded on my way to the hills.
High noon brought us to the fine
old city of Dion, where a halt was
made for dinner. If | ever heard
any thing in my life, distinctly
heard the guard sing out" Forty
minutes for refreshments 1t is true
it was not in my mother vernacular
but in substance it was as plain as &
pikestaff. Now, forty minutes il
more than usually allow myself un.
der the most favorable circumstances
sn sat down to that restaurant table
and called for my Bologny ant
Schweizer with a feeling of beati.
tude rarely experienced by travellers
| in foreign lands. Several whistles
blew, q number of bells rung, but
quietly consulted my regulator, ant
went for my BOlogny. 1t was ex'
cellent. The donkey of which thii
was compounded, l reflected, mus
have perished in his youth. Th'
Schweizer, too, was much above th'
average and finally pulling cigal
from my pocket, / lay back in III!
chair with feeling of bliss which
made me imagine Paradise was no
far off. For the first time noticed
that there was an air of unearthl,
quiet on the inside of the depot.
looked out--every car had departed
| bounced from the table like an in
dia- rubber ball and rushed out, wliel
was seized by an officer who desires
to know whether Monsieur was goini
To Schweizerkase." Ishouted, " No
Switzerland !" struggling to get away
when / discovered that the train ha,
been gone half-an hOnr. My overcoa
II