The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1890-12-11

Church of the Madeleine, very large
building in the style of Greek temple,
entirely surrounded by porticO, upheld
by great pillars, a building without win
dows, all the light entering from above.
The pillars are SCARED by bullets, for the
church was held by the Commune, who
were driven out by the Versailles or reg
ular troops. 1t was extremely interest
ing to follow the route of the Commun-
lists as they were driven from place to
place; going from the Madeline they re-
treated to the great open space which
makes the site of the Bastile, into which
many streets open, the whole place sur
rounded by tall buildings, and in the cen
tire the great "Column of july" Here
they made stand, every building about
the place was badly damaged, 80 feet of
the Vincennes railway station had to be
rebuilt, the new part can be plainly seen,
while the column suffered severely from
the bullets, the places have been re-
paired, but would be noticed. From
here they retreated up the Rue Roquet
to the two prisons on opposite sides of
the street, one for Juvenile offenders, the
other for condemned prisoners. The
heavy walls of these prisons made safe
cover for the mob, who released the con-
demned men, and compelled them to
murder every soldier they had captured,
nearly a hundred, whose bodies were
thrown into great pit filled with quick
lime. Dislodged from this place, they
fled on up the same street to the princi-
pal cemetery, Pere la Chaise, a large
tract surrounded by strong wall, and
full of the queerest little tombs, most Of
them like small rooms, crowded thickly
together, narrow paved streets lead to
tho various portions. In these tombs
the Williams lived for several days, and
many of them were damaged by shells
thrown in there by the great guns of Mt.
Valerian. The final stand was made in
the "Buttes Chaumont," great quarry,
since converted into a lovely park, and
here the Commune expired. / never
realized how horrible it was until fol-
lowed step by step their route, and saw
the havoc wrought by them.
The palace of the Tuileries was so COM
pletely destroyed, that the ruins left
were not long ago cleared away, the gar.
dens alone remain to mark this historical
spot.
The Notifications of Paris consist oi
many outlaying forts, and all around the
city is strong earthwork about fifteen
feet high, faced with stone on the innei
side.
A great number of small steamers ply
on the Seine, they are small and low
looking like contracted canal boats, low
because the bridges are mostly of stone
with great arches, through the centre Of
which the boats have to be steered, ol
collide with the bridge. The fares or
these boats are very low, and the rivel
trip is pleasant, but the boats are with
out shelter from bad weather.
The omnibus system is monopoly
and is very complex, it would take Ions
time to become familiar with it. Th'
rule of hanging out sign, "Complet,
when all the seats are filled, sounds well
but when you stand on corner, in
desperate hurry to 60 somewhere, anc
see one after another 60 by, all with thu
hateful little sign hung out, you fee
that system is not everything, but tha
you would gladly stand up, if you coulc
only be on the way. Still worse it Il
when wishing to change from one line Il
another, as you can by getting a CORES
pondence as they call it, on payment o
small extra sum, but you are leftat th'
station where the lines intersect, wher'
you enter and are given numbered
card, after which you stand on the curl
and while waiting your turn, watch ON
nibus after omnibus roll away. Whel
one finally comes with few vacan
seats, you wait while the conductor call
off the numbers, usually the places ar
taken by those having higher numbe-
who slip in out of their turn. Afte
awhile you begin to be mad, real right
eous anger too, and then you do wha
you should have done in the first place
call cab and go direct to your destina
ton. The knowledge Paris and Londol
hackmen have of those enormous cite
is wonderful, it is a rare instance tina
they do not go straight to any addres
they are given. A. G. SHERRY.