The Russellville Democrat., 1881-03-24
A SAIL IN A SEWER.
Floating on Rivers of Filth-NIiles of Un- savory Smells that Linger in the Nos
 triIs,
snn Frnnclseo Chronlcle.


 It is novel idea for a man to ask a
 visitor to take a sail in his swill barrel. The French do this. They invite visit
 ors to sail in their sewers. A city sewer
 is simply bigger oiial barrel. The visit to the Parisian sewers will occupy the 1 best part of day, and thus keeps the visitor so much longer in Paris. A visi-
 tors expenses in strange city are gen
 erally one-third more than he put on his 1 schedule of legitimate expenses. There
 are legitimate expenses and illlegitimate 1 expenses. Legitimate expenses are an- 1 ticipated; the illegitimate are not. The l illegitimate are generally contracted in | haste and repented for at leisure. So 1 that marriage is not the only matter atoned for in this manner. But for | bear. There are two visiting days per
 week for the sewers. You go down at | the Palace du Chatelet, close by the small column raised by the first Napole-
 on in honor of his earlier victories. That is where 1 went down one bright after
 noon. I had previously written to the Prefeet for pass to the sewer. The 1 pasteboard he sent in response was three inches square, and as finely printed and embellished as an invitation to Fifth avenue millionaire party. On these vis- l ting days the officials take up a small l stone slab in the Palace du Chatelet, and disclose a hole and series of winding iron steps going down to the main sewer 1 It is the main sewer only we travel on. The smaller sewers leading into it are not navigable for the gondolas. A very distinguished company had gath
 cred about this little black hole First came fourteen Chinese Man darins, all in blue silk robes. They came in carriages attended by coachmen
 and footmen in livery Their arrival caused great deal of lowing and cere- monial on the part of the seven officials | They were passed down the hole one by ! one, while the lesser caste Europeans waited. The distinction of rank and po- 1 sition must be kept up even in entering 1 a sewer. These Chinese noblemen at ] tempted their entrance to the hole with much dignity. The dignity held on un- 1 til they stepped into the hole, and at- i tempted the descent of the narrow wind ' ing stairs. But silk robes reaching to 1 the heels and Chinese wooden shoes are 1 not compatible with the descentof very
 narrow pair of stairs through hole so
 small that the Mandarin's head while
 ont couldn't see where his feet were go-
 ing in the hole underneath him. It was
 q sort of comedy in fourteen short acts,
 each act representing the going down of
 a Mandarin. We stood outside the mar
 now rail and enjoyed it. Then came five
 Arab chiefs in their long white bornous. l They also attempted the dignity of the | desert, but failed like the Chinamen. ! When the Chinese and Orientals had 1 descended the herd of Americans, Eng
 fish, Germans, Italians and Russians
 were allowed to follow. The etiquette of rank is well kept up even in a sewer.
 i We went down and found ourselves in
 a large vaulted space. The main sewer
 was there, black as the Styx and many l times nastier. Directly over it, the wheels resting on a rail on either side l were number of open cars, holding i fifteen or twenty each, whose construc- i ton would almost warrant the term ele- | gant. Bottoms and sides were of light i wicker-work, and at either end shone l two globular lamps. As fast as a car was i filled with passengers two men on either ! side of the sewer passed a stout bar l through fixed iron rings in the car frame, and, bracing themselves against the pro- 1 jecting ends, trolled off and trundled us away into the darkness. The Chinese l Mandarins and Arab Sheiks went first. l Al SnbTt tIlltINdih lltt H~lSe OI UlUrtnOf- l ing rills and babbling brooks came to ] our ears. These, as we were rushed by them, we saw to be the tributaries Of the main stream. The sewer over which we
 rode was named from the street under
 which it ran--the Rue de Rivoli-and 1 the murmuring rills, brooks and rivulets were called from the streets under which they passed. Some bounded into the
 main river in joyous little cascades. and the meeting of others with the parent
 river was conducted in a more quiet, or
 derly and solemn fashion. The average
 smell was simply that of a sewer, some what carbolized perhaps, but still
 sewer.
 We stopped. Here we were to leave
 the car. Here began the remainder of
 the passage by water-at least it is called
 water: and for navigation the fluid an-
 swers the purpose but it isn't water.
 We left the car. The barges were load
 ing up. Each would hold fifteen or
 twenty people In the distance 1 saw
 floating away the gondola carrying the
 Sheiks and Mandarins, who everywhere
 must have official and social preference
 over us plain, honest, civilized men and
 women. Our barge started. Twenty
 were on board. It rolled unctuously in
 the dark -colored fluid. As the passen- gers moved about in getting to their seats it rolled as a vessel might roll in a lake of molasses It was SO unpleasant. The motive power was furnished by few blouse-c0Yered Frenchmen attached to long rope, who, in the capacity of mules, hauled us along. Silently we moved on. Not a ripple was heard under the brow. The sewer had no capacity for rippling.
 Little was seen, save the glimmer of the lamp on the barge ahead of us, and long, straight, silent, murky stream.
 The barge, loaded deep, seemed but few inches above this Parisian Styx. As we slightly rocked there came awful sug- gestions to our minds of the possibility of shipping a sea- On the current we saw straws, corks and lemon peelings. A young man, actively and unpleasantly curious, thrust his cane into the stream with view of getting soundings. On brinoine the cane on board all in it's