The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1889-06-08
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE.
A Sea Voyage - Railroad Travel in
France - The Paris Exposition
Other Matters of Interest Entertain.
inSly Told.
ST. AUBIN, May 10Th, 1889.

anxious to know if was sick at sea, !
would state that 40 sooner did I lose
sight of the land than began to be
sick in earnest. The following day, on
Sunday, April 2s;h, the ocean was far
from being quiet, aud was myself tar
from being calm. My bowels were
twisted every which way. Sea. s:ck>
ness is the best emetic, aud after hav-
ing surrendered to the sea all that was
inside Of me, L began to throw up
blood, so strong We're the Efforts to turn
myself Inside out. Thanks be to God,
on Monday morning the weather was
beautiful, the sea was placid as mir
ror, and was triumphant in the en-
joyment Of interior peace. The
balance of the voyage was pleasant.
We were over 600 passengers, about
$50 in the first cabins, and take it all
in all, we had very pleasant trip. AS
am we'll known TO the people of
Monroe as an almost incassant taiker,
l need not say that I was on the
deck at 5 O'clock in the morning where
l would fiud somebody already waiting
for me to hear me talk about Monroe
and the Ouachita, for one likes to talk
about what he loves bost, and 1 would
stop talking and joking only ut IL
O'Clock y. IN. when had talked all
my audience to sleep. Mr.. Editor.
walking in your footsteps and noble
example, I did by word of mouth
what you do so well, so persistenly
end so eloquently by your fscile pen, L
advertised the Ouachita Valley as
the fist country in the world. Let Us
boom our lovely plains, our stately
hills, and some will come to find out il
we ted the truth, and when they shall
have seen with their own eyes, when
they shall have tasted with their own
lips, they will exclaim: Behold, we
had never conceived the beauty. the
wealth Of your country, tits the
land of milk and honey, ';is the
land Of the future, the promised land.
On Sunday, the 5th of May, we en-
tered the English channel, and almost
ali day long we could see the beautiful
coast of Normandy. We reached
Havre in the evening, too late for the
tide. Early the next morning at abou.
2 o'clock we took special train for
Paris. We had hardly travelled wv
hours when we reached the celebrated
city OF Rouen, where the virgin Of
Domremy, Joan of Arc, paid as a
martyr the penalty of her love and
fidelity to her native land. We had
twenty minutes for breakfast, and as
we met one another aiighting from our
cages, all the passengers exclaimed ::
What an outrage, what horror these
French people are fifty years behind
! with their railroads. Some of our
American companions put it even ia
stronger language. said little then,
but thought heap, and was forced
| to acknowledge to myself that the
French railroads have not improved
| for the last quarter Of "a century, You
are still peuned up in a small compart-
ment, or 8 together; you cauno,
move, you can't walk, you may die Of
thirst and not a drop Of water to be
had, and above all you have no water
closets. In word, my countrymen
do not have yet an idea of comfort
when travelling and ] have M Kissed no
opportunity to let them know that we
Americans were far far ahead in many
things. But l find many Thomases
among them; they have not seen and
they will net believe. They look at
me with establishment when / speak
to them of the wonders of our country,
of the inventive genius of our people.
of the never ceasing progress of our
civilization. They shrug their shout
ders, as much as to say: You are hum
buggiug us, we don't believe you. I
saw striking Illustration of their in
creduli!y at the exposition. Among
the display of American curiosities
there were trunks of petrificd trees.
Sections of petritied wood had been cut
! two inches thick and resembled the
richest marbles. a dozen persons were
| examining thess wonders. IT'S marble
they said, bat il has never been wood.
told them that ] had seen with my
own eyes, touched with my own hands
not only pe'ritied wood, but animals,
even human beings petritied, aud they
looked ut me as if was in partnership
with the other fellow exposing his pet
riiied wood, TO deceive and cheat them.
Nevertheless did / continue, 'tis fact
that l live not far from river, the
Red river, which has the peculiar
property of petrifying in less than hall
a century almost everything buried in
It's proximity. That was too much for
them and they left in disgust. l do
not blame them, for frequently in stat
ing facts to some Of our people of Lou