Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-09-10
PARIS LETTER.
Paris, France, Aug 10th. 1900.


to see the great vans of Cooks ex
cursionists which daily traverse the
boulevards. Here is a French Jour-
nalist's description of his enemy, the
English visitor.
| climb into the immense wagon
which is to carry me across Paris, in
company with Cooks English tour
lists. It is ten O'Clock in the morning,
the loungers watch US with that half
curious, half cynical manner that the
Partisan assumes when he looks at
strangers. A boy passing on a bicy-
Gle calls out in the only English he
knows, 'English, oh yes" But the
English do not pay attention. They
seem to ignore the presence of the
people who are looking at them. Next
to me, on a seat of the wagon, i'm
perturbably smoking a short wooden
pipe, dry and thin parsonage of
some forty years, with face as sharp
as razor, dressed in golf pantaloons,
straw hat with very narrow brim,
woollen stockings and shoes with
quadruple soles, delights in his splen-
did isolation. D Uring the entire
journey this man does not speak
word. In watching him the saying of
a philosopher comes to mind 1.-THE
Englishman himself is an island"
The spectacle of these impene trable
citizens of free England, however,
causes us a certain admiring sur
prise. Their spirit of discipline and
punctuality is even more astonishing
than their impassibility. The de-
parture of Cooks wagon is set for ten
O'Clock; at five minutes of ten there
they are-men, women, children, no
one is lacking, and there are a thou
sand of them that Thos. Cook s. Son
carry daily around Paris, this year of
the exposition. They arrive without
haste and take their places without
pushing, in a precise and correct
manner. 1t is done without noise,
without discussion, without COM
plant. Imagine a thousand French
people of both sexes to dispose of in
disputes, the things to see to the last
moment, the showing! See the women
especially, their faces flushing at be-
ing assigned place they did not ex-
pect: Il told you so-it's always the
same way-how badly managed it is
how can one travel in this way-how
hot it ISL
The British tourists do not quarrel
If they have an observation to make,
they address themselves quietly to
the manager, yielding at the first
good reason given, nodding the head
and saying, "Wen, weIl.' They do
not even complain of the heat. They
endure it stoically, as a companion
whose rights they respect.
But our wagon moves, drawn by
five bay horses, driven by French
postillion gaily along the boulevards.
I examine my companions. They be-
long to the commercial small shop
class of London, and all, men and
women are ugly, of that English ugli-
ness that strikes us more than the
French ugliness be cause we are not
SO used to it.
The bearing of the men, tie dresses
of the women, suit the ugliness of the
types. The middle class English,
travelling in parties, have evidently
no desire to please. They dress in a
practical manner without a trace of
coquetry. The flannel shirts of the
men, the cotton waists of the women,
lack elegance, chic, style.
The Madeline-the Elysse-the Arc
de Triomphe. At each stage the
wagon stops everybody rises. The |
guide, standing on the steps of the
carriage rapidly repeats his lesson.
They listen with the same seriousness
that they give to a sermon on Sun
days. My neighbor impertur ably
smokes his pipe and remains "splen-
didly isolated" He recalls to me |
that globe trotter who had been
around the world three times and
brought back only the names and
of the hotels. A very old man
with venerable white beard, sits
down at once and resumes reading
the Times; an angular old lady studies
her red backed guide book. Below, a
oouple-bride and groom on their
wedding journey-hold hands and
gaze into vacancy. They, too, are
isolated"
We come to the exposition, with it's
dazzling Wilderness, its domes, it's
heterogeneous buildings, it's various
pavilions thrown on the two sides of