The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-05-23
GREAT CHANGES IN PARIS.
WhatTwenty Years Have Brought About
in the Gay French Metropolis.
Paris at the Time of Sedan-The Work of the
Communicable Result of the Republic
as Brander Matthews Sees 1t.

Copyright Correspondence of the Journal.
PARIS. May 10.-Although / am not one of the
Americans who seem to think that Paris is
| short" for paradise it is always with acute
pleasure that / find my foot again on the asphalt
UNI of its broad sidewalks and that focus my
eyes to the rolling panorama of its vivacious
boulevards. Paris is the most hosptable city in
the world, and very cordially does it hold ont its
hands to the stranger within its gates. Shen-
stone recorded that only too often the traveller
finds his warmest welcome at an inn; now, Paris
is not only city of inns of all sizes, to suit all
purses-it is itself huge hotel the inn of
Europe. the caravansary of the world. where all
mankind may meet and mingle and get his fill of
! pleasure. II bids all mankind to make himself at
home and it tenders to all front seat at the show,
necessarily varying, of its daily life There are
| theaters and churches museums and picture
/ galleries, race-courses and courses of lectures,
all changing from day to day, and yet all pre-
| serving the essential Partisan quality which has
been modified but little, and accumulated only the
more sharply by the current of years. The
pleasant masque of Partisan life is now, in the
main, very much what it was half century ago.
|
strangers; Haussmann has come and gone leav-
| ing behind him his good deeds and his bad deeds;
the empire flourished like an i'll weed for eighteen
years, and the Republic has been gaining in
strength and solidity for now sixteen years; but
Paris is. in its essential quality, what Paris was.
Men may come and men may go, but Paris
stands where she did-and stands for what she
did-ffty years ago.
| 1t was my good fortune in my early youth to
see the beginning of the reign of Napoleon III.
| the middle of it, and its sudden and sorry end.
| | was very little boy when the exhibition of
| 1855 was opened in Paris, but / can recall
| distinctly the evening when 1 held up to
| the window of hotel in the Rue Castglone to
| see the Queen drive past. There a sudden
catter of hoofs, flashing of lights, rattle of
| wheela and regiment of cavalry swept by,
| escorting state carriage wherein sat the Queen
| of England The bloody day of Dec. was not
/ yet three years past, and here was that model of
| the domestic virtues. the Queen of moral Eng
land, crossing the channel to give the kiss OF
| friendship to the prof1igate adventurer who had
thrust himself on the throne of his uncle. To
afford an excuse for meetings like this, and to
show that his rule was firmly established,
| the exhibition of 1855 had been projected
And these with growing desire for display
were tine chief motives in the organization of the
exhibition of 1867, twelve years later This was
the elimination of the lower empire There were
| then royal and imperial visitors in plenty, who
came to be entertained at the Tuileres and to
| see Mile Schneider the Grande Duchesse de
| Gerolstein at the Varieties. 1t after great
review of the garrison of Paris at Longchamps
| that the Emperor Of the French drove home,
with the Emperor of all the Russias seated be-
] side him. / was in the Bots de Boulogne as
the imperial landau passed, and it was only a
| little in advance of me when PROOF devil
snapped his pistol at their Maiesties, and
was promptly hauled away by the omni-
| present gens-darmes. / heard the sharp
report of the harmless shot, and
recall the anecdote Immediately put in circula-
| ton, that the Emperor of the French SAID to
| his guest: That was for me-" while the En-
peror Of all the Russias not to he outdone N POI
likeness, replied: mo, no. it for me- am
/ sure" About this time the prizes were distrib-
uted to the successful exhibitors in the Palais
de fIndustrie, the fine building in the Champs
| Elysees which had been erected for the exhibit
| ton of 1855 and which serves for the
nual salon and for all sorts of shows of pictures
and horses. The Palais de pIndustrie was magni-
| ficently accoutered for the unwonted ceremony,
and when the exercises began it offered splen-
did spectacle A seat almost in front gave me
good view of the grand stand-as
| it might be called-where
| sembled the representatives Of every
monarchy in Europe headed by the Sultan of
| Turkey in person, and his alleged dependent,
| the Viceroy of Egypt Talma won't to say
that at Tilsitt he had played before parterre de
rois but | doubt if the kingly audiences before
| whom the great French tragedian appeared sur
| passed the cluster of royalty surrounding the
| Empress Eugene as she distributed the prizes.
| But the memory of the scene is vulgarized not
| little by the recollection of remark made at
| the time by DR.. Evans, the American dentist in
| Paris. In answer to a remark that such a meet
| ing of monarchs was thing to have seen he re-
| piled: Yes 1t is the first time had ever be-
| held them all together. But as looked along
the platform. was pleased to find that there
| wasn't one Of them haven't had by the nose"
| Three years later, In July, 1870 | was again
| in Paris, when the cry of the crowd in the
streets was "a Berlin!' and when a robust song
| stress at cafe-chantant rudely chanted the
| praise of the honest poor to the refrain Isl cest
| de la canalle-eh bien, j'en suis." With the first
shock of war the power of Napoleon tottered,
| and in September it fell into the dust. I was in
at the death. No one who saw can forget the
| feverish excitement of Paris on the bright Sun
| day morning when the news came of the defeat
/ at Sedan. Long before noon the people besieged
the Corps Legistatit until literature as it was
| of the imperial vill-decreed the abolition of
| the empire was at the window of the Hotel
| Bristol in the Place Vendome, when the throng
| surged through the rue Castiglione bearing in
| triumph the great lawyer Cremeux, who was
| taken to the Ministry OF Justice, where he had
| ruled under the Republic of 1848 and from a
| window of which he made brief and eloquent
! address to his felow-citizens. The hatred Of
| the empre-perhaps, also, the fear of the mob
/ caused sudden slaughter of the imperial
| eagles which decorated the shop fronts and
! when golden letters on black ground set forth
/ that the owner OF the establishment had been a
| sFournisseur brsvete de S. NJ. LEmpereur,"
the gilt letters were soon hidden under thick
coat of backing hastily applied with a shoe
| brush. The fall Of tyranny just as the enemy
was in full march on the capital gave double
meaning to the burning words of the "Marsel
laise' sung INCREASINGLY by the interminable
| tnrongs which filled the boulevards. That night,
as we threaded our way through the crowds, we
were besought violently, ''Criez done 'Vive la
Republique which we did with good grace;
ard within week we left Paris by almost the
| last train which escaped before the Prussians
/ threw their black ring of blood and iron about
/ the city of art and pleasure.
When next saw Paris, three years later the
wounds the Commune had made with fire and