The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1883-07-14
PARIS LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondent
PARIS, June 27. 1888.

PARIS, June n. 1888.
General Thibaudin, vigiantly and, it
may be restlessly somewhat, casting his
eyes around in quest of notifications and
reforms to be effected in the military es-
adjustments of France, has fixed upon
the historic Hotel des Invalides as an In.
stitution which may be Immediately and
extensively remodeled in the interests
both of the Army and the State. In tie
first place, the vast edifice OH the Quai-
des Invaidts is world too wide for the
shrunk shanks Of the veterans that iu-
habit it. who are gradually but steadily
diminishing in number. Forty years
ago, the Palace with the golden dome
could show d Tar more interesting type
OF invalids than the veterans Of Sabas.
topol, of Magenta and Of Puebla In
1841 the "show" pensioner OF the Inya-
lides was a certain patriarch called Tell
er, an ex-Trumpet Major Of the Regiment
Of Dragons of the Dauphin. Trumpet
Major Teller was then eighty-one He
had entered the service in the reign Of
Louis XIV. in the year 1777, and had
gone through the campaigns Of 1872 Ut
del Lafayette, having been present al the
battles Of Valmy, Jemapappes, Fleurus
and Maestricht. Since 1894 be had car
ried a bullet in his back, the military
surgeons haying been tolalIy unable TO
extract the ball; but he had continued
to blow vigorous blasts on that trumpet
OF his throughout the wars of the First
Empire, and in 1875. after thirty-eignt
years of trumpeting in the face Of the loe,
he had found an asylum at the helnyalid"s,
In 184l there were three thousand pea
sioners in the establishment, the ,ndi-
tions Of admission being tiat the appli-
can't should have lost at least one limb
Or had sustained other injuries medically
deemed equivalent TO the deprivation OF
a limb; or that he should be sixty years
Of age and have served for thirty years.
Teller was thus doubiy qualified to be
received at the Invalides. Among Tell
er's comrades was Il chasseur who had
lost an eye at Abouklr, another who had
had shoulder sliced oft at Hdnau by q
Bavarian dragoon. and grenadier who
had been riddled with bayonet wounds
by the Pfussians and left for dead at
Jeua. There was a mulatto who had
been an orderly OF Morean, there was an
Invalide OF the time of Louis XVI, who,
although he had entered the service a
few years after Teller, was, as regarded
by active service, the senior of that pa
triarch. He had taken part in the French
campaign in Hanover in 1882 Another
"show" pensioner was known as the "ar-
istocrat," it being rumored that he had
noble blood in his veins. He WAS a tie
mendous eater, and an eplcure at that,
keenly criticising the billo fare which,
according to rule is hung up in the r,-
fectory ON the first day of every month,
that the Invalide may complain. if they
choose, Of the lack OF jusciness in their
beet, or an undue proportion of haricots
aud lentils to cabbage and turnips. Such
complaints, however, have been rare AT
the Hotel des Invalides. The Fir.t En-
peror, with the consent of the 4 cnbish-
up Of Paris establish ed the r.,ulation
that Tor these poor, brave old Zen there
should never be an exclusively "meagre"
day, and that Throughout iIent, and even
on Good Friday, they s. sJuld not be de-
prived Of their ssvory soup and boulli.
rhe memory OF Napoleon WAS idolized
throughout the establishment, and tie
super-annuated officers always insisted
that visitors should be shown the massive
service presented to them by the Empress
Maria Louise. At all times, indeeu, a
very touching tenderness has been ex-
hibted by the French government to the
battered olu warriors of the Invalides
The institution wrote Colonel Gerard,
Acknowledgement OF the lnvaalides, at
has library Of twenty thousand vo-
u,nes--has tor its object to afford for the
wounded and disabled soldier. or to hin,
who has grown old in the service in the
career OF arms, an honorable ami assured
retreaf, where, until the end Of his days,
his existence shall be one of sweetness
and tranquility"
Ere long only handful, comparative
ly speaking, of veterans may be left in
the splendid refuge first devised by
Henri Quatre, who established an asylum
for decayed soldiers in the Rue Lourcine,
developed by Louis XIII, at the Chateau
Of BicetIe. .sta biished on magnificent
basis by Louis XIV, and consolidated
A 1. ~