Morning journal and courier., 1892-12-26

Fashions, ETC., ETC.
PARIS, Dec. Z.
To the Editor Of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
Partisan life as seen on the great boule.
wards has often been described, but the
either the visitor or the reader, and as no
two visitors look at the scene from precise
ly the same standpoint, or are impressed
by just the same things, there is still
chance for one who shall sketch this scene
from personel observation to make his plot
ures both original and interesting. By
the great boulevards we mean the streets
bearing that name, which were constructed
under Louis XIV, and which extend In
almost a complete circle around what WAS
formerly the city, their site having origi-
nally been the location of the city ram
parts, or Notifications. Outside of these
there is another circle of boulevards, and
this circle marks the site of the ramparts
of Paris after they had been extended SO
as to embrace the former suburbs, or Fau-
bourgs. Still farther out, beyond the
Communes, and at the extreme limits of
what is the Paris of to-day, are those
boulevards, 80 called. which form q sort
of military road for the massing of troops
and the manning and viotuslling of the
mammoth defences by which the Paris of
the future hopes to protect itself, more eff
fectually than it did twenty one years ago,
against any possible incursion of the ar
mics of Kaiser William. Thus the city
has an abundance of boulevsrds, and one
is tempted to remark, apropos of the deri-
vation of this name from bulwsrks, that
if all these great thoroughfsres furnished
as many evidences of the things which
conduce to national strength as they do of
the prevailing passion for adornment, this
| wonderful city would be we'll fortified in
deed, both against external foes and
against the more subtle and dangerous
forces which menace her from within.
Chief among the great boulsvards are
| those which bear the names of Madeleine,
| Cspucines, Itsliens, Montmartre, Poisson
nier, Bonne-Nouvelle and st. Denis. An
| afternoons saunter along these thorough
fares, keeping the eyes open and the re-
| flective faculties busy en- route, will reveal
| to you very much that is characteristic Of
| this gay city. You will get in suoh walk
| good view of Partisan life, will pass OF
be within sight of many places of COM
| manding interest, and will he reminded re-
peatedly of the checkered and sanguinsry
bis ory the city has had. Almost every
thing in Paris speaks of change and vio
lence, and this idea is made strikingly
prominent in our walk on the great bouls
Yards. We start at the Church of St
Mary Magdalen, the Madeleine. 1t was in.
tended originally to be what it now is, 6
place of worship, but BoBaparte converted
it into a Temple of Glory. Begun in 1777
it was retarded in its erection by two revo
lutions Q792 and 1S30), and was not final
Iy finished until 1912. Here is a reminder
of the vacillsting attitude of the nstiona
government towards religion.
This is at the beginning of our walk
and at the other end, within few hun
dred yards of each other, are two grin
| looking piles which are similarly sugges
| tive, and in their modern history ever
more SO. These are the Portes St. Denii
and st. Martin, erected by the city in hon
or of the victories of the grand monarch
In 1914, after the first overthrow of Nspo
leon, the allied armies entered the city BY
the Porte st. Martin. A fearful desecrs
ton, and it marked a great change, but il
was a scene of peace and quite an affair ot
honor in comparison with the scenes thes,
two portes witnessed during the ravsges oi
| the last Commune. The Place de rOpert
marks the site of another great change
and one, happily, which 1t is pleasure tc
recall. When you stand in this place
which has no less than six broad thorough
fares diverglng from it, and remembsl
that from the ground now left vacant fol
convenience and pleasure, some FIVE hun
dred houses had to be removed at almos
untold cost, you get practical object les
son of what Parisian enterprise means
and when you look at the Grand Operi
House itself, which covers three acres. ana
| which cost nearly ten millions of dollars
your conception of what has been done Il
make Paris the most beautiful city in tn,
world is enlarged still further.
Even here, though, spite of the beauty
: and enterprise about you, 1t is impossible
} to lose sight of that which has been hcrri
J bic in this city's history, or to dlvest your
self entirely of fear for her future. Al
} the other end of the grand Rue de Ia Pal,
} the column Vendome rises to your view
/ looking as though it had stood there un
{ disturbed for q hundred years. Yet il
1871 the fury of Parisian mob had lev
\ elled 1t to the ground; and not far beyont
is the site of the Tuileries. TO which Pari
sian madmen applied at the same time th,
torch of the incendiary. Even the paviDl
of these great streets has i.s story OF fore
, boding to tell. It Is no iGager of stone
: because so often stones have been used fo
barricades and weapons of assault, but o
+ | wood, and in the smallest blocks, this pc
! ouliar rumbling of the traffic over it
which reminds you at first of the rum
bling sound peculiar to the ocean, seem
. ing, in consequence, like q never cessinI
!. admonition at once of what has been ant
y of what may be.
But the shops you see on these boule
: wards give no sign of anything like this
i and the throngs of people You meet sr
a surely, for the greater part, living neithe
In the past nor the future, but In the ga
and all engrossing present. You dsteC