Los Angeles herald., 1891-06-16

vast extent in circuit and elevation that
one might we'll believe that not only Paris
and France, but all Europe was to be in
vited to the sitting
At first it appeared that the work Jagged
though the municipality had sent out 49,
600 workmen with shovels and barrows to
make the excavations and heap up the en-
bankments. BY the 1st of July the rumor
spread that the work was behind and could
not be finished in time Patriotism said
that the aristocrats had hired the laborers
not to work. The glorious fete was about
to fail through treacheryl But behold,
with the spread of the rumor great crowds
begin to pour out of the city and into the
Champs de Mars At first in relays they
take hold of the unused shovels and bar
rows and begin to sing C0-ITG as they toll.
But other thousands come, and bring their
own barrows and shovels. Then the girls
and women come with their tri-colored
ribbons, smile approval, and shovel dirt
with their lovers A hundred and fifty
Thousand come, and then 250,000, and the
chorus of Cairo swells and reverberates
until old Seine is shaken to his bottom.
Never was such scene of enthusiastic
labor witnessed before in the world All
classes of society made contributions to the
force. The universities discharged their
professors and students to work at the bar
rows. Men were there from Brittany and
from the Jura mountains, from the Medi-
terranean coast and from Normandy.
Sages, statesmen, poets were there, shovel
ing and wheeling. The king himself came
out, and the workmen rushed around his
majesty with their shovels at present and
shoulder arms-strangest body guard that
ever poor Louis had, or any other king.
Marie Antoinette, with the dauphin, looks
on and smiles; she, the daughter of Their
esa, to die under the guillotine, and he to
rot in old Simon's shoeshop and cell of
the prisonl
Thus were the preparations completed.
The evening of the 18th of July saw every
thing ready for the morrow, and the NOR
row dawned. The great terraces rose,
thirty in number, one above the other,
each more than a athousand yards in length,
all freshly sodded and clean and beautiful
under the Partisan sky. About the altar
of Fatherland were swung on high to iron
cranes great pans of incense, to be lighted
for the nostrils of Liberty and of all pa
triotism. With the early morning the
crowds began to pour into the inclosure, if
bhoo hllEhb D0 CtbllC1 GIL luCiOSuI6 WHICH
seemed of limitless extent. The citizenship
of Paris and of other cities came in shoals
and by thousands All were dressed in
gay apparel and the tri-color ribbons
floated and futtered everywhere. The dis
tant housetops and steeples of the city
were black with people. The soldiers came
under Generalissimo de Lafayette, who,
from the young enthusiast at the side of
Washington, has grown to such stature as
thisi But now he is no longer De La
fayette, for all titles have been abolished
He is simply Citizen Motier, or at most the
Sieur Motier. But he is commandant and
general of all. There are the king and the
queen and the dauphin and the court. The
lowest estimate places the assemblage at
300 600 souls.
1t was a scene of enthusiasm and won
der for the like of which the pages of his
tory may be searched in vain. The pans of
incense are lighted. The cannon boom.
All flags and banners are unfurled. The
military evolutions are performed before
the altar of Fatherland. Then Lafayette
advances, ascends in the sight of the null
titude, and pressing his swords point on
the altar pronounces the oath of fidelity
ito the king, to the constitution and to the
nation forever" Louis himself arises and
swears, SO that the people hear. The court
swoars, stlfe-q qtruuIr-uisv, ffoiurng UIIo uou-
phin by the hand. The air is rent with
shouts. The delegates from all the eighty
three departmentsof France come forward
and take the oath. They bring their flags
with them, each bearing the new national
banner, and lol their flags must all be con-
secrated under the sanction of religion ere
they be borne back to distant quarters OF
the kingdom.
The ancient faith has not yet been abol-
ished, and 200 patriot priests, all in white,
each with his shaven head from the Middle
Ages, but with the tri-color girdle of the
future about his waist, advance to the
altar. At the head of the procession
marches one whose name, though he be
priest, shall be known to the corners of
civilization. He it is who shall be for this
day, as Carlyle calls him, the "Soul's Over