The Arizona sentinel., 1886-04-03
UNDERGROUND PARIS.
A Graphic Account of It's Great
 Sever System.

The French capital IS famous TOT US system of drainage, and visit to its sewers is one of the rare sights of the great city. Not one traveller in a thou sand makes this visit, partly for the req son that the sights above ground are numerous and interesting enough to consume the time which most persons have at their disposal, and partly be- cause of the difficulties that environ the .subterranean journey. You must ob- tain permission from the proper author ities, and from ten to thirty days will elapse after your request is sent before the answer is received. If you ask for tickets for party of eight you may re- ceive them for two or three, rarely more. How the reducing process will be carried out in case of an application for one ticket only am unable to say. Ordinarily the sewers are open to vis- itors about twice month during sum- .mer and not at all in winter, and as only limited number of visitors can be accommodated, the applicant must be prepared to receive a polite but firm 06cIlnatlOn or ms request.
 But supposing the request to be granted, the visitor will be instructed to present his ticket on designated morn ing, near the Church of the Madeleine, at the head of the Rue Royal, the spot from which the start is usually made, or he may be sent to the Place du Chatelet. On the occasion of my first and only visit to the sewers of Paris I asked for nine tickets and received three; two American friends accepted my invita- ton to make the journey, and but one of them 'backed out'' just as we were descending the steps in the hole which had been opened in the pavement at the side of the magnificent church 1 have mentioned, so the proposed original nine was reduced to two; evidently other groups had been similarly cut down, as there was room enough and to spare for the fifty or more that con- posed the actual party on that day. The stairway was narrow, but perfectly clean; there were several ladies in the party, and some of them expressed fears of injury to their dresses, but it was very soon apparent that nothing of the kind was likely to happen. From beginning to end of the journey the route proved to be as well kept as the best ordered sidewalk on the Boulevards or the Champs Elysees; there was not the faint est odor of a disgreeable nature, and there was nowhere leak in the roof to sprinkle the trav- eler from above. The sewers are care fully flushed with clean water just before one of these show visits, though the au- thorities are unwilling to admit that this is the case. The high officials insist that the sewers are always in the condition in which we found them, but the work men employed about the underground scanals sometimes let out the facts, as they are not so jealous of the honor of the name and fame of the model city. It is difficult to understand the absurd claim of the officials, as no man in his sober senses would expect a sewer to have the purity of mountain brook or the water of midocean. Every visitor is agreeably disappointed at the admirable cleanliness of the place and the absence of foul odors, but it is not easy to convince him that it is always thus.
 Near the foot of the long stairs we en- tered a screw or float upon a canal, and were pushed and poled beneath vaulted arch, which was resonant with the sound of the wheels rolling overhead. We were directly beneath the Rue Royal, and, if we had been in doubt as to our locality, there were several sign-boards, like those above ground, to tell where we were The rumbling was like distant thunder, and after few minutes it was not difficult to distinguish light vehicles from heavy ones. My companion remarked face tiously that he thought he could tell a covered cab from an open one, or the omnibus of one company from that of another. The rumbling was inces- sant, and continued all the way from the Place de la Madeleine to the Place de la Concorde, where the scows-for there were two or three of them-came to halt. There was a sidewalk six or eight feet wide along the canal. We landed at the corner of the Rue de Rivoli, as indicated by the signboards, and were directed into narrower archway leading along this last-named street. All the way from our point of departure the route of the scow was lighted with gas-jets suspended from the top of the arch or projecting from the walls, and the lights continued down toward the banks of the Seine until lost in the distance. The arch we entered from our landing-place was considerably narrower, less high than the one we had left. and the canal under the Rue de