New-York tribune., 1880-10-03
TRAVELLING IN EUROPE.

TrM-IYCoNvENIENCEs OF HE EURoPbAN
METHODS or TRANSPORTING BAGGAGE.
FROM TIE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRTBuSE-I
| PARIS. Sept. IA Journey from Dleppe to Paris
cannot be rightly described as an exciting episode
of travel The railway, it is true passes through
charming country certain views OF the Vaiiey OF
| the seine--of which glimpses may be had from the
window of your carriage-are full Of beauty. They
| are indeed so fine that no real notion OF their
| loveliness can be had in this rapid way.
The approach to Rouen and the departure
from 1t are, perhaps, exceptions. Scenes appear
| and disappear with the suddenness of maRic-lan-
tern; but each slide discl0ses section OF country
that may be called complete in ITSELF anu each Is
| mike the other 80 sharp are the curves OF the
| road and so abrupt the transformation lhey pro-
woke great desire for a eisurely study, but
| donbt whether the most intimate familiarity with
| the valleys and hooks and hills about this famous
| city would entirely satisfy the curiosity which
these swift Qances at their more conspicuous 1ea-
| lures provoke. A detailed examination Is TOO
| much like view of stage scenery from the
wIngs The materials Of its composition become
| plain to you, but the charm is gone. Nature
| is an artist of different sort. she can
| better afford to let you into her secrets
| In thousands of cases she is more admirable when
seen and known in the stricGest intimacy 'n'h
when hurridly beheld from a distance In Others,
|
| all the more minute knowledge which follows.
| GLIMPSE AT RoUEN
| Rouen itself indeed, is place worth more than
| the few hours usually given to 1t by the lmDa-
| tient American. Thirty years ago, before the En-
pire laid hands on it, the older parts of the town
contained some Of the finest bits Of street arcilec-
ture i'm the world. The engineers of Napoleon Ill.
who thought of nothing but making broad
| avenues for cavalry and good drain
| age swept much of this away, and their pitiess
uilitaranism has vulgarized Rouen as 1t has Paris.
! Enough remains, nevertheless, Of early work to re-
pay all the attention it's likely to get in these days
| The cathedral and ST. Ouen and the statue OF Cor
nellie and the other well known lions OF Rouen are
far from being its only attractions have not seen
the place for years but | assume that the recent
march of improvement has left most OF what Bona
partist Projects spared. In which case would ad-
wise a man who cares for domestic architecture IN
some of its finest periods to pitch his guide-book
| into the Seine and 90 and lose himself in the most
obscure streets and passages and couryards he can
! find.
The same advice has been gwen before now, with
respect to Rouen and many other places But y is as
good s ever and the need of il surely not less The
number of travellers who pass their lives in consult
ing their handbooks does not diminish, but increases,
and the use Of ones own eyes is more than ever
postponed in favor of other peoples eyes. Ii is,
after ALL so convenient to have ones opinions sup
Piled ready made and the assortment of them now
purchasabe in double-cOumns at 50 volume
Is greater than ever before. / will venture
TO say for myself that there no towns
in Europe / know well as those
which | have explored without any other help
| than a moderate knowledge of their history ac-
oui:ed before | set out to see them. The more IN
trcate the place the less You want guide Iou
never really know, for example. such city as Cor
dova till you have threaded its labyrinths without
| a clew, and made map of 1t in your own head.
should say the same OF Venice. except that IN Venice
you must employ gondoler; whom, however you
will find perfectly ready to trust himself and you
TO the guidance of chance, and who will follow your
own whim the more readily because he has none of
his own. His utter Indifference and yonr own utter
ignorance of the place will prove infinitely better
guides to you than tho most skilled of Mr. Cooks
conductors.
| SIGHTSEEING IN CHARGE OF GUIDES.
Imet Yesterday in the Rue des Pyramldes in this
CITY of Paris a party Of men and women the act
of being personally conducted" about the town.
The reader must give himself the trouble to form an
image in his own mind of large van or omnibus
open to the air and sight at the sides and covered at
the ton with ten rows of seats arranged crosswisc,
each seat holding at least six persons the whole
machine drawn at quick trot by four iron-gray,
beavv-maned horses gayly caparlsoned and filing
the street with the music of bells; their driver not
less gayly apparelled in uniform OF blue and red
enlivened by innumerabc brass buttons of small
size but great brlliancy. The vehicle quite
ful There must have been sixty persons in 1t. The
majority of them in ordinary circumstances would
have passed readily for persons of ordinary inteli
pence. though with peculiar views in many cases.
| about dress Herded together as they were, III
| charge of a keeper who counted them, / don't
doubt as they entered and again as they descended
they had very much the appearance and expression
of face to be seen among company of animals voy-
| aging for purely commercial purposes In
railway truck. | do not know to what en-
parements tourist of this sort binds himself on being
first shipped off to the Continent, but apprehend
il was legally in the power Of any one OF thus load to
opit the omnibus and resume the independence he
had parted with, and go and look at something, no
matter what. by himself. If they had this right
they had not used It, and their faces indicated they
were fast losing the power of coming to any reso!u-
tion for themselves or making any whatever of
the natural senses and faculties they had once pos
sessed One and all, they wore look OF shame ;
they were already conscious of being them
selves objects of curiosity; they had a
sheepsh sense of being humiliated, which some
of them tried to hide by laughing and
brayado; without success. They had probably come
direct from England-for they were all English,
whether of the cockney or the provincial type-and
this was their first experience of the kind and they
may have had no clear notion at the start that they
were to be thus paraded in an open wheeled vehicle
and in mass about Paris. Their shame and real
distress were credtabe to the poor creatures max
ing them objects of sympathy instead Of ridicule.
There were in fact, two loads, one closely follow
ing the other. They had just been conducted to
view some monument. and were about to view an
other; and were doubtless expected TO ac-
aure knowledge of the topography and
physognomy of Paris in the interval and by virtue
of this process of transportation on wheels. As night
drew on. they would be driven back to their hotel.
where they would dine together at the same table,