The age-herald., 1901-07-14
A Day In Old Versailles.

how and be often In difficulties"
 A Day In Old Versailles.
 Today Is the French Fourth of July, the anniversary of the fall of the Bastile, which world-moving event occurred July IA, 17S9, precisely one hundred and twelve years ago.
 'The fourteenth of July fifteen years ago I spent at Versailles, in and about the ancient palace of the French kings" said Birmingham man last night.
 There were two hundred thousand people there that day, but I was person. surging and happy multitude-myself and two Scotch friends, one of them six Sect four inches tall and all bone and muscle. We left Paris at 10 o'clock in the morning in train that seemed to be a mile long, and every seat of the two-story cars oc- cupied. The French government does not permit any greater number of persons in railway car than there are seats for, and so we were comfortable enough.
 "One incident In this relation pleased me nightly. Just as our train was about to move out of the Paris station, a burly workingman in blue blouse rushed to the door of our compartment and tugged at the doorknob. A young woman who sat opposite me, fashionably and exquisitely attired, bent forward and said to the man in perfect Parisian accent:
 This compartment is filed if you please, monsieur
 The rough, uncouth man. lifted his cap with the grace of a courtier, and said:
 thank, you, mademoiselle.' That was civility in France, and wher- ever you travel in that beautiful land and whomsoever you meet, you encoun- ter the never-failng practice of courtesy. 1 From the highest to the lowiest. there is no public rudeness in France Our train was a half hour running the eleven miles between Paris and Versailles On the route we passed close to the famous palace of St. Cloud, the favorite residence of the First Napoleon It was. in ruin, caused by the German shells fired in the siege of Paris fifteen years before, and the huge rents in the palace walls were plainly seen from our train.
 ''We passed alongside that same high way over which the Parisian women and men marched with brooms and bikes a hundred years before to demand relief of Louis XVI. When that motley mob swarmed in the courtyards of the palace. the king remarked to an attendant that 1t was riot.
 
 "'Riot. sire, riot! Tt Is not riot-it is revolution" the courier made reply; and it cost the king his head to find out the truth of the observation
 Versailles, with its wide avenues of ancient trees and Its incomparable park, was wonderfully alluring on that bright July day. And the palace-one could wander about that palace for years and still enjoy entrancing reflections.
 What teemed with greatest interest to me was the bedchamber of Louis XIV. le grande monarque, together with the famous "Bulls-eye," circular window In the corridor outside the kings council room, and the spacious galleries contain ing heroic pictures representing Louis Napoleon In battle-before Sedan
 We are told that three thousand peo- pie daily gathered on the terrace under the windows of Louis XIV's bedchamber to see the great king make his toilet!
 The Perch of a Mademoiselle.
 "The great fountains in the royal park, the most celebrated fountains in the world, were playing that day for the first time in seven years; and an Ameri- can with a Chicago accent assured us that it cost s60,OOO to run that water twelve hours it being pumped up from the river Seine. The most splendid of these fountains is considerable distance from the palace and partially concealed therefrom in the most splendid wood in Europe, excepting the royal park of Lit tie Queen Wilhelmina at The Hague. "Our party visited this fountain about half-past 8 o'clock in the evening, when | it was illuminated by electricity, pre- senting a spectcle surpassing anything the old kings ever dreamed of.
 Our six-foot-four Scotchman lowered high above every one of the thousands gathered there, and had the physical strength of three ordinary Frenchmen. 1 He observed petite and very pretty French maiden by his side vainly striv- ing to see the fountain, and with not so much as by your leave, Mademoselle, he lifted her to his left shoulder and held her there, she laughing in the greatest glee and contentment, her little heels beating against his heart, literally. By and by her friends claimed her from her proud perch. and with grateful thanks she went away. Probably he still remem- bers her, as I do. '' .4,
 Later, and just before taking train for Paris we strolled through the brilliantly lighted great art galleries of the palace, which were of absorbing interest to two of us. Six-foot-four didn't care for art \ and he was clearly thirsty and bored. Suddenly, as we stood before Raphael he said, with honest fervor:
 "Id give sovereign (s5) for glass of Glen Sherup water!
 "Glen Sherup in Scotland was the source of water supply to his home town! There be many, many persons who do the treasure-houses of priceless art in Europe with as little appreciation as our Six-foot-four.
 Tt was after 10 o'clock when we reach ed Paris that night, and hastening to a favorite cafe in the Avenue del Opera we took seats at a sidewalk table-every- body sits at tables on the sidewalks in