Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1880-08-06

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earth in the grand march of human progress.
! ain with great respect very truly yours,
! (Signed.l WILLIAM IL. ENGLISH.
Foreign Correspondence of the Free Press.
The 18th Of July in France.
LONDON, July 16.
To the Editor OF the Free Press and Times:
To-day, returned from visit to Paris
Paris the gay, the passionate, but withal the
beauty loving Paris. There have been times,
as the painful history of the city during the
last century gives abundant evidence, when
she was more passionate but those who have
known her long and intimately say she was
never gayer, never made a grander display
of her fondness for beautiful forms and
colors. than she did Wednesday
1t was only yesterday that learned what
the event was whose anniversary, on the l4th
of July, was celebrated by the great Natl
onal Fete. Every one knew that it had some
reference to the French independence; but
what one of the long list of revolutionary
events in the checkered history of France
deserved to be so distinguished, few of the
many careless lookcrs-one could say for,
with most of them school-day knowledge of
history was decidedly rusty. and with all
that was said in the newspapers and shouted
by the ardent Frenchman, no reference, so
far as ! observed, at least, was made to the
destruction of the Bastile on July l4th, 1889.
That event ii was, however, that paved the
way for the supremacy of Liberty, Equality
fraternity over the despotism of the Bour-
bon monarchy. When the old strong hold of
Louis NNl. in the eastern part Of the city was
blotted out of existence, French Republicans
in reality first declared their independence;
so that the celebration of Wednesday was
merely a repetition of the great national ftte
of 1890 only on much grander scale. All
France, men. women and children, small
towns as well rs provincial cities, lavished
their scanty wealth and their unbounded en-
thusiasm in ornamenting their streets and
decorating their houses. If what | saw may
he taken as fair sample of all that could
have been seen,-and my observations were
not limited TO Paris, nor TO the magnificent
boulevards of that splendid metropolis, it
may well have been. as some one has said,
the grandest gala day in the history of
| France.
In Paris, of course, the celebration reach
ed its climax. There. in the suburbs, was the
review of the national troops and the re-dis-
| tribution of colors to the regiments. The
pride and hope of France was there, for it
is only too evident that in her time of most
peaceful prosperity she is preparing inces-
sanity for war,-a body of troops by whom
! 4. 6
hopes to see the injuries of the late war
avenged. But it is pleasanter TO look upon
the peaceful festivities within the circle of
fortiiications
Monday the work of Ornamentation began.
Here and there. before shops and from the
windows of private houses. bunting in red,
white and blue was floating lazily in the
grateful breeze, and Chinese lanterns in
sparing numbers foretold that the fourteenth
was near at hand. Tuesday the work of
preparing the government buildings was fin
ished. Long lines of gas jets, few inches
apart, were laid, usually in horizontal lines,
round different stories of the buildings,
sometimes introducing angles and arcs, SO
as to show by gas-ight as well the chief
ornamental lines as the symmetrical proper
| tions of each structure. MANY ri the larger
private buildings on the boulevards were
ornamented in the same way and although
| the display OF bunting on them was rather
more haphazard than it was on the govern
ment buildings, it was scarcely less meagre.
TO see the most gorgeous displays one need
! ed to spend two or three hours on Tuesday
afternoon in driving through the narrow
streets on the north bank of the Seine and
through the cit. and some of the older parts
of the Paris on the south bank There the
number and variety of flags and lanterns
! ta h,. nhs W bnt
Of the streets were so thickly festooned that
one seemed TO be riding under nothing less
than 4 complete canopy. The long lines
crossed and re-crOSSed, forming always def
mite figures many of which were exceedingly
beautiful. The walls were adorned US we'll
| And when | saw those rough artisans clad
in their coarse, blue blouses, arranging taste
| fully, and criicising with interest the artls-
tic display of the ornaments which their
hartlcarncd francs had bought, | could not
but wonder at their refined and
exquisite judgment. 1t was quite
as much to be wondered at, too,
that men with such an appreciation
for whatever is beautiful in art could wilfuly
destroy the finest monuments of art in their
own city, for which they were now ready to
shout so Justify. Indeed. having observed
how thoroughly self-governed they were at Il
time when it had been publicly announced
that destruction of property and bloodshed
were imminent in so far that not few hastily
| left the city for safety, | cannot conceive
that repetition of the events of 1871 in
modern Paris is possible. Hot headed as
they still are, Frenchmen have learned to
their sorrow, and learned so that they can
never forget, that cool common sense is a
prerequisite Of Il self-governed no less than
of an artistic people When, therefore, the
sun shone on Paris Wednesday morning, it
found everyone as ready to keep his enthu-
siasm within proper limits as he was to be en-
thu si:stic over the artistic display of bunting
and lanterns, and the prosperity of the R'Pn5-
Hque FrdnrdiSe.
Quiet Paris did not maintain its usual
quietness, however, for, although everyone
had his own celebration at home, the
streets We're crowded from early morning till
midnight with sight They wandered
along the main boulevards, admring what
ever pleased the eye, and often giving NOISY
expression 10 their delight. As evening adj
vanced and the myriad gas jets We're lighted
round the principal buildings, through the
parks, and along the Champs EyStes, Il vast
crowd assembled in the Iuile,ifs gardens
and the Pdlre dc Ia fOAr0r1e to witness the
magnificent display of pyrotechnics which
were let of from the top of the Are Il,
7siomphe hut during all those hours. while
scf-consiituicd bands of SINGERS made some
innocent disturbance by their patriotic rem
dcring of the ''Marscilasc, let it be said to
the honor of the French Republic that there
was no occasion for interference on the part
of the police.
The anniversary Of the storming of the
Baste recalled to mind dcspotism that is
forever buried it saw the reorganization of
an army that will be likely to hinder another
era of drspotsm and it saw the amncs-
tied receive The pardon of the State. All
in all, the 1ith of July was a grand day for
France. ii. :. Il.