Daily Kennebec journal., 1903-08-10

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were in our party four Scotchmen and
three priests, who had also bought
tickets. We We're driven to an old
house, called a hotel where beer and
souvenirs were on sale, and an old lady
went around to two or three places
with us. If we had known nothing
about the place we should know moth
ing about it now, but having studied
it carefully we We're able to find for
ourselves what we wanted to see. One
place whichsthe old lady called our at
tention TO was a brick wall where she
said the French wasted their ammuni-
tion bytni stalking the wall for a line of
English Just as if Napoleon would
have fired all day at a brick wall with
out seeing any English. We decided
that that was not his usual way of
conducting warfare and gave no heed
to what she said The place is similar
toSany level open farming place in
Maine. A large mound with a huge
stone lion at the top marks the central
point of the battle. This mound, some
300 feet in height, we afterwards learn
ed, was made by female labor, and the
dirt carried in baskets. A brick foun-
dation inside supports the lion. The
man of whom we bought the tickets
proved to be simply a representative
of that hotel and the uniform was a
sham. There are two rival hotels in
the place, neither of which is very good
as such, and their principal aim is to
oil col hnaJ a :.
souvenirs to them.
Several old men came to our car
riage, begging money, some of them
| quite able looking men. This serves to
show how necessary it is for Il tray
eller to study carefully Il place before
visiting it, and know just what he
wishes to see. We have found no diff
| ficulty in finding all the places of in
| terest where we have been, unaSSisted
| by guides. We made careful study
| of the places we were to visit before
| starting, and now we simply break
through the line of guides everywhere
awaiting the traveller, and roam about
at leisure. The Scotchmen with whom
we went to Waterloo remarked that
we had much better way of travell-
| ing than they. They noticed that we
kept by ourselves and needed no one
who came to sell something or to give
advice. while they stopped every now
| and then to listen to the numerous be-
| siegers.
The ride from Brussels to Paris oc-
cupies five hours. and it is a continual
| pleasure The country is generally
| level and almost all cultivated. The
patches of land where hay is growing
are very small. compared with those
where there are good gardens-just the
opposite of what is seen in Maine, but
nearly all the work we noticed was
done in the old style of our grand
fathers.
FINALLY we are at Paris. the mos
splendid city in the world. the seat o
the fine arts. There is nothing lik'
| Paris in America, as far as we know
the parks are wonderfully EXTENSIVE
and beautiful, everywhere ornamente'
with statuary of the most perfect de
signs. Everything seems to be mad
with Il thought as to it's artistic eff
feet: the bridges, the stores, the houses
the avenues. in fact everything l
adorned by statutes and constructe
in curving lines of beauty.
( Parisians like plenty of room. Ihel
5 avenues are broad and fine; in som
places the sidewalks are as wide as
whole street in some of the America
2 cities. The main avenue is more like
mark than a street-it is, in fact. tw
t avenues with a park. with fountains
I statues. monuments. etc, between. l
s New York one finds an art gallery.
s natural history building, a geologic;
a garden. beautiful churches, etc; bl
d they are single units by themselve
0 widely separat ted by unadorned streets
o have noticed in other places beautif'
y collections gathered together in larg
Il plain. unornamented buildings.
n Paris, the city is the unit of artist
s beauty. From the Louvre to the zo'
h logical gardens, several miles away, OF
has the feeling that it is one plac
: The triumphal arches, the museum
$. beaux arts. the Eiffel tower, the churcl
= &c and cathedrals, in fact, everythin
g tends to the unification of the who
K. More than that, history and the Fren'
n customs show that unit to be not PaI
l. hut France-the consummation OF ;
N that is the grandest and best in t
to whole country.
Sc HALLOWELL TEACHER.