Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-05-22
PARISIAN AMUSEME NTS,
SOME ACCOUNT OF THE JAMES THAT
DELIGHT TsE FREaCa.
a Fete Honeyad Brsad-octroi Houses
Flying Horses by Steam-Trained
Animals-M errymakiag
PARIS, April IT, 1850.

1AiN /Chf gtAN Ptfh u CptCC AetotS dtn ay
through three Sundays, that those who are
occupied during the week may have an op
portunity of thoroughly enjoying this
strange collection of amusements. Fol-
many years it has been predicted that this
fete, like many other old customs, would
eventually disappear, but the French are
tenacious still of this ancient frolic be-
queathed to them by their merry ancestors,
as has been proved by the statistics of this
year, which show an increase i'll the number
of cireuses and 6araques, and the addi-
tional space occupied by them For this
occasion all the travelling circuses through
out France direct their steps towards the
capital. They come with their acrobats,
their elephants, ehiens saUdnts, monkeys
equally skilled. their giants, their dwarfs,
their fortune-tellers, and numerous phe-
nomena OF whose existence human intelli-
gence has never dreamed The majority Of
them, like the wandering Arabs, carry their
tents with them, and the entire building
used for the equestrian performances is
composed of the same boards and piers at
Paris as at Marseilles The smaller es-
adjustments rent 6a1aques, or sort of
sheds, which have been erected for the
occasion by some eRtyepreRear. But, of
course, that which predominates are the
half shops for the sale of ginger
bread. There
THE HoNEYED BREAD
Is to be found in all shapes, sizes and
FORMS in small squares. in large squares,
with almonds and without almonds, as
animals almost as varied as those of the
creation, as soldier boys so large that FIVE
year-old Youngsters look upon them as
81 growed up" as castles and towers and
modern houses, and of various designs and
devices for which neither nature nor man
have furnished the model. There are,
besides, enveloped in deep, glazed paper
tubes, with bright pictures surrounded by
gilt, the renowned aonnettes de Dion.
These are small round cakes made of the
finest ingredients and highly appreciated
by all gourmets. Dion is renowned for
its nonnettes, as is Verdun for its
dragees, Commercy for its madelaines,
Barbecue for its conjecture, and so on,
nearly every city of France excelling in
some specially more or less important, and
whose reputation dates already so many
years back, that the grown.up people to-
day remember the verses taught them
when children, and in which all this is
enumerated Besides all this gingerbread
for sale, there are lotteries of all descrip-
ton more or less grotesque, and whose
prize is gingerbread in some one Of the
forms above mentioned. This article of
consumption is very cheap on this occa-
sion, so much so that owners of great
loaded hand carts, to be seen everywhere,
sell large -sized squares of it for one sou.
The quantity collected is enormous, and
one wonders if all Paris collectively will
be able to consume it. Everybody eats
piece of gingerbread as though an impera-
dragged through the crowd with their
hands and mouths full, but grown-up peo-
pie, refined and richly dressed men and
women, move from one attraction to an
other, laughingly munching a piece of the
honeyed bread. This bread is not the
same as our gingerbread, for instead
of the molasses We use, honey is
substituted, and though proclaimed as very
healthful, it is less agreeable in taste.
After all the gingerbread seems to be
merely an excuse for the sale of everything
else under the sun, and particularly for in
dulging in every species of amusement that
has been invented up to the present day.
The situation of this fete is on the Place
du Trone, or, as it was formerly called,
Barriere du Trone, for from 1856 until 1860
it formed the limit of the city, and it was
there tax was collected on different OBJ
jects carried within. These houses, situated
at all the gates of Paris, are called
ocTRoI HOUSES.
The Place du Trone is circular space
planted with trees. The Jacobins used it
as a supplementary place of execution.
just beyond it are two lofty Doric columns.
Above the bases are colossal figures in bas-
relief those facing the outer boulevard
represent Peace and Victory; those on the
other side, Industry and Justice. Wind
ing staircases lead to galleries browning
the capitals, ON each of which is an
acroterium supporting colossal bronze
statue; one representing st. Louis,
the other Philip Augustus. A throne
was erected here, on which Louis XIV.
received the homage of the city, on his
triumphal entry August 26, 1860, whence
its name. The fete extends beyond these
columns at one end and at the other end
into the Faubourg st. Antoine as far as the
Bastile, and into the boulevard Foltaire as
far as the Chateau d Eau. One half of
Paris seems occupied in amusing the other
half. whose chief occupation is to be
amused. The means and opportunity are
not wanting, for the efforts exercised by the
owners OF the shows and baraques to
entice the audience to walk in are so
tremendous that they seem to entirely ex-
haust themselves on the outside Every
show has its brass or string bands which
constantly play popular airs to draw the
crowd. Those which have not music re-
sort to bells and gongs, and as these estsb-
lishments all but touch each other, the din,
the noise and the little harmony may be
imagined. The bells, gongs and horns
cease only to be followed by the loud voices
of screeching men and women hired
for the occasion and whose business
it is to harangue the crowd In the
meantime the clowns perform antics
on the platform of the entrance; the
aCSieoSee, OH III very SttoIb uISssSo VI Vel
bright colors and trimmed with gaudy
tinsel, promenade up and down; monkeys
on horseback, dressed as Generals, ma
liciously eye the small boys eating ginger
bread the dwarfs, in little pigeon. houses,
are brought out on high stand where
they thrust their small hands out of very
small window of their prison and answer
questions for the editication of the crowd,
while men, mounting ladders, extend to
the breeze yards of muslin forming the
chemise of some lady giant Some of the
managers, as though sufficient noise were
not made, shoot OFF pistols.
WHAT NOISE, WHAT CONFUSION,
What animation There are wsx-works
of which the principal figures are outside.
There are the greatest beauties in the world
to be seen, whose portraits, ife-size painted
in oil, are exposed on the walls of the
building. Then there are the num-
erous fortune. tellers, all dark, OF
Bohemian type. They now call them
selves sonambulists, although their man