The San Francisco call., 1896-10-11
And the French Did Not Cheer
as Justify as the First Re.
ports Indicated.
PROTECTION OF ROYAL GUESTS.
In Reviewing Events of the 0.d World
Frederic Also Scores Lord Rose
bery's Course.
copyright, 1896. by the New York rimes-l

say whether what was seen in Paris this
week or what was heard on all sides there
was the most remarkable. Certainly the
spectacle which Paris provided for it's i'm
perial guests stands quite without par
alleI. There were millions of strangers in
the city, mostly provincial French. There
were miles of densely packed crowds
wherever one wanted to go, and leagues OF
costly decorations. When darkness fell
an illumination burst forth on such
stupendous scale that it took away the
breath even of Parisians, but everywhere
in the painting, pushing throngs of sight
seers one heard people saying: "To think
that all this is done because one little man
happens to be the son OF his fatherP'
This remark was heard hundreds of
times if once. 1t remains in mind, now
that the lights are all out and the flags
are disappearing. as q C wv TO what France
really felt during the fetes. 1t all had to.
be done, no doubt, and the French were
not the people to do it by halves, but this
curious mental reflection on the strange
conditions imposed by an alliance with
hereditary autocracy seemed always up-
permost.
Among the people, doubtless, it found
expression the more readily because
vague notion is spreading that the whole
thing is part of scheme to estrange the
republic 1t required a good deal of
moral courage for the Gar to make the
Orleanist Princes, their newly found
friend, the Princess Mathilde, and their
princely supporters of the houses OF Uzes,
Luynes, Rochefoucauld, Rohan and the
ha oh iof Inn
Wednesday, which was the only meal
where he had the naming of his own
guests. The Paris papers said as little as
possible In regard to this, but it was pri-
vately talked about more than anything
else. In the matter of physical deport-
ment, however, Nicholas gave the lmpres-
sion of being the reverse OF brave The
oldest Partisan had never seen his guests
who passed everywhere within their
streets, so walled with bayonets or civic
horses at a sharp trot. There had been
elaborate arrangements for state process
sion to the opera-house, moving at walk
and with six caparisoned horses, each led
by footman, but at the last moment this
plan was changed and the cortege was
rushed through swiftly.
Public rumor ascribed this to the terrors
of the Gear, though much moro likely it
was due to the nervousness of the police
authorities of Paris. All who came close
to the Gar saw him quivering with kind
Of stage fright, which affected him
throughout the visit. His awkward way,
too, both puzzled and annoyed the crowd,
which had memories of traditions of an
Emperor who doffed his hat and bowed
nd lod rx-ha he 4
1t was this that chilled the enormous
throngs gathered to witness the Cars en-
trance on Tuesday. It was well placed on
the Champs Elysees, opposite the Palais
de L'Industrie, and where the biggest
crowd was. The papers talked of "tre-
mendous cheering" but really, save for
the white-robed Tunisian Sheiks, there
was little or none. By nighttime the
crowd had found its voice and could raise
a sort of cheer, but at the outset it was
almost dumb. The Empress also at the
beginning was white as a sheet and visi-
bly, trembling. She bowed as if she was
piece OF mechanism. 1t seems however
that had been hideously seasick the
day before and was in no condition that
morning for the ideal of facing Paris. She
had recovered, and she was inspired by
her unparalleled surroundings to NAV
ideally well her part Next day all Paris
was talking about her.
1t is nearly thirty years since French
men had seen beautiful woman bowIno
from an open royal carriage and the sight
went to their hearts. Old imperiaIists
wept openly at the spectacle and the
memories it evoked, while the YOUNGER
generation in turn was moved by this
The laying of the bridge foundation on
Wednesday became exclusively the
o. d ~
Faure took part in the ceremony but the
crowd had eyes and voices for her alone
She was affected TO tears by the stress of
the situation, but she bore herself mae-
niticently none the less and hundreds of
thousands OF people yelled "Vive rIm-
peratrice, sound which the Seine Val
ley had not heard since 1870.
Who shall say what results are to fol-
low this extraordinary demonstration
In ordinary times Frenchmen talk great
deal about Egypt, the Niger and other
English com plications as If they cor
stituted the principal items of French
foreign politics. Now, for a week, one has
heard not a whisper of all this. In the
presence of the tremendous fact that the
Gar was actually in Paris there could
be only one thought, and that one was OF
Germany.
The statue of Strasbourg, draped afresh
in mourning, was the point for which
every group OF visiting provincials made
first. In the Place de la Concord, the
thought of ''Revanche' sprang up auto
matIcalIy in every mind as the ultimate
meaning of these flags and fireworks.
Perhaps some of the poignancy OF terror
that marked the seventies is lacking now,
but "Revanche" is still a realty in the
French, and Egypt" is merely froth on
French lips. If next week France
learned that she had been committed by
her Foreign Office to an Anglo-Russian
com bination, she would not turn a hair.
but if the Berlin and Vienna press has
failed to say spiteful things about her
welcome to the Gear, and had not re-
vealed the conviction that it meant mis-
chief 10 the triple alliance. she would
have been sorely disappointed.
1t is curious that while Paris was firing
in honor of the Gear, General Trochu, the
man whose famous plan for relief of the
besieged city in the terrible year of 1870
kept all the world in weary suspense, lay
dying at Tours. His Russian experiences
dated back to a dangerous wound which
he had received in an assault on the
central bastion of Sebastopol in the Cri-
mean War
The cry of s'Vive pImperatrice" might
have reminded him of that critical day
when he pledged his Breton honor to de-