The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-04-21
LETTERS FROM A COUNTRY GIRL
IN PARIS.
No. ).
QUARTER LATIN, PARIS

IS the mOSC Important. BOeut Nr6S is
celebrated on the Sunday, Monday and
Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, when
Lent begins. No beef is eaten in Lent,
and so this festival is Boeuf Gras or beef
festival. There is a grand procession of
floats, decorated with flowers and filled
with men and women in the most bril-
liant costumes imaginable. The place Of
honor is given to King Carnival and
about the middle of the procession are
two splendid fat oxen, given by the Pres
ident of France Last year was the first
time Mardi Gras has been celebrated
since the siege of Paris, 80 years ago. For
days before the Carnival the shops are
filled with gorgeous tarleton and gilt bags
of confetti of all the colors of the rain bow,
and brushes or whips made oflong strips
of tissue paper of different colors. The
confetti is round bis of paper, and every
body is supposed to throw handfuls of it
into every other body's face. Another
kind of confetti is yards of paper ribbon
rolled into ball like tape; you pull the
end out of the middle and throw the ball
as far as you can. Sometimes it goes
clear across the street, where it fastens on
balcony, and you hold the other end OF
it or fasten it to your own balcony. or 1t
is dropped into the street and made to
tangle around two people going In oppo-
site directions. It Is very amusing in
with it. The trees on the avenues are all
draped with serpentine confetti, and the
sidewalks are foot deep in round confet-
ii. At night the streets are 30 crowded
with masked and costumed merry max
ers that it is almost impossible to get
about. Then they have torch light pro-
cessions, dances and everything gay.
And Tuesday night they wind up with
grand masked ball, dance all night, and
on Ash Wednesday 60 to early mass and
confess their sins without having gone to
bed.
In most places the churches have forty
DAYS Of repentance for sin and abstinence
from gaiety. But here in Paris they are
obliged to have break in it, so just in the
middle of Lent they have another festi-
val, Micareme This is the feast of Wash
erwomen! This year Micareme was
even gayer than Mardi Gras. The pro-
cession was much finer, and every body
seemed to be trying to cram as much fun
as possible into the one day and night.
At six o'clock in the afternoon King Car
nival was burned at the stake in front Of
the Pantheon while the WasherWomen
and students danced around him singing.
King Carnival was made Of rags and
stuffed with colored powders which,
when ignited, cast a beautiful crimson or
green or blue glow over the thousands
and thousands Of people assembled there.
The third festival of Importance is the
Battle of the Roses, held in the Champs
Elysees, q beautiful Park. This comes off
in July and I'm very sorry not to be here
to see it.
Besides these festivals in which every
one takes part there are the professions
and fetees Of the different churches and
cathedrals. Each one has its own patron
Saint, and celebrates its own particular
Saints day in it's own way and time. For
instance, ST. Etienne du mont, little
church IN the Quarter Latin, has what it
calls the Neuvieme of st. Genevieve. II
is q nine days feast and pilgrimage to the
tomb of st. Genevieve in the church.
Services are held all day and thousands
of people pass by the tomb and give the
old priest their crosses, beads, statues of
the Virgin and other things to be blessed.
They are placed on holy stone in the
tomb then blessed by the priest. Any one
who touches these relics will be healed of
diseases, etc. 1t would be interesting to
know about the patron Saint of each
church, but I haven't time here to say
more on that subject as want to tell you
of the grandest and most perfect object in
all Paris-the tomb of Napoleon.
This tomb is in the church which is
connected with the Hotel des Invalides,
or soldiers hospital, founded in 1907 by
Louis XIV. The beautiful gilded dome
of the church can be seen all over Paris
and several wide avenues meet there. AS
YOU enter the church the first thing that
attracts the eye is an immense altar flood
ed with golden light from bottom to top.
This effect is produced by the yellow
glass windows on each side and above the
altar, but out of sight themselves. The
tall spiral columns Of black marble and
the life-sized Christ hanging on the cross
lasting sunlight. This altar is called the
Chapel of the Emperor. But before you
reach the chapel you notice an immense
circular balustrade Of marble about four
feet high, and you approach and find
yourself looking into circular CT. 20
feet deep and SO feet in diameter. IL the
midst of the beautiful mosaic pavement,
surrounded by wreath of flaurel rises the
sarcophagus Of Napoleon I. 1t is like
coffin carved out OF single huge block
of red granite weighing about 67 tons and
brought from Finland at the cost of up
wards of $4,000. Twelve colossal angels
stand guarding the tomb and sixty flags
which he captured in different battles
wave over the last resting-place Of the
greatest general the world ever saw. I
imagine it would be great satisfaction to
him to know how he is adored by the
French. His tomb is the most impress
i've, magnificent thing in all Paris. There
is q museum in connection with the 1nva-
lides, which has hat, coat, armor and
other relics of Napoleon. When the al
lies entered Paris in 1914, the French
burned 1900 flags captured by him and
destroyed the sword of Frederick the
Great, which Napoleon brought from his
tomb in 1906. The French burned these
relics so they would not fall into the
hands of the enemy. Most Of the princi-
pal avenues are named for Napoleon's
battles. as are also several of the bridges
across the Seine. At(Versailles there are
dozens Of pictures and statues Of him,
and many things belonging to him.
Above the entrance to Napoleon's tomb
are these words quoted from his will: "
desire that my ashes repose on the banks
of the Seine, in tho midst of the French
people whom I have loved 80 much"
The Hotel des Invalides fronts on the
Seine with battery and twenty cannon.
These are used only for firing salutes.
The Hotel was built to accommodate
5000 inmates but there are now less than
200. They seem very happy with their
little church and their beautiful gardens
and their grove Of chestnut trees where
the nightingale sings.
Paris is gay, happy, pretty wicked, I
suspect, and the people seem to be the
most irresponsible, tickle, hotheaded
people in the world. But for all that
there is fascination about it which one
can only know by experience. and the
more you know of Paris the better you
likeit.
The next thing am anticipating is the
curious celebration Of Easter and then the
event of the year in Paris, the opening of
the Salon, where all the highest, most
advanced Art in the world is to be seen.
D. J. B.