Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1889-10-01
MISCELLANEOUS.
interesting Paris Letter From
Hon. VIM. L. Wilson.

as my journey will soon be over, I must at
tempt ftilfument. In fact nothing would be
more pleasant to me, than to send a weekly
letter to my friends at home, through our To-
cal papers. giving them as far as could do so,
some account of my interesting experiences,
but this or anything like 1t has been absolutely
impossible. Apart FROM the Weariness that
overwhelms traveller and sight-seer as night
comes on, the practice of the hotel to send you
to your room with single dim candle makes
writing at night out of the question, unless
one goes out as have several times done in
this city, and buys pound of candles on his own
account and lights them al at once. But even
this makes poor apology for good gaslight.
The reason hotel keeper furnishes you
candle, while the hotel is otherwise lighted
with gas, is that his bills arc made out, not by
the day but by the item. and to charge you
with candle at ten or twenty cents, which
costs him two or three and which he has prob
ably charged to several previous guests before
yourself, is u source of profit he will not read
lily abandon. One of our highest officials in
this country told me story the other day,
which any one who has Travelled here win ap-
preciate. An American gentleman stopping at
q French hotel found chandelier in his
room, containing fifteen candles. In his sim
plicity he lighted them all, and burned them for
short time. In his bill next morning he was
charged fifteen francs Qhree dollars) for cam
dies. There was no disputing the item, but he
remembered that lac also had some reserved
rights, and when he left he took the candles,
but slightly burned, and as he passed out by
the line of servants, drawn up to receive their
tips" he gravely dealt out the candles, saying
as he passed along, here is franc for you"
aud "here are two francs for YOU" etc, etc.
1 spent nearly month in England, and
have been three weeks in France, and my trip
has been il sustained interest and profit quite
up to my expectation. 1 had rather sec Paris
for the first time. as saw London, in its nor
NAL state, than in the excitement of the great
Exposition, but the Exposition itself is a won
derful success, and visitor might spend
weeks within its ground alone without COM
pretending its bigness or the infinite variety
and perfection of its details But it is not q
thing that can be sketched even in outline in
letter, neither could attempt to give my i'm
preston of Paris in like space.
Those impressions were naturally very vivid
in the beginning, as 1 came here all alone, new
to the customs of the people and very imper-
fectly acquainted with their language, as
spoken tongue; for the French that a foreigner
lGdIus Ou luG pTlubGu pGEe Is very uiucFeub
from the French that he hears rolled off from
the voluble tongue of the native. / think it
takes sunday in Paris to bring home to an
American or English visitor the great differ
ence between the French and his own people.
There is little cessation of work. The stores,
shops and saloons are in full blast, but it is
otherwise a day given over to amusements.-
The theatres. circuses-in fact every kind and
nf shnvy-saar,,s "a, I,o
sands go miles to Versailles to swarm through
the palaces and picture galleries there, and
see the fountain play, which happens only on
that day, as it is u costly as well as splendid
spectacle. Wander after dark along the great
houlevards, streets like the great avenues in
Washington, with very wide pdvements. Ev-
cry Cafe is brilliantly lighted, and on the pave
ments in front are little tables, three rows
deep, around which are seated tC,s of t1ou-
sands may truthfully say hundreds of thou
sands, and women and occasionally whole
families, dining in public, suppiug wine, or
beer, or absinthe, and chatting and smoking.
and gazing at the passers by. Around on the
Champs Elysees are tile celebrated Cafes
Chantants, or Concert Cafes, where there are
regular concerts given every night, in extended
program, and upon very expensive and hand
| some stages; to the visitors. So popular are
these that although the gardens in which the
visitors sit will hold thousands, it is frequently
impossible to secure scat. Stopping with a
friend one night to hear famous male singer,
at the Cafe which in the height of Boulanger's
popularity had so much to do with his great
run" in Paris, 1 found a densely packed
gathering of well dressed people. quite as many
women as men, while the program consisted
largely of songs by scantily attired females
each one being received with more or less ap-
pluuse, and encored, as she proved to be pop
ular favorite. There was nothing in the beau
| ty of the singer, nor in the singing itself, to
elicit the keen attention and loud plaudits of
the audience, and on inquiry of an English OIL
Ger, who as a native of the Jersey Island knew
French almost as mother tongue, was in
formed that the secret of the popular applause
and rapt attention was that the songs abound
ed in indecent allusion, not to be appreciated
or understood by strangers, but quickly caught
up by the nimble-lyittcd natives. of course all
this gives to the streets at night dazzling,
fairy-like brilliancy and life; but as one gazes
/ from the hosts in the cafes to the unlighted
houses, which they have deserted for the street,
he cannot but feel that to a large part of the
people there is no such thing as home. in
our great, inspiring and elevating sense of the
word.
| have visited all the historic points of inter-
est in Paris, and also some in its vicinity; have
gone through the palace at Versailles, so full
of the splendor of Louis XIV, seen the apart
ments of Louis XVI and his beautiful wife
Marie Antoinette, and the little private stair
case down which she made her escape from
the mob of Paris; and after passing through
the great gallery of battle paintings. in which
the glories and successes of French armies
have been portrayed so stimulating to the
| pride of the Frenchman, have stood in the
great hall where during the late German invG-
sion the old Prussian King William was pro-
claimed Emperor of Germany. Indeed. no
where can a traveller find such rapid and sharp
transitions from dazzling glory to gloomy dis
aster as in these places. II gave whole day
to FontainebIeau forty miles distant from Paris
plain and even ugly enough in exterual ap-
Pearances. but in its interior magnffcence
so well meeting my imaginings of palace
that 1 shall notcare to visit another. There,
too. in rooms whose decoration, furniture and
sumptuous elegance represent the highest
mark Of French taste (not equaled or ap-
preached anywhere else in the world,) and
French luxury, from Louis XI to Napoleon
III, saw many things to remind me how
fortune had made football of nearly every
French ruler for the past hundred years
There also was the bedroom of Touis XVI