The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1880-02-18
A visit to Cambetta.

The Paris correspondent of the New
York Tribune recently had an interview
with the French President, and we copy
below his description of the salon at the
Presidency;
When was In the salon had time to
note the alterations which have been
made in the upholstery since went at
the beginning of last summer 20 pay
visit at the Palais Bourbon. A long
perspective of open doors was before
me, and my curiosity prompted me to
explore it to the end. The first time
had been at the Presidency of the
Chamber, the whole suite of salons fac
ing the garden and the quai was in
silk damask, with carpets of uniform
pattern on a uniform, chocolate ground.
Just at the end nearest to the foreign
Office there was little boudoir in sky
blue. Walls and ceilings we're done up
in brocaded satin of this color, like the
inside of jewel casket, and it was fur
nished with low easy-chairs, couches
and pogJs in the same stuff. It was ex-
planned to me that in the time OF the
Due de Morny, the natural half-brother
of the late Emperor by the maternal
side, this room was sacred to the En-
press Eugene, who, when she came to
balls at the Presidency, was received
there by the lady of the house and g
small group of women of official rank
When her Imperial Majesty had ex-
changed compliments with the select
few admitted to her presence here, she
took the arm of the Duke, and followed
the Emperor, who led the Duchess into
the ballroom. Eugene wished the blu
chamber upholstered with light sap
green like her own sitting room at the
Tuileries, but the Duchess de Morny
resisted her pretension in this very
stuTdily. The hair of the Duchess de
Morny was very fair and beautiful. 1t
was fax gilded by feeble autumnal sun
beams and not sufficiently ardent to
look to advantage standing out from
hght-green background which suited
the more auburn shade of Eugenle's
tresses, which were also thickly over
laden with gold powder. The Duchess,
therefore, in Justice to herself, insisted
on the blue, which is favorable to pale
blonde, provided her complexion IS
fair. 1t suits lilies whether they are
intermixed or not with roses. l had
these details from an old man-seryant
at the Presidency, now on the retired
list, who had been behind the scenes
there from the time of the first Napo-
Icons CORPS legislatif. | assure you, "
he said to me, "that the upholstery of
this room was a cause of heart-burnings
in the highest places and very near
being fraught with consequences of Eu-
ropean import. If the czartOryskis had
not been Royalists they would have had
the Empress on the side of the Poles
when that people reVolted eighteen
years ago. 1t required all the tact and
influence of the Due de Morny to keep
her Majesty quiet. She wanted to have
her own way everywhere and IN every
thing. But the Duchess who was Rus
sian, and had Russian ideas about the
empire. was resolved to be mistress In
her own house, and would not put up
with the green hangings, which would
have made her appear salloW and slckly
beside the Empress"
This servant also showed me the
marks of the Shah's greasy head and
hands. The latter members after re-
pasts, which were generally taken IN
the blue drawing room, were wiped on
the backs of luxurious arm-chalrs,
though table napkins had been amply
provided for the Emperor of EmperOrs by
the French Government. "This dirt,
observed the old domestic, " is ignoble.
NJ. lie President intends to have it all
cleaned and done up again" And IN
my ramble through the long suite OF
drawing rooms found that Gambetta
had done as the servant said he would.
The gilded arm-chairs in the state rooms
are covered with velvet of the pale moss
tinge now fashionable with damasks,
and with Beauvais and AubussOn tapes.
tries. Double-pile carpets of neutral
tint, which gives value to the splendoT
of the furniture, is on all The floors.
This furniture was. brought from the
Garde MeubIe, or State Pantechnicon.
As to the luxurious temple to Beauty
at the end, it is now done up with pink
and pearl gray satin, and lighted with
a polychrome Venetian lustre.
I had been pacing up and down some
time when the man Francois came in
and said that NJ. Gambetta had just
telephoned to him from a committee
room for me to be taken into the study,
where I would find books and news
papers to enable me to pass another
haif-hou without being too much
and at length entered snuggery at the
bored l was taken from salon to salon
end of the palace nearest to the Cham
Der of Deputies. A desk table was cow
cred with litter of books and dOcu-
ments of all sorts, and three waste
paper baskets which were before it were
stuffed with letters which had been cast
into il. Gambetta's chair-an Office
chair in leather-was at the center of
the table and with its back to fire, in
which burned gigantic logs. took up
the "Memoires of Madame de Remusat,"
the leaves of which were cut and the
margins covered with pencil annOta-
tiOns in a hand which / at once recOg-
nized. Gambetta's estimate of the
moral character of Napoleon | always
knew to be low one, however great his
admiration for his brain power. 1 was
curious to know how he was impressed
by the revelations made by the conf
Dental lady of honor OF the Empress
Josephine of the domestic crimes of
Josephine's imperial husband. But my
curiosity was doomed not to be salts
fed. In a few moments a door few
open, and Gambetta, hopping his fore
head with a pocket handkeIchief-a
sign that he lad been talking a great
deal-entered and advanced toward me,
excusiug himself as he did so for not
being able to get away sooner from the
budget committee.
Plantation Proverbs.