The Portland daily press., 1895-10-07
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE.
Scenes in the Brilliant French Capital.
The Morgue-Cemetery of Pere la Chaise-
Sunday Scenes of Gayety-The Central
Market.

|
Sunday Scenes of Gayety-The Central
| Market.
Bale, Switzerland, Sept. 20.
| A stranger entering Paris for the frst
| time, at one of the principal stations, IN
the busy season, must be impressed With
the idea, that new Tower of Babel is
being built or that there has been gen.
eral stampede here from every part OF the
earth. 1t is scene never to be forgotten.
| No porter comes to the train to help you
in getting out your hand luggage but
| for some then unaccountable reason they
stand around in squads oblivious of the
throng who pass by weighed down with
hand bags and satchels. When at last
out of breath you reach the general plat
form, series of seedy looking omnlbuses
invite your attention, announced by the
comptroller as being all let. Inc CABS
with horses prancing round in the covered
square, are also engaged and waiting for
passengers, who themselves are waiting
to get their large luggage out OF the Gus
tom house They all beekon beyond
where YOU find retinue of cabs still I'M
occupied, but independence and arrogance
are contagious and since the supply is
not equal to the demand the testy cabmen
are ready only to make their own terms.
heayy'' are inquiries made of you instead
SIS your trunk large, and above aliis 1T
of your being able to make requisition OF
them, At last for fabulous sum they
consent to take you to your hotel, SO after
getting on your small luggage and a
small part of your people, the work OF
grace commences and patience has its
perfect work." For the doors of the GUS
tom house are now open and at last an
officer consents to punch round inside
your trunks with no seeming purpose OF
finding anything, and with no results ex-
cept that of making you unstrap, unlock
and partially unpack, to repack and LOCK
again, what you had felt was, at the be-
ginning we'll arranged for long journey.
After much trouble you find porter and
press him into your service, one OF the
squad waiting for this moment. lie lifts
your trunk and pronOunceS 1T heavy. Sc
that he can swear about it and get large
fee for carrying it. Then you are allowed
to squeeze yourself into the cab while the
cabman sits complacently on the box,
you having handed up such pieces of lug
gage as are too large for the inside. AT
your hotel you go through the same thing
again in the opposite direction consld-
ering yourself fortunate If he doesn t run
away with some satchels surreptitlousiy
left under the seat. For such as he does
takc away. since no Paris cabman is ever
twice in the same place, there is no rem
al hut ho Drafoct11ra nf the Police
where lost articles Of luggage are sure to
be found When after days spent in look
ing them up, since the Prefecture OF Po-
lice is so near the Morgue, there seems
| nothing so convenient, after your lost
| bags are found, as to look upon the re-
mains of the unfortunate resting here
| from their sorrows.
THE MORGUE.
Many cynical lessons of the low life OF
this gay city are learned here. Each face
tells its separate history as these poor
victims lie in rows on each rude bier,
which thick sheets of glass separate from
the outside world. Although nominally
air tight the compartments are not i'm
peryious to strong smell of disinfectants
with which the place is always filed.
one OlQ WOlQdu b 1dC6 10 dSOAALO0 GIN
full of anger and malice and signs of evil
deeds, while at the end of the row an
aged peasant woman, in striking con-
trast, lies peacefully seeming to say 90 af-
ter life's ftful fever" that she sleeps
| well.
There is also a girl Of eighteen years
| in male attire who went to her death IN
the long line Of unfortunates and who
| in life would have smiled to think that
anoyne would lift her up tenderly or shed
| a tear over the hard fate Of such as she
| had been.
In the faces of two who wear masculine
garments there is no resemblance to the
millionaire whom we just passed enter
| ing the doors of the Notre Dame, not one
rod distant in 'front.' These two hardened
| criminal looking men with coarse mat
ted unkempt hair are much nearer the
gorilla and chimpanzee in appearance
than like the Partisan who sits on the
Boulevards slipping his cognao and coffee
while he watches the gay throng passing
by. But who can tell or measure the
subtle difference, the invisible essence of
true nobility, exteriors do not indicate
this.
They lay the dead out here to look as
much like life as possible with all their
outside garments on, while they place
all other habilliments found, by their
side, to facilitate every chance of recog
milton. They keep the place SO cold,
with water running over the marble slabs
on which the dead lie, that they are able
to leave the unrecognized ones for .hree
months before burial But there is not
single day but some new inmate comes
to inhabit this CHASTITY place, eight hun
dred being the average for the year.
A constant crowd of eager spe ctators
surrounds the place, mostly vulgar
throng perhaps in search of lost friend
or some friends friend, striking COM
ment on the desperation and despair Of
the life which begins with the Paris
gamin.
PERE LA CHAISE.
But the life going on beyond the bridge
leading to this Isle of Cite has no time to
take to heart the sorrow ul lessons Of this
luguberious place, for has not the Latin
quarter for many years been the typical
section of vulgar life and coarse attire
and social disorder.
So hurrying from the memory of this
vile page Of history we betake ourselves
to the resting place of many who have rem