Evening star., 1896-07-18

T. trouble came to
Louis XVI, In h e
midst of all it's splendor. 1t Is hard to
think Of Versailles without Its old-time
court. the loves Of kings, the stately fash
ions OF by-gone day, and all that is aris-
tocratic. seemly and well-ordered. AS a
matter of fact scarcely anything is chang
ed. The palaces, groves, fountains, statues
and villas. down to the very hamlet
wherein the lovely Marie Antoinette played
milkma,d, are as If they had been left by
their great tenants only yesterday. The
palace Is denu6ed Of its furniture and fill
ed with great mass of only moderately
interesting paintings. in the style of an his
torical museum. That Is all.
And lonely weekday tourists, strolling
timidly through the echoless bowers, start
at the sound of their own footsteps, lest
the great bewigged, gold-laced and powder
ed king himself should step out from
oarkish nook and warn them Off as tres
passers. 1t is ghost of a place, for all
Its beauty and greatness. But it's ghostly
dignity receives rude shocks two Sundays
every month in summer time. Louis XIV
mad not money enough to make his wonder
ful fountains go after he had constructed
tnem What he could not do, modern
railway company can do with ease, and
make a profit.
versailles is considerable town in itself,
having something less than $1,000 inhabi-
tants, certain number of whom, how
ever, only occupy their villas and apart
ments In the summer. 1t lies about twelve
miles to the southeast of Paris. and is the
capital of the Seine-and- Disc department
one Of the sleepiest and sweetest country
sldes or France, for all that 1t is so near
10 the great capital From Paris to Yer
sall!es Is region of suburban proprietors,
exulting beneath their vines and pear trees
1t is region Of business men who travel
daily on the cars, Of school children who
are also commuters, Of bcyclists and clerks
VINO fee the Boulevard. of amateur chicken
farmers. of chateaux and little country
boxes snd the stone cottages of peasants.
French Country Life.
There is deal Of small manufacturing
all along the route. and some tall smoking
chimneys do their necessary injury to the
landscape. Also the French seem to have
no sense of country comfort, and their
dingy little red brick villas burning in the
summer sun are not at all inviting to
Americans. They know neither porches
nor hammocks, nor fly screens nor the use
Oh ice. Acquaintance with these facts
makes the little sun-baked villas look hot
ter than ever. They are also packed very
closely together Indeed, 1t looks a trife
messy. But there are trees and forests
mere ana there. The people themselves are
delighted with the airy spaciousness in
which they live.
'Ahr" drawing long breaths of pretended
delight, they exclaim: 'One breathes out
here on these delicious heights! In Paris
you can't b-eathe"-which Is also true
but here one Is at ease with the dear chill
dren' home from boarding school-"and
the birds, and the dogs, and the chickens,
ana the trains going by make 1t lively"
Which is also true. The railway Is a dou-
ble-track line, having Its terminus at Ver-
sailles aud doing all its business through
this thickly populated twelve or fifteen
niles mi OF modified country side. Away from
the railway 1t is really sleepy and pretty
But near the railway 1t is convenient.
The town Of Versailles is both, being
roomy, airy and shady in the bargain One
OF It's boasts Is that 1t has never had the
cholera down through all the centuries, a
reputation which only one other large towr.
in all Europe-Freiburg in Baden-can
prove a right to. Apartment houses rule
here, as IN Paris which makes Versailles
look much more orderly and spacious than
the hit-or-misS untidiness of the country
epproach by rail. Apart from this, Yer
sailles depends for its renown entirely on
the palace and the park. And it is to in
crease its traffic and make money for the
town that tie railway company, aided by
state and municipal subsidies, operates the
fountains of King Louis XIV and gives the
common people Of the great capital an op-
portunity to scatter paper bags, melon
rlnds, egg shells end sandwich crusts over
the green swards, where once rolled the
regal Pompadour. where the fair but frail
easy-going Sabran took her bath.
The Rocco Style.
At Versailles the town is passed through
by short walk leading to the palace, and
the weekday tourists even who come
when the place Is quiet and deserted, must
make their choice-the palace or the gar
dens. There Is no time in one short day
to see the two.
Gardens end palace both speak with no
uncertain voice of their originator. The
rococo style in building and decoration is
found IN sll Its spreading glory here in
rococo, 1T ia true, did not reach its height
until his successors reign, but this ia also
the palace Of Louis XIV, and what one gen
Grafton began the other carried to compile
ton. The rocco style is always essentially
the same-a decorative style in harmony
with the wigged and rapiered courtiers Of
pompous monarch, who had nothing to
do but to idle away refined and voluptuous
lives with court ladies like those who sur
rounded Madame de Pompadour. In such
a life everything centers in the monarch's
making war or love.
And SO it came that Louis XIV's wig
the most remarkable of the great kings
features-became the model of this park
and palace. With its even parting in the
middle and its long, massive curls at the
sides. 1t is undoubtedly responsible for
what the Germans derisively call the
whit" stone on dts commanding height be-
hind the town is like the headp.ece of the
wig. The two wings that start at right
angles from each end of 1t are like the
long curls that rolled down his shoulders.
The carefully tended, regularly curving
grounds continue the massive ringlets on
each side down to what might be called the
waist Of the design. The fountains of the
upper terrace constitute lis glorious face.
And dotting down the center to the boiling
waters Of the lake-which only boil, as /
have said, at decent intervals-there are
the statues. flower beds and clipped hedges,
which will represent his lace-edged coat,
with in between them, for his green silk
vest. the fair green stretches of the spa
cious central lawn.
Everything Regular.
In the details of this decoration the chief
object seems to have been to subject nature
to the laws Of architecture. and to prac-
tdce geometry. sculpture and dressmaking
on lawns. trees and ponds. Trees and
shrubs are clipped to resemble obelisks and
pyramids. Others stand straight and pre-
ternaturally slender, IKE soldiers on pa
rade. An alley running to the right is bal
anced by an alley running to the left. A
sheet OF water whose outlines are as un-
yteldingly rectangular as those Of a munic-
ipal swimming bath u SUSTAINED" by
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