The daily gazette., 1880-12-09
OUR PARIS LETTER
Special correspondence Of the Gazette.
PARIS, Nov. %.

IAHIs, NOV 90.
Stepping on board one of the lit
tie steamers that sail upon the
Seine, we were swiftly carried over
the five miles to st. Cloud, the
favorite residence of so many Of the
Kings and Queens Of France.
On the way we passed the village
of Mendon, where is the Chateau
built by Henri de Guise, and occu-
pied, successfully, by the Dukes OF
Bordeaux and Orleans and by
Prince Bonaparte.
We also passed the famous por-
celain mandatory of Sevres, where
are also located the cellars cut into
the solid rock for the purpose of
storing wine. These cellars are
ranged in avenues, like the streets
Of city, and are capable of hold
ing fifteen thousand pipes Of wine.
The st. Cloud palace is located in
park ten miles IN circumference.
1t was a favorite residence of the
Emperor Napoleon and Josephine,
as we'll as of other Kings and
Queers, besides Louis PHILIPPE, and
was last designed by Napoleon Ill.
as residence for the young Prince
Imperial.
The palace and grounds were
kept in excellent condition until the
invasion OF the German army in
1870-71, when the palace was burned
by the French to save it from the
possession of the Germans.
All that now remains of the once
beautiful places and its elaborate furn-
ishings are the bare and black walls,
with their cracked and broken mould
ings and their superb surroundings.
The town of st. Cloud nestles at the
foot of the palace, as 1t were, shut off
IRON it by a lofty stone wall as COM
pletely as though it were miles away.
The Park is the charming result Of
an inconceivable amount of labor and
engineering skill that seems possible
only to Emperors and Kings who con-
troll thousands of laborers and unlimit-
ed resources of money and MATERIAL
To cause hills to be removed, rivers to
flow where there was only dry land,
and lakes and water falls and playing
, fountains where only the tangled
thickets held possession, seems like
magic. But, when to all this you add
the miles of flower borders bright with
every variety of color, the gold and
silver fishes swimming in marble ba-
sins, the bright hued birds singing in
the blooming shrubbery and in the
chestnut trees and the wealth of stat
ues of the beautiful women and the
noble men that surprise you at every
turn of the devious paths, and look at
you from the green islands In the arti
! fetal lakes, and peep at you from b. :
hind rocks and other unexpected
+, places, you are struck with wonder
; and admiration.
There is a 'look out" made by ere.
+ a'ing an artificial hill by the river side
! on which is built tower, from which
: Paris may be seen with all its streets
I and buildings, with the winding Sein,
, and it's villages and all the panorams
of the scenery around about the grea
city. We spent whole day rambling
through tha fairy scenery of st, Cloud
picking up the chestnuts that rattlec
continually down in the paths, pulling
the flowers that were planted for roya
hands to pluck, watching the swami
that swan upon the artificial lakes
/ with an air of possession, and the
/ dolphins and serpents and other curl
GUS water lives that lived in stone and
/ spouted the water for the delight anc
= entertainment of others than the roy
S al persons for whom they were intend
! ed.
1t is only ON Sundays and holiday
Q | that we can see the best of Paris
t Then the theatres and show place.
, may be visited at half the usual prices
r and the best performances are reserv-
e ed for those days. The every day
business proceeds throughout Sunday
e as through the week, and the churches
t are not much, if any better attended
p, than on week days.