Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-04-13
LIFE In PARIS.
Busy scenes on the Streets-Bits on
the City's History.


Gilbert Hamerton says: ''The Eng
lish have invented the house, the French
have invented the street." aud it is GER
tainly true, writes correspondent OF the
: Ne1V York Graphic, that nowhere in a
modern city can one find more delight
full place for promenade than down one
of these long broad avenues of Paris.
4 They are shaded by fine trees, are wide
enough to show great stretches of blue
sky and cloud pictures as in the country,
while straight down as far as the eye can
see is charming vista. Novel street
scenes are always on one side; ON the
other are windows that even an old
Egyptian anchorite could not hurry past
if he were to return to promenade Paris.
The magnificent appearance of many
streets is beyond question owing to the
imposing buildings, which, while looking
like modern palaces, are nothing more
than flats. This flat system gives air and
sun to the apartments, but we in New
York have many improvements on the
French models.
In London all the new things look
ancient and in Paris all the old things
even the ladies-carry their age so well
that at first one thinks of them as having
no connection with time or decay. Many
London visitors pronounce the splendid
law courts recently built grand old
edifce, so weather-beaten does it already
look In Paris, on the contrary, churches
and palaces, whose every stone is page
of history, seem like things of yesterday.
There are plenty of tourists rushing about
Europe on perpetual motion ticket who
suppose that the Louvre is a spick and
span new picture gallery, but a connected
history of this palace would read like a
romance of the middle ages The story
would begin with a queer cork-screw
staircase and a remnant of wall now
within the building. These belonged to
the royal castle when it had round towers.
keep, and where now saunter handles
| and fine ladies sang the medieval bull
frogs in a good, old-fashioned moat.
There is no doubt that they sang, because
this was known to be the age
of song. The troubadours were all
singing love under the windows
Sits in the castle walls, and the ladies
were singing more love songs inside the /
castles when they were not embroidering
remarkable needle work for the nine |
teenth century museums. 1t was Philip |
Augustus who built the first Louvre and |
gave old Paris a start in many ways. He /
built also NOtre Dame, and under him |
the city was paved and took on much |
more stylish aspect. He may have gone
so far as to stir up the street commits
sioners, though these officials had been
rather strict, for it is recorded that at
that time none but the swine of the
abbey of st. Anthony and those having
bells about their necks should be allowed
to roam the city highways" This last
musical attachment was not intended
simply as an ornament to the pig, but as
convenience to wayfarers on dark
nights, for the crown prince of one of the
Loulses in returning from party Ga lit
tie bewlldered perhaps) had stumbled
over one of these animals and died from
the injury. Yes, Philip Augustus, who
built the Louvre, was public benefactor.
and had he lived in our day he might
have written his own memoir, Or been
blown up with that product of civiliza-
dynamite.
Phillip Augustus was not only scholar
~, but he was conscientious and devout.
lie violated an oath on one occasion, and
atoned Tor 1t by roasting eighty Jews on
particularly hot fire. Furnaces and
dungeons were the contribution boxes of l
those Old-time enthusiasts, and some of
them were very liberal givers. Well. the
Louvre as Phillip constructed it did not
the Louvre of to-day. for his
building was strong Gothic fortress. It
was Francis I.-that magnificent STAGE
of the ''cloth of gold''-whO
remodelled the old castle into somewhat
the form it now possesses. He invited
artists and sculptors from Italy and intro
duced quite new style of architecture
of the French Renaissance.
Paris OF the sixteenth century must =
have been an odd place. Old records tell
us that there was only about three
coaches IN the city, one for the queen.
one for Diana OF Poitiers, and one owned
by nobleman "who was too fat to ride
on horseback and so had to be carried in
a coach like woman" The ladies. as a {
rule, rode on horses covered with velvet \
and golden trappings and silken nets =
woven with jewels, while, of course, thew
themselves were even more gorgeously
Paris kid gloves were then
! thing of the future, and very few grand
lanes had attained to stockings Again
n the days of Richelieu the Louvre
1ourished and the cardinal and his kino \
had scheme to make it the grandest Of
I'll modern buildings Had the designs
been carried out, the palace would have
)een Just tour times its present grand
ize. Under Napoleon l. it assumed the
hape that it still retains. Everybody ~
Who ever read of Paris knows something -
'fthe Louvre, but few who have not seen
have an adequate idea of it's immensitv
nd splendor. 1t belongs to the people
low, and any day you see them swarm -
ng over told and young, rich and "
oor, travellers from every country, priests -
nd workingmen, children staring curl
u ly at the treasures and students reyel-
1g In the riches of art and science. In
through the beautiful galleries
ne thinks how in the days when kings
nd queens were snugly domiciled here. r
nd all the world was talking of their =
lory or their crimes-or both-a few un- y
nown painters, in far-away countries
ere sketching in the outlines of their
ew pictures, wondering, perhaps, if the m,
ork was of worth. Now the royalty are Tv
ust and ashes, their names unknown to
alt the people who frequent this, their for
d abode; but the finished pictures on
lie palace walls are as fresh in beauty as
lie day the brush was laid down. and SO
lie poor painters have been after all the
al kings who reign throuoh whole COW