The Hawaiian gazette., 1885-09-02
Partisan Fete..

Sismondi and others, have borne TESTIMONY
to the influence that the pleasures Of Paris ex
ercise on politics. Since the reign Of Charlie
| VI, Paris has been the center Of the fetes @
Europe. Voltaire said. the most beautiful
fete, was that Of the Emperor of China, pillow
ing and sowing, with his chief Mandarins
The national fete of the nth July, was orig
inally instituted by Robespierro. This year
soul seems TO be wanting in the entire affair
despite the whole strength of oficialdom hav,
ing been brought to the rescue. Before the
Revolution, there were 80 holidays in France
and after the Revolution, there were as nanl
state days and bonfire nights as in the ancient
towns Of Greece. France may in time come
up in this respect to the light of other days
as we have 0lympiansgames, devoted to merry
go-rounds, Aunt Sally and the massacre Of
the Innocents; Pythian games, limited to un-
limited orations, on things in general and very
little in particular, and Bacchanaliau games,
where there is nothing revolving or turbulent,
but the flow of soul The feast of reason has
been relegated TO the Pantheon. Fetes have
ever been gay whether under King, emperor
or president At the wedding of Robert,
brother of St. Louis, in the thirteenth century,
the. fiddlers, were mounted ON the backs oil
bullocks coparisoned in scarlet cloth, and a
man Oh horseback, walked on tight rope. To-
day the circus claims TO have n new wonder OF
the world, in four-footed Blondin, and the
elephant on a bicycle, challenges all the hi
and tri-cycles in France.
The tete of the Field of the Cloth of Gold
near Calais, given by Francis to Henry VIII
is best remembered by having exhausted the
French treasury-the King lost everything
there again-save honor. Henri III, to mark
the browning Of his queen, gave fete, where
four Calyanists were butchered to make a
Paris holiday; his Majesty and tho Court
looked on the Ashautee advertisement; it was
the commencement of i'll luck for that limo Of
the royal house, as the religious struggle in
volved it's extinction. The high-jinks given
in honor Of the marriage Of tie Dauphin and
Marie Antoinette, cost 1900 fr., while at the
same moment famine was sore in the land; in
the single province of Limousin, 1000 persons
died from starvation. But that was no reason
why Paris should not have its cakes and ale.
In August, 1903, the Convention, gave a
foto, that no doubt suggested to Bartholdi the
idea of his big statue, Liberty enlightening
the world" The ediles erected colossal fig
ure of the goddess of liberty: close by was a
huge stake or bonfire; site. tho present Place
de Ia Concorde. on which the paraphernalia Of
royalty was piled-the throne, sceptre, crown,
royal mantles, symbolical lilies, escutcheous
of the nobility etc. When torch was applied
to the mass, cloud of small birds few out,
with tiny ribbon tricolor favors, tho national
colors, while two doves improved the occasion
to nestle in the folds of the drapery of the
goddess. At the present moment, when polit-
ical cannibalism roigns so extensively, the fete
of September 1895, might be tried on-that OF
Reconciliation. 1t was intended to make all
dissident brothers, loving friends-a kind of
overture of the millennium.
The fete of the Spouses was instituted by
the Council of the Five Hundred in 1896.
II might now be proclaimed as an actually.
Its aim was, TO honor matrimony, and the Ben
edict formula, that the world must be peopled.
Every town in France was TO observe the fes-
tiyal. Only those who were models Of con-
jugal correction, were to be invited to take
part in the ceremony. Those who had given
no hostages TO fortune were left out in The
cold; but an exception was made in the case of
childless couples who had adopted orphans.
The names Of the invited were to DO inscribed
On banners, and read out at the public gather
ing simultaneously with the presentation of
crowns. Young people married one month
previously, were eligible to take part in the
the wife was to be clothed in
white, decorated only with flowers and tricolor
ribbons. Civic hymns were chanted before
he altar of the country. The Oldest of the
John Andersons, surrounded by all his grand
children, were placed in the front seats of
honor, and handed the crowns to give to the
Gazette.