The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1878-09-07
OUR PARIS LETTER.

FLOATING REsTA TRocADERol
PLACE, ETC, ETC.
PARIS, August %, 1878. |
Another Champ de Mars is required toi
afford space for the ceremony of the
Of prizes; $4,000 winners
alone have the right to be accommodated
and an equal number of sightseers,
etc., to witness as many monarchs
mot retired from business as Candide
encountered at his famous Venetian
supper party, or that Napoleon had
packed III the pit of Saxon theatre.
1t is too late to build gigantic shanty,
or that the Palace of Industry, or the to-
be canvas, covered race course at Long
Champ may be selected. The coming
fete promises to out>Herod Herod in
brilliancy; no discordant notes will
likely be heard, as almost all the exhlbl
tors have secured shred of blue ribbon.
The lottery scheme appears to be enjoy
ing the sleep of the lust; likely the
Commissioners on reflection object toI
games of chance for raising the wind,
especially when France is able to pay for
her glory, and the more so when cosmo
politan visitors arrive again at the rate of
100000 u day.
The industrial and agricultural portions
of the French display fill the mind with
a sense of the inexhaustahle fertility OIL
her soil, the unsurpassed fancy and skill
of her worlxmen, and the power OF the
lively and indomitable race by which she
is peopled to eyince all the energy and
enterprise which we are accustomed toI
consider peculiarly the qualities oil
Englishmen. owise man feels Jealousy
at these manifestations of the ability of
our sister Republic.
The most important event in the COM
mercial history of the world, the dis
covery of America, which brought ruin
upon the other peoples prosperous in
ancient times, passed over France alone
without injuring her. With one coast
upon the Atlantic and another upon the
NJ editerranean, France is almost unassail-
able by such revolutions. Marseilles had
been great port before the Romans had
a navy. When navre, Nantes, and St.
Nazare, grew into importance, the adj
vantage was equally to France. Venice
decayed and Amsterdam increased, but
France, holding both ends of the thread,
prospered before and after the discovery
of the Genoese. When wine and corn
were the typical constituents of wealth,
no country could be so rich as that which
possessed the smiling plains of Cham
payne, Normandy, and Bordeaux. When
coal and iron were discovered to be
equally important for country's great
ness, the political insight of the third
Napoleon secured for France, free access
to the coal fields of England and Belgium.
The high prices of coal in 1873 made it
profitable to work the coal measures
which Northern France herselfcontained.
The immense variety of products shown
in the Exhibition are the products of a
land which is 1900 miles in girth, and has
an area, since the loss of Alsace>Lorraine,
of 2U4, 096 square miles. 1t is . country
watered by rivers which are proyerb for
their wealth of waters, and shaded by the
historic forests of Ardennes, Fontaine-
bleau, the Vosges, and Campiegne, in
all of which the oak, the beech, the pine,
the elm, and the edible chestnut flourish,
while the cook trees grow in the South.
The manufacturers which fill the galleries
of the Champ de Mars have grown up in
the course of centuries of civilization, in
constant vicissitudes and struggles for
existence which taxed to the utmost the
powers of an inventive race. No leading
industry can be mentioned which does
not owe much to France.
The captive -- balloon is o great
success, except on windy days. when no
.ascensions are allowed; another innova-
ton is, the floating restaurants; a saloon
OF ov,o boof +bof laouac Dow;c Il, %I<, ,,,o,,
ming, for St. German, and returns in the
afternoon the single journey lasts 81
hours. The speculation is in the hands
of the French restaurateurs at the Ex-
hibition. The tourist can breakfast on
board and return to Paris by rail, or rail
to st. German and dine on board, during
the return journey, with electric lights at
mast head. Several sights are pointed
out along the Seine, the most vagabond
of rivers in its course there is the out
fall of the city sewer, and the heights of
st. Cloud the spot where Billoir placed
the remains of his cut~up mistress; the
Grenonillere. democratic bathing pool
for both sexes, and the new prison of
to the fair sex, that if virtue be ever re-
warded, vice shall never be left unpun-
ished-if the police can help it.
The Trocadero building referred to in
one of my former letters is considered a
marvel of economical construction under
most difficult circumstances, being based
on the hollow site of an old quarry, with
materials most carefully selected for
durability and good effect. The acoustical
arrangements are curious. Behind the
grand organ is a large conque, or reflector,
and the occurrence of all echo is pre-
vented, or supposed to be prevented-for
many declare that it exists-in the fol
lowing manner. Sound travels at the
rate of $40 metres per second and, as
the quickest ear can not discern two
distinct sounds unless there be an interval
of the tenth Of second between them,
felt is employed in every place where
there would be any danger Of echo. The
ceiling, which is suspended from the roof
timbers, is formed Of peculiar felt only
one-ffth of an inch thick, so that the
whole does not weigh more than forty
pounds per square metre. The ventila-
ton of the immense Sale des Fetes is
declared perfect; awell more than sixteen
feet in diameter, was sunk into the an
Gent quarry beneath, which has an extent
of about seven acres, and with its pillars
present large cooling surface. The air
is drawn into that space by means of a.
steam screw fan, and driven by the same
means up into the Sale, where 1t is dis
tributed above at the rate of FIVE feet per
second, which is quickly reduced to four
Or five inches.
The number of medals awarded was
largely increased--the gold from 1000
to 1900, silver from 1000 to 400, bronze
from 5000 to 10000, and the honorable
mentions from 5000 to 10000. 1t seems
quite unnecessary to limit the last named
awards. In all $4,000 distinctions are to
be distributed among $4,000 exhibitors
that is, in round numbers, one medal for
every third exhibitor and an honorable
mention for one in five. The grand |
medals OF honor are in addition.
No less than 1852 persons visited |
the Champ de Mars and Trocadero last
Sunday. The official rehearsal of
French music, which was to taken place
in the grand hall, was put off until next
Thursday, as it has been remarked that |