The Portland daily press., 1881-10-19
A Newport Century.
Curtis'a Admiration OF the Shade of Polly
Lawton.
lHarper's for Novenbsr.l

tHarper's for Novenber.l
It is to be regretted that M. do Rochambean
and the other French gentlemen who come to
take part in the centennial commemoration of
the French alliance, and OF the surrender al
Yorktown to the allied armies did not arrive
in time to see Newport in its summer gayety
and splendor. 1t is with Newport and the
island and waters of Rhode Island that the
French visit is most closely associated sAt
Long Wharf General Washington landed to
meet the French ally. In the beautiful har
Dor of Newport lay the French fleet, and the
Fro ,nch army was cantoned upon the island.
Near the old fort upon the shore Of the harbor
still stands the spacious house in which the
French admiral died, and the headquarters
OF the general and his brilliant suite have still
an air of conscious importance and Of proud
recollection. Our distinguished French visit
ors, familiar as they doubtless are with the
charming memoirs of their countrymen who
accompanied the elder Rochambeau, could see
no spot in America with sinesrer interest than
the quaint town along whose streets tripped
the peerless Quaker Polly Lawton and the
beautiful ChampliD, with whom Washington
himself stepped minuet.
The new Newport also could not fail to
amaze and delight the accomplished gentle
men of our sister republic Nowhere upon the
pleasure-haunted French coast-nowhere in
the world, indeed--coald they see 80 magnif-
cent watering-place. Winding in from Bate
mans around the harbor shore, they might
fancy the yellow Ocean House, which domin-
ates the town, to be German RcSidenz, and
infer a dowdy little community at its fest.
But ascending the hill to the superb Bellevue
Avenue and its tributaries, wide reaches OF
sea pastures enchanted into exquisite gardens,
and clustering with costly and elaborate Villas
the roads swarming with fine equipages OF
every kind, filled with brilliant company,
and over all the soft cleaning atmosphere of
the neighboring Gulf Stream, the French gen
tlemen could not bat admit that there was
world beyond Paris, and gardens more beauti-
full than Versailles.
Nor can it be denied that to those luxurious
villas, to the well-clsd groups chatting and
laughing upon se8ward slOping lawns and
deep-embowered piazzas, to the motley polo
riders and tennis players and gay hunters of
the fox across country, to the delicate dinners
and musical breakfasts and dancing teas, the
coming OF the courtly gentlemen would have
been most welcome Perhaps, indeed, they
will yet arrive, not in time for the midsummer
festivity, but not too late for the softly brilliant
autumnal days when the climate of the island
is perfect and the lustrous sea an opal. They
would bring with them, perhaps traditions
and reminiscences of royal court; there may
be among them gentlemen still loyal to the
Bourbon lily and the King kept from his
crown. They will then have the opportunity
of studying republican simplicity. They Can
note the s0bristy aud moderation to which the
republic of their own country may vet attain.
Or they may reflect upon the proverb of their
own land, Les eatrsmes Sc touchent, as they sit
at tables almost upon the rocks, almost sprink-
led with the ocean spray, at dinners which La
Petit Trianon could not surpass nor rival.
In the pretty white and gold theatre of the
Casino, filled with nurmuring and debonair
company, those gentlemen may perhaps recall
the theatre at Versailles where the Guard sat
at supper when the Queen appeared, and they
rose With passionate loyalty and sang, 80 Ri
chard mon roll" Outside, if the night be
warm, there will be groups in the moon-lit
gallery, through whose hushed talk pulse the
throb and yearuing strain of the waltz, hushed
groups TO whose young hearts the whole world
in that one moment is but witchery and ro-
mance Ali we'll, messieurs so thought De-
Lauzun and Viosmenil as they whispered to
Polly Lawfon under that same moon, in this
very air, with that same mnffied beat of the
ocean, yonder, hundred years ago. Where
be their whispers now, their sighs, their pro-
testations? And Polly Lawton?-
'sMoon of the summer night
Far down you western sleeps