The Portland daily press., 1886-03-11
OUR FOREIGN LETTER.
Especial correspondence Of the PREss.l


long catalogue Of places OF interest, we put
ourselves in the hands of a ualet de place,
with instructions to show us as much as pos
| sible in few days. He was short, fat
| SWISS who looked Ikea shaggy Shetland po-
/ ny, painting to keep pace with drove OF 81
| RATES. He went pat-a-pat, wiping the great
/ beads of perspiration from his little bullet
| head. az he led our caravan through the
| crowded Streets up and down stairs and in
| and out of tram cars and steamboats,; but he
| took good care of his great family, whose
| zeal and endurance he found by noon were
| likely to hold out to the end of long sum-
mer day, when he cried halt, ostensibly to re
| fresh us with cup of chocolate, but really to
| take a swig himself to keep up his own
strength 1t is loss to our American friends
that the address of the restaurant is forgot
| ten, as it certainly is the only decent cheap
place in Paris, where we were served to six
/ pint-basins of chocolate al lat, thick enough
| to eat, for franc. A walk across the Tull-
| leries brought us to the Panorama de Bastile,
which, as we had not seen the Battle OF Get-
| tysburg at Boston, was great novelty ana
| so real the younger travellers felt all Ine nor
| rors of being eye witnesses to the teIripie
| scenes of war. From there we took theni 70
| the snuare. where stands fine statue OF LID
| ertv breaking the shackles of tyranny on the
| very site of the Old Bastile. We rode to the
| Are de Triomphe. on the top OF an OMNIBUS,
| tho bast wav in the world for a stran-
| oer m oct a general idea of the external beau
| ty and geography of city. sail on the
| Seine gave us a view of many fine buildings,
| and interested us in the various industries,
| among which are the laundries floating upon
| tbe water. so common in all the crowded Eu-
/ roneap cities. We took peep at Notre Dame
| and tarried little longer at st. Madeleine's,
being especially interested there. The mar
kets were visited ON our tramp, where dark
| eyed French girls coax you to buy pretty
flowers, and the older DANES keep time with
their musical voices to their flying knitting
needles, while they recommend their wares,
never wasting moment whether you buy
or not An hour was spent in drive to
Pere la Chaise, the long home of so many
honored dead, Here the children gathered
leaves from the graves of Rossini and Albert
de Musset as their names were familiar to
them in music and the Marseillaise. We took
turn about Les Buttes de Chaumont where
we saw whole schools of poor children enjoy
ing their lunch ON the greensward and in the
rustic arbors, or catching the spray beneath
the waterfall in the wonderful grotto. We
do not suppose Louis Napoleon's prime mo-
tive in expanding some millions in this place
was to make such an Eden for the meanest
| of his subjects; but we are sure no other
| class derives so much benefit from these
| GASES of green grass and cool shade, as these
| poor wretches, who are huddled together
| like cattle in railroad car, in the attics and
| cellars of great cities.
| During the rest of our stay in Paris 1t
| rained in torrents. One morning our valet
| persuaded us it was only shower and start
| ed us out for Versailles but after rushing
| through several squares for the right car we
| retreated, leaving him in the street, and de-
| voted all our daylight to the pictures in
| the Louvre, where we soon forgot the out
| side world and luxuriated in art and histor-
| ic relics The Juniors of our party were true
| to the reputation of their countrymen, dub
| bling Paris an Earthly Paradise, as they were
| greatly taken with the gay shop windows
| full Of toys, gewgaws of all kinds, and walk
| ing, talking and creeping dollies with eyes Of
/ azure blue and costumes of rainbow tints;
but their elders, excepting the pictures at
| the Louvre were not unbounded in their
| praises Of this emporium of fashion.
On beautiful Sunday morning we went
| to the American chapel on Rue de Berri,
| crossing the Champs Elysees, where were
| Punch and Judy shows, and catch pennies
T! of all sorts paraded at every corner to at
| tract the restless crowds. To US, who never
| rejoiced more than today in an ancestry of
| Puritanical straightness. the name Champs
| Elysees seemed a shocking misnomer Rath-
| er than become assimilated or hardened to
such customs we would go back to the blue
| Laws of Connecticut" by far the lesser of
| the two evils. AS we found some of our good
| Portland neighbors already in their seats we
| all Joined in familiar hymns. and soon for
got we were strangers in a foreign land
In the afternoon we crossed very differ
ent quarter of the city to Rue d. Arras to the
Gallican Church to hear Pere Hyacinthe,
who in personal appearance is curious mix
| ture of Henry Ward Beecher and Ben
Butler, but blended in way to neutralize
many of the blemishes in both. We were
grievously disappointed as we had supposed
he was preaching to Penticostal crowds, to
enter at the end of dark, narrow passage
shabby little edifice, such as one may see
in many fishing villages in Maine There
was nothing within these dingy, squalid walls
except crucifx, four candles and some
cheap lace to ally it to the gorgeous Catholic
Church. Here sat dozen or more groups of
faded peasant women, with babes in their
arms, and few decrepit old men who had
lust left their street stalls or chestnut roast
ers, who had come in to while away an hour
When less than two hundred such stragglers
had assembled Pere Hyacinthe entered with
two novitiates and some small boys in gowns,
and conducted mongrel service-a feeble
echo or piteous wall of the old Catholic lit
urgy.
He had grand theme for his discourse
''Kingly Saints and Sanity Kings" which
afforded a wide scope for his eloquence and
| oratorical power, as it also led him off into
some cratic harangues upon political subjects
at which his audience would cheer and stamp
as at a caucus at home. This was popularizing
in marked manner the solemnities and
stately worship of the ancestral church. We
were perplexed and impatient at the inscru-
table ways of Providence in permitting him
to make such marked failure, when he in
dsputably possesses the power to rouse from
their apathy and ignorance his brothers who
chafe under the CALLING letters of the priest
hood, yet have no hope of breaking the bonds.
1t seems to be his plan to purify the Catho-
lie church. but mild measures can never do
this The church authorities evidently do
not consider his efforts worth the opposition
that always has in the past proved sure
means of opening the eyes of the world to
the truth, which always thriyes by antago-
nism The Protestant church cannot extend
the right hand of fellowship however much
sympathy they may have for him personally,
as they recognize the utter uselessness of
making concessions to, or adopting halfway
measures with, power inimicalto its hearts
core to the worlds external progress, and
the uplifting of the souls in the byways and
hedges.
He is supported by voluntary contribu-
tions, which from that congregation would
not have bought his salt. A man like him
should not be hampered in his finances, and
it must gall his intense nature to be pulled
down to earth by debts
The ride from Paris to Geneva recalled