The National tribune., 1883-03-22

1
| ing strung high in the air to dry without the
help of sunshine; the black rooms lighted by
narrow windows that the sun never reaches;
the foul air and hopeless darkness of the sun
less streets, viii not be banished
| A local history of Old Nice tells how the
! Phenicians made colony here before the
| Christian era; how this was once Roman
municipality; how Italy and France have
| quarreled for the possession, and Savoy has held
| it. until now it is at last established as part of
/ the French Republic. 1t is this long history
! which explains the existence Of Old Nice, for
/ there have been times when its narrow streets
/ have been saved by their narrowness, and
when the steep hill which shuts OFF the wind
and breeds summer pestilences was the best
| protection of the besieged city. But modern
warfare has little to do with the width of
| streets and the height of unf0rtifed hills, and
/ Old Nice has long since ceased to grow. The
new Nice, spreading all around II. is full of air
and sunshine and roomy houses on ample
/ boulevards. Meantime, thousands of human
/ souls begin and end their mortal experience in
4 Old Nice, and the only regenerating influences
that we can see as the Iesult Of the passing
/ centuries are municipal Schools the free run
| ming water, and the postal savings banks
which the French government places close to
every wOrkingman in its domain. Surely, the
! lot of the American wOrkingman is blissful
! compared with this, and there is reason for
/ heartfelt thankfulness that no lingering IN
! heritance of things good for the fifteenth CEN
/ tury and TuinOus fort the nineteenth need weigh
down the lives OF American working people as
their homes weigh down the 10000 inhabitants
| of Old Nice. ApropOs Of the difference between
the circumstances of French and American
workingmen, there is an astounding ignorance
In France of the actual state of america. In
/ tellgent persons educated exclusively in Eu-
/ rope cannot imagine without extreme effort a
! city like Philadelphia, with miles Of houses of
four Or six rooms, having yards for drying
clothes, and bathrooms. Such abundance of
room is beyond their comprehension, and that
workman should own his home is beyond the
French conception Of a city. The French city
| is one huge experiment in the art of economic
| ing land and CHASTITY feature of this ecOnO
| Is the French cemetery. That of Nice, placed.
on the northwest slope of the hill of the cha
teaU, commands an inspiring view of the sea
and the mountains, and were it given over to
fresh grass and simple memorial stones it
would be in every way a restful place. But
the dignity of mind which selected this gra-
/ cious spot was exhausted by the achievement,
and the cemetery is grotesque in the extreme.
GRoTEsQUE CEMETERY.
On entering it, ones attention is Immediately
seized by large and ugly granite mass dedi-
| Gated to the memory of the victims of the fire
/ OF the opera house. The names of the victims
! are engraved and gilded upon the granite, and
it IS difficult to realize that the persons COM
HeHlofaGeu Qlu not Gle 10 save the country.
| The next object which distraet5 the eye from
the beauty wherewith nature surrounds this
1 resting place of the dead, is an assembIage of
/ black iron crosses pulled up from their places
and stood against a wall. Near there, is a lot
| in which similar crosses are decorated with
/ photographs of the deceased and glaSs-framed
wreaths and crowns Of fish-seale flowers sur
rounding inane notices. Near by, also, is
wooden headstone $50 to speak, painted light
! blue, holding a hameless lamp suspended, be-
fore which kneels an angel carved in wood and
painted, the face fiesh-eolor and the garments
blue. At the highest point of the grounds,
where the outlook IS most inspiring-where the
sense of repoSe should be most complete-rises
the browning glory OF the cemetery of Nice,
the monument to Leon Gambetta. This stands
in large square space from which number
/ OF graves have been removed. The crosses
stacked below marked these graves formerly,
and the present destination of the crosses is
unknown In the midst of the lot thus OBJ
/ tanned, rises Q huge wooden pyramid painted
black and covered with funeral wreaths. A
more barbaric display can hardly be imagined.
! Many of the wreathS are brilliant yellow, some
| are of artificial flowers draggled and faded by
many pelting rains and glowing suns. Each
wreath surrounds a glass frame, containing
the name of the municipality, political society,
or newspaper sending the wreath, and the col
ors of France are wearisomely conspicuous.
The sun, catching the glass at certain angles,
makes 1t shine like new tin; and at distance
the effect is dazzling and gr0tesaue. This
huge pyramid, however, was insufficient to
support the mass of tawdry emblenls, and
piles of Wreaths are stacked upon the ground.
TEMPORARY LODGINGS.
To complete the ugliness of this display the
| announcement concession a perpetulte i'm
plies that the interments not SO labeled are
merely temporary; and this IS actually the
case, new allotment being made once in fifty
years of all ground not originally purchased
" a perpetuite." The effect of all this upon the
| imagination is painful; and it was a relief to
escape from the crowds of admiring French
women who were busily making little boquets
of flowers plueked from the wreaths about the
Gambetta monument, and TO climb through a
quaint old garden to the belvidere which
takes the place of the vanished chateau. Here it
is as if one had entered another world, and it Is
| a pleasant consideration that the inhabitants
of Old Nice have full and equal share in the
Inheritance by which the old fortress has be-
come public pleasure ground. less agree
able change III the position of this portion of
| the population comes of the contrast between
their permanent residence and conspicuous
poverty, and the prosperity of the travellers
who people the new city. Thoughtless gifts of
money from the rich to the poor have their
customary effect and the tribe of professional
beggars at Nice is terrible to see. There are
boys with monkeys and boys with babies and
boys with fiddles, and boys with nothing but
an ugly whine. There are old men, too, lame
and halt and blind and infinitely dirty
Strangers, reveling in the beauty of the sur
roundings and Mortified at the degradation of
life in Old Nice, are easy game, and only agra
vate the horrors which their pennies are meant
to palliate. Every winter a large aggregate of
money, which, wisely used, might accomplish
| lasting good, is allowed to trickle from full
pockets to empty hands only to the injury of
the recipients.
If there turks in any remote corner of
America any doubt of the need of wise organi-
cation of all charitable gifts and total absti-
hence from street gifts TO beggars, surely the
experience of Nice should be published in that
sGnilluminated spot. 1t is difficult, of course,
to interest floating population in local phi
lanthropies, and, to many minds, there is q
certain pleasure in making triling gifts to
needy persons; yet it is certain that if the
municipality forbade begging and the aims be-
slowed by travellers went through the hands
of persons acquainted with the poor of Old
Nice, there would not be SO many beggar boys
pitching pennies in the land, nor so many
fathers of families sleeping whole days in the
sun by the side of the Promenade des Anglais.
FIX.
A Lord OF 4 LOafer.
From the CoHccrdia Sentinel
The ALWAYS polite and clever clerk in the