The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1878-05-18
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brethren to join them. The revolt
was instantly suppressed and the
ringleaders at once arrested. But the
episode tells of power which is
neither dead nor sleeping, but which
watches with keen and sleepless eyes
for the coming of that hour when The
hope of vengenee shall be washed out
in blood, and the dreams of II shall
be more than realized in the glories
of new revolution. Still Paris was
never more gay than at present. The
| true Frenchman chants his lively
carol from the Opera -Bouffe as he
errolls through the Champs Elysees
or down rue des Italiens. The cafes
chdatants, the theatres and public
gardens are nightly thronged with
visitors. The threat that there shall
be no Exposition has been publicly
made, and there are thousands in Paris
to-day who believe it will never take
| place ; meanwhile the preparations go
| rapidly forward, the Republic being
anxious to show the world that it can
eclipse the glory of the Empire.
No representation yet given to the
public can give even a remote idea of
the grandeur of some of the Exposi-
ton buildings, the magnificent strue-
ture on the Trocadero being excep-
tionally grand and imposing. In the
main building on the Champ de- Mars,
the portion erected by the municipal
ity of Paris will be exceedingly beau
tiful and costly. Much remains to be
done. At the time of the opening
| there will be many departments in
complete, but from present appear
ences should jndge that the exhibi-
tiOn is likely to be wonderful sue
cess. There is only one thing that
can initiate against it and that is the
same thing that killed the Exhibition
at Vienna, namely the desire of the
people to fleece all the rest of the
world. Everything seems to have
taken sudden and terrible rise;
every man or woman who has couple
of rooms to let expects to make for
tune in the next six months'and then
retire from business. Thousands of
people are pouring in here from every
portion of the world. On the Champs
Elysees of an afternoon you can see
every variety of costume from the
pig tail of a Chinaman to fnrs of
Laplander. just now spring is ended
and summer about begun and all of
the outdoor gardens with their brill
liant and attractive entertainments
are nightly thronged with thousands
upon thousands who appear to think
that life was made for nothing but
pleasure. Go where you will, how
ever, the guardhouse and the barrack
stare you in the face behind which
dwells the power which keeps all in
peace and order. Soldiers meet you
at every turn, policemen guard every
corner, the velvet glove scarcely
hides the iron hand beneath it. They
are wise men who govern France now
AYE anG good men too--they know
that authority is only respectable as
long as it has the power behind it to
enforce its decree.
The Champ-de- Mars spot selected
for the site of the Great Exposition is
rich in the grandest associations that
cluster around the Kingdom, the EN-
pire and the Republic. Away back
in the twilight of time tradition in
forms US that the Druids here held
their sacrificial rites, and later still
the Romans had here erected a tenn
pie to their war god, the foundation
of which was nearly on the site of
the present Ecole- Miitaire. It was
here that Attila encampcd with his
savage Huns, and from the brow of the
hill looked down on the infant city,
then on the little island in the mid
die of the Seine, whose destruction
he meditated aud whose capture he
anxiously hoped for. Here magnifi-
cent review was held Oh the occasion
of the marrigage of Henry of Navarro
with the sister of king Charles the
Ninth, and on the night of the terri
BILE massacre of Saint Bartholomew
in 1872 it was here that a little band
of Huguenots, under Jean Pierre
Lescure, made their last desperate
stand, and fought till the blood of the
last hero Redeemed the angry waters
of the Seine. When the revolution
opened the Champ de- Mars was a
iSfoiieo mCoiuS pldCo iOl tho nu4ehr
tude. 1t was in front of the Ecole-
Militaire that the unfortunate Louis
the Sixteenth took the oath to the
new Constitntion-tlie same consti-
tuition by which few months after
he was condemned to the scaffold.
On that occasion Talleyrand officia-,
ted as bishop of Autun, assisted by
four hundred priests, and over l00,-
900 persons witnessed the ceremony.
In 1890 over sixty thousand Parisians
gave their gratuitous labor for sew
eral weeks in leveling the grassy
slopes and raising the embankments
that formed the Champ-de- Mars.
Here the First Napoleon took the
oath to another constitution which
was scattered to the winds OH the
proclamation of the Empire During
the brilliant years that followed Ma
poleon's assumption of the purple,
army after army was encamped here,
| the most uarnificert military pareant