The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1880-05-29

49, ters
If you have a map of Paris by you,
start from the Seine by the Rue DIES
Saints-Peres, across the Boulevard st.
German, up the Rue de Rennes, easterly
and northerly along the Boulevards
Montparnasse, Port Royal, st. Marcel
and de Hospital, and along the river
back to the starting point; you will then
have made the circuit of the Latin Quar-
ter of to-day; vast, crowded part of the
city in which the students no longer pre-
dominate, and containing a heterogene-
Gus mixture of factories, hospitals, muse
ums and tenements, schools, monasteries
and churches. One side of this broad
district swells up into the Montague
Ste. -Genevieve, crowned by that most
picturesque group formed of the dome
of the Pantheon, the irregular mass of
the Church of st. Etienne du Mont Tin
which repose the sacred and miracle
working bones of Ste. Genevievc, patron
saint of Paris), and the crumbling tower
of the old Lycee Napoleon. From this
height, which commands all Paris, the
crowded labyrinth of narrow, crooked
streets and tall and ancient houses, lean
ing in picturesque confusion to north
and south, east and west, slopes down
to the river, crossed and quartered by
the two elegant but prosaically modern
boulevards-S Michel and st. German
which have let air and light into the
gloominess of narrow streets and alleys
of the quarter.
Very dear to the student-heart is this
old and frequently odorous quarter. No
matter what his tastes he is sure to find
in the cher pays latin. something to graf
ify them If he isl lover of the pictur-
esque, what pleasure will he take in its
tortuous streets, its leaning houses its
incomprehensible and wonderful roofs,
spotted-I had almost said spattered-
with dormers and skylights in the strang-
est confusion! Here and there he will
stumble on some antiquated turret, or
ancient gable; or catch little glimpses
through narrow and darkly-shaded al
leys of some church cloister or carved
portal; and so on every side he finds
something to admire. Or if he love no
BILE architecture, there is Notre Dame in
clear view from almost any point; ant
st. Etienne-du-Mont is t he most pictur
esque church in Paris; while the Panthe
4 lis the most coldly elegant and impos
ing edifice of the classic school. Here
are the trim towers and vast portico o.
St. Sulpice, and in another direction il
the beautiful Hotel Cluny with its price
less museum of art and antiquities, Ane
the artist can hardly help spending hour
of his time gazing into the fascinating
} windows of the print shops, or looking
| through their portfolios, where at hi
leisure he may examine photograph
, and paintings, sketches by famous mas
tiers, or engravings from the brain o
Durer, or Morghien. or Raimondi. II
these bookstores and stalls, sidewalk
{ booths, the book-worm will find tn
works of countless dead and forgotten
authors in ponderous black-letter tome
with red edges, with quaint and edifyin,
: dissertations on subjects that men wer
| once interested in, mingled with NOR
a modern productions of every description
: text books and pamphlets, sermons an
4 disquisitions, essays and treatises in En-
r glish, French, German, Latin, or Italian
< The student of history remembers ths
!, here in ancient times took place thos
4 formidable intellectual encounters bt
h tween Duns Scotus from Britain an
/. Thomas from Italy; that here the fris
|, Bacon pondered and studied; and hel
II were laid the foundations of the glory {
o that brilliant era which gave Louis XIV
:. the title of the Sun-King, le Rot Sotei
and whose chief monument in the quartz
to-day is the Palace of the Institute I
France, which had its beginning in tn
- College DIES Quatre Nations establishe
: by the Cardinal Mazarin. And perhal
= = if this student be young and gay he wi
= sigh for the return of the early days I
~ the University, when it gave its name
9 one-third the city, and its students wei
!, not amenable to city laws, and no OF
= could arrest them for debt save the Tn
- versity authorities themselves-and the
!; generally would not. He forgets pc
II haps that in those days gas, and sid
- walks, and the cafe chantante and The
= ter Cluny and the Closerie des Lilas, al
:, other similar and elevating modern il
- provements, were unknown, and dagge
u were sharp, and tempers hot and quic
= and books cost small fortune. -Chri'