Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1878-11-08
PARIS LETTER.
Correspondence OF the Telegrsph.

most dSlOuuuluS HtciuItg6 u fdEltu COS-
tunes and nationalities that it is possible
to conceive. In the exhibitions and on the
Boulevards the foreigners in Paris are
mingled in inextricable tumult and to list
en- to the confusion of tongues Babel seems
to have come again, still in the way Of resi-
deuce and habitual resort each people
seems to have its favorite quarter. The
Spaniards and Italians-the former in high
combs and mantillas, and frequently in the
Andalusian pork-pie hat and the Asturian
eapa, the latter distinguishable only from
their kindred of the Latin races by their
dark flashing eyes and their superabund-
ant gesticulations-Are especially fond Of
tbrouging the cafes between the Rue Rich
lieu and the Rue Vivianne. The Belgians
haunt the Boulevard 1Eontmarte. They
are a frugal race, and the restaurants
stretching towards the Porte St. Denis are
! comparatively cheap. Tie Germans take
up an immense amount of room, make
most tremendous noise, and seem to be
spending vast amount Of money on both
sides Of the boulevard from the Ruele
Peiletier to the Avenue De Opera. As
fer the English, they are ''un pen par
sout." To the afIIuent classes among the
English the Rue de Rivoli seems almost
entirely to belong-say from the Hotel du
Louvre as far as the Rue Castiglione; but
at the new and astonishingly magnificent
Hotel Continental they have to battle for
supremacy with the Americans who haYe
likewise somewhat the best Of the interna-
tiouai fray at the Hotel Splendide and at
the surpassingly-grandiose Cafe Restaur-
ant de Paris, in the Avenue de I Opera.
At the last named and overwhelmingly
sumptous place of entertainment candidly
confess that I have not yet had courage to
dine. I have peeped in once or twice; but
the sheen of the plate glass, the radiance
Of the gliding, the crimson velvet and the
rosewood, the glitter Of plate, and the
snowy whiteness of the damask have terri
fed me: and I have had, as vet; but a
Pisgah view of that Palestine soup for
which they charge, I suppose, five francs a
portion. viii go there on the day when
l purchase Messrs. Webb's engraved glass
eiaret jug, price four hundred and fifty
pounds, or " Fourdrinier's inIaid Floren-
tine cabinet; and I am awaiting, ere I
bring these transactions to a close, the ar
rival of the necessary -eycheques.
"Faites famber Finances. The colos-
sal Continental Hotel occupies part of the
site Of the Ministry Of Finances petroleum
lied by the Commune; but there are other
grand, new edifces rising in theimmediate
vicinity Of the burnt out Government off,
ces, which structures puzzle me more and
more as to what has become of the western
side Of the Rue Castiglioue. On the oppo-
site side the Offices, Of AIessrs. John Arthur
& Co., English bankers, stand safe and
sound enough, but over the way Fmiss at
least half dozen once faVorite hotels and
restaurants. The huge Continental Hotel
has swallowed them all up. Thus, too, the
enormous dry-goods store, the Msgasins
Du Louvre, has eneIoached on the hotel of
that name until scarcely anything of the
original earaYanseral has been left. There
is maximum of magazines, and mini
mum Of inns; and, after the close Of the
Exhibition season, the hotel, I hear, will
be wholly disestablished, and linen drapery,
hosiery and haberdashery will reign su-
preme in the vast saloons where they used |
to charge such very high prices for such
very Indifferent luncheons and dinners. 1 |
scarcely regret the passing awayo the Ho-
tel du Louvre, of which I remember well the |
erection, to say nothing of the notorious
orgie of champagne and equivocal com
pany by which its Inauguration was cele-
brated. Those we're the early days Of the
Empire, and people then not over partieu-
lar concerning lsg Hisneeqaps8, The vast
dimensions Of its principal apartments,
the splendor Of its decorations and furni-
ture Of the entire establishment, and in
particular the covered courtyard, then en-
tirelya novelty in France, made the Hotel
du Louvre in its youth rarity and phe-
nomenon- 1t was twice asdeat, moreover, 1
as any other existing hotel except the Bris-
tol and the Hotel des Princes; and that
circumstance likewise conduced toits popu-
larity. But it was never a pleasant hotel.
From the rooms in the front one had only
a view of the guard and barrack rooms Of
the Louvre, with some grim and stony ef-
igies of Marshals and Generals of the First
Empire, and the rooms in the rear were,
notwithstanding their handsome fittings 50
gloomy as to be so many caves. of despair.
Still the passing away of an hotel once so
famous may justly claim the few words
which I have bestowed upon it, Its cree
tion marked the dawn of the Imperial
epoch, as the Grand Hotel marked its cul-
mination, and the Hotel Splendide the be-
gining of its decline. And now, Cesarism
having definitely and irretrieyably collaps-
ed-so they tell me at least-this bewilder-
ing vast and gorgeous Hotel Continental
has risen, with magical rapidity, from the
red-hot ashes of the Commune. Is Paris
destined to be the witness of yet more
phenomenal revolutions, and still more
hotels9 GAS