Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-01-07

NFslEf " the Russian srand and s u
Vladimir and Alexis, and this wear thew have
come again. with their brother sergius. They
are no strangers in Paris, but they pass Novem-
Der weeks here which are worth recounting to
mortals who cannot pretend to all their advan-
tages.
There IL an unceasing round Of public excur-
sions by day, and night after night there are
visits to the studios Of sculpture and exhibi-
tions OF painting or to the womans arts expoei-
ton, and at the dinners some brief comedy by
a literary light ia executed by great artists or
lvette Guiibert sings to the guests. Last year
| Vladimir had the commission to procure in
France 100000 rifles for Russia, from tho
factory Of Chatellersult; this time he is said to
have concluded definitely the formal treaty
OF alliance between Russia and France.
THE OFFICIAL HUNT.
Each year these 'sons Of Jupiter have an
open-air compensation for the late dinners
offered them in the form Of an official hunt in
the preserves Of Rambouillet. After the French
fashion it was held this year on last Sunday.
The president Of the republic, though not much
OF hunter, did the honors Of the day in per-
son. The Emperor Napoleon LII made
use Of eight guns and had always behind him
ten different persons when he went forward in
the grand central path cut through the under
brush. But President Carnot when he hunts
at all on these acrimonious occasions has only
one gun, which he uses little for the sport gives
him a headache, and he has with him only q
| brigadier to take of his cartridges. The
grand dukes have this year decided an interest
ing detail of the hunt They had been per-
suaded recently to try the new smokeless pow
| der. Their experience with it has been dis
tasteful to them that they asked the president
last Sunday for a return to the old-fashioned
| gunpowder. Whatever may be the advantage
Of the new invention in war, they declare that
in mere sport it disagreeably dirties the gun,
which 1t also causes to kick SO seriously as to
tire the shoulder.
| The invitations are limited. since only as
many paths as there are guests usually twelve,
have previously been cut through the under
| brush at fifty yards distance from each other
| These paths extend the entire length of the
hunting ground. The center path is the
widest, and this is reserved for the president of
| the republic. In the other paths to right and
left, the order Of strict precedence is observed
among those invited by the president, while
the two outermost paths go respectively to the
| general of the army in charge and to the in
spector Of state forests. Sixty men, recruited
from neighboring villages, go ahead of the
shooters to peat up the pheasants, and forty
guards are placed behind to gather up the
game. At the signal OF a trumpet the party
advances. each shooter keeping the path as
4 signed him, and on a line with his companions
so that accident is impossible. With all these
preparations and advantages it should seem
| that a great many pheasants would be bagged;
and this is the case. Two years ago 900 figured
in front OF the hunting pavilion when all was
over. Last year only 600 pieces of game were
| brought down in hunt which went on during
| a steady dOwnpour of rain. This year luck has
| come again. In four hours time $50 pieces
| were laid out on the lawn in front of tho hunt
| ing lodge. each of the grand dukes, well as
the Duke Of Leuchtenberg. who was one of the
guests, being credited with $50.
This Duke of Leuchtenberg in spite Of his
German title, is half Napoleonic-French and
| wholly Russian noble He is none other than
the great-grandson Of Napoleon's Empress
| Josephine. The latter's son by her first mar
| riage. Eugene Beauharnais, kept his imperial
title after Waterloo and his son had the fortune
| to marry Russian grand duchess, Of whom
| the present duke is a child
| SEEING THE sLuMs.
The grand dukes have had a care to know
more Of France than Partisan high society and
presidential hunts can give them. In 1891 the
news that the project of police had called on
! the Grand Duke Vladimir at first caused some
thing Of a futter through the nihilist settle
| nents in the far southwest OF Paris But
Vladimir cared to have nothing to do with
nihilists. He simply wanted to see the ..under
| side" of Paris, being doubtless q little bored
with the upper ten hsbitually surrounding
him. This night descent into the Partisan
''hells' is certainly the most interesting Of the
grand dukes experiences which have been
made public.
After midnight the imperial visitors, along
with two French noblemen, a Russian prince
another Russian gentleman and a well-known
Partisan doctor, went through all the haunts of
the notorious Quarter Maubert. They we're
accompanied by the chief Of the service de su-
rete and by detective well up to every horror.
Their first visit was to the establishment Of
Pere Lunette, from which they went on to the
equally notorious Chateau Rouge.
A municipal report tells in a few words
what the former is like. The Pers Lunette is q
wretched lodging in the Rue des Anglais, on the
u;hern side of the Seine. The larger portion
of the clients of this establishment are recruits
in the Bohemia OF art-virtuOsi Of the pavement
mostly. street singers, organ grinders, harp,
violin and guitar players come to this wine shop
to drink away the earnings Of the day. In
addition to the common room there il one pe-
culiarly decorated, pompously called the salon,
with the walls covered with frescoes more or
less obscene, the work Of the habitues Of the
place. Other customers represent poetry in
| this hole by reciting for few sous odes on
| ignoble subjects. certain number Of beg
gars. prostitutes and their bullies also frequent
| the place.
Assuredly it is not beautiful this old
| Quarter Maubert. After looking it over we
could never sigh for the others like it, the
| decrepit contemporaries of old Paris, which
fell beneath the tireless Ak Of Haussmann the
dcmolisher. 1t may call to mind dear remem-
brances Of the history Of Paris, to make its
| ugliness lovely to US, but We cannot think with
out sadness of the thousands Of human beings
that live amid the CRIME and infection of its
streets like snails in the dampuess of the holes.
| Houses with furnished apartments and saloons
| grow rank here, and it would be no easy thing.
to my thinking, to distinguish among these
houses that which Is not haunt Of vice and
wretchedness, and among these saloons that
xuhi oh ia Of ahov ri