The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-09-11
LETTER FROM DR.. THOMAS.
The Beautiful Country of Southwestern France
Paris the Home of Art and Literature, Of
Fashion and Architecture-The Cathedrals
and the Resting-Places of the Great Dead.

PARIS, Aug. lo.-l Speclal OoTIeSponu-
ence lin these hasty letters to the
Tribune, no attempt is made to be care
full further than reasonable accuracy
requires, and much less to be critical or
profound: the object being rather to
furnish our friends with kind of itine
rary, with such observations and refec-
tions as naturally occur by the way.
And yet it is not boasting to say that
we have in the last five weeks seen and
studied far more Of Central Europe than
had the historian Froude seen of Amer
lea when he wrote his "Oceana )" for
we have worked hard to form some
just conception of the military fortiti-
cations, the castles, the cities, the ca
thedrals, the art galleries, the univer-
stiles, and the agriculture and general
life of the people, and in all this we
have been greatly helped by the Rev.
DIR. Hanson, who Travelled on foot over
most of this region thirty years ago.
Mr.. Froude took palace car from New
York to San Francisco, and paused long
enough at the depot in Chicago to OBJ
serve that so many ''pigs were stuck
every year." and even in that learned
remark he did not get the number half
large enough. Aud yet we feel that we
are necessarily moving around over the
surface of things, rather than going to
their depths. One must live in coun-
try to know well the genius of its peo-
pie and institutions.
That we might have better view Of
France we took two days for the journey
from Geneva to Paris, stopping over
night at Dion, one of the larger cities
of the country and the birthplace of the
great preacher Bossuet. We had drop
ped down thousands of feet from the
higher Alpine range when we were in
the lake region of Switzerland, and,
leaving its picturesque scenery, we were
borne by rail out into the lower lands
and larger valleys of France; and it
was relief and qualification to see
wider fields and heavier crops. From
the time we touched the Continent at
Antwerp-and while in England, too
we have been in one stage or another
of the harvest season, and hence have
seen much of the products and the in
dustries of the people by the way.
The fields in Germany are small, not
averaging over few acres, and the ro-
tation of crops of grains and vegetables
is carefully pursued-and so in Switz-
erland-and the work is largely done in
the old fashioned way, by hand. The
same is true of Switzerland, but in
France the fields are larger and the
yield much heavier, and more machin 51y
is used and SO far as we could see
there were about three men to one wo-
man in the fields and no dogs or cows
at work. The farming in Northern
Italy was more careless than here, and
there we saw large fields of good corn.
The root crop of all this part of Europe
forms large per cent of it's products
beets, cabbages, turnips, etc., being
grown in abundance and, of course,
the grape crop is everywhere extensive.
The farming districts of France are
prosperous, and it was from these that
much of the $1,000 900 900 was so
quickly raised to pay the large peace
price of the late Franco-Prussian War.
Much has been written and said about
this wonderful city of Paris, and our
expectations were great; but the sur
prise has been to find it far more than
we had expected. The city stands out
in a great undulating plain-the Valley
of the Seine, ON whose banks it is built.
The boulevards and avenues are wide
the sidewalks averaging not less than
thirty feet, lined with beautiful trees
and the street proper about eighty feet.
The buildings are all of stone and con-
crete, and average five or six stories,
with Romanesque mansards, in height
Whilst London is larger-Paris having
a population of but $500 000-London
is but succession of great villages,
having grown up without much run
ming plan or order but Paris, in de-
sign and execution, is the perfection of
both. The city is so constructed that
all its wide avenues and boulevards
lead to great centers, the chief of these
being the Grand Opera House. OF
course all this was not so from the first,
but was made so by the will of the one
man, Napoleon Ill, and to accomplish
such a purpose he cut his way through
public and private property; but the
result is such city as the world has
never seen, both for beauty and strate-
gic defense in case of riot, for a few
pieces of artillery planted at these CEN
tiers would command all the principal
approaches. And the same strategic
plan is observed in the immense sewers
that have rail cars and boatsfthat can
handle regiments of men underground.
1t is said that Paris is not so beauti-
full now as under ihesold rule, and yet
the streets are almost as clean as a
kitchen floor, and there is nothing dingy
or old in the appearance OF the build