Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1878-07-19
Staunton Tourists in Europe.

LETTER FROM T. D. R.-PARIs-WHAT
THEY HAVE Scientific DEBT F
FRANCE-THE CoURTs-TuE EXHIBI
TON,
&C., &C.. &C.
Correspondence of the Staunton VHNDICAToR)
PARIS. July I'd.
One of the attractions of travel is she
release from newspapers, but the VINDI-
GATOR is the exception. 1t is rather re-
freshing to turn from the heavy editorials
of our English cousins, OF the trothy Pari
sian journals, to the lucubratious of you
senior on his bald head contemporaries oil
Richmond.
am not so sure that anything from INT
would be likely to interest your readers
d. d. would serve your purpose better.
His London letter showed high magma
tive faculty, considering how recently he
had parted from the deck steward.
Since then we have Travelled some
thousands of miles, through France, Italy,
Switzerland Germany, Belg ium, &C.; have
slept in the Palace Of the Fieschi; dream
ed over the Coliseum and the Forum; sat
in the Pope's "particular chair" burned
our feet in the crater of Vesuvius, and
cooled them in the glaciers of Nit. Blanc;
smelled all the smells of Venice and
Cologne: bathed in the mists of the Rhine
fell, and hoated past the castles of all its
knightly old pirates; We have paid some
toll too, by the way, tut only to robbers of
the modern sort; have tried every convey
ance, from lazy gondola to kicking
mule; made the acquaintance of all the
saints in the calendas, and a good many
priests and beggars and fleas that are not
in ii; have studied painting by the acre
and agriculture by the foot, and have seen
life on the continent in some OF its curious
phases.-For example, on the night of the
30th June (the 18th of July of the French
Republic), celebrated here by such fete
as only Paris can get up, we earned our
passage through the crowd Which packed
the Avenue of the Champs Elysees, by fall
ing in with a procession, born OF the ex-
element of the moment, and headed by
two females shouting the Marseillais. AS
this is forbidden music our leaders have
probably ere this heard from the police,
but in the meantime we had good look
at French DEN ocracy.
They sdy Paris is not France, and I ex-
pect the political sentiment OF the French
people is as little to be judged by the tur-
bulent mobs Of the Capital, as are the
morals of her peasantry by the vices which
are foStered here. Foreigners Ale much to
blame for both. On that occas on we saw
not only the rabble Of Belleville (the very
hot bed OF communism and disui der), but
multitudes OF country people from the plo-
vinces, in with both wife and c.,lldren, TO
see the show. The sort Of folks that plou
from their village at four O'Clock in the
morning to their little lenLeo patch of
Ground four or five miles aW y, in the
well-patched blouse and pants and wooden
shoes, y Costume costing pern.tps three
francs (sixty cents), with the day S meal in
the basket-a roll of hard bread an onion,
and bottle of Wine, which costs aim pei
works away till twilight comes-about
eight at night. AT the end of the year be
comes to Paris, and unwraps from that
Did blouse from one to five thousand francs,
and with it buys some OF tile government
credits, that go to pay oft the German war
Indemnity, or goes to his Bourbon landlord
and buys that little garden of mosaic work,
,ut of which in the year he has realized
enough for his fist payment, acquiring in
either cases property interest, that |
makes him better citizen-eonservat |
O that extent. The people who talk of |
France as slumberipg volcano, ready to
rive the world another lesson OF commu-
listic disorder when the presidential term
xpires, and who regard the present gov
rnment as an experiment. in politics, to be
ucceeded by Orleanist or Bourbon sway,