The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-06-12

together in one great bouquet, as the
hour approaches for the spouting of
the waters.
ApoIlo's off-leader throws a small
let from his nostrils-that is the signal.
| The hundred shrilI cries of the fruit
and toy vendors are drowned in one
immense, All! from the threats of two
hundred thousand expectants Sud
| denly every iron whale and triton and
dolphin, surrounding the chariot of
Apollo throws jet of water sixty feet
into the air, Neptune and Amphridite
hurI their jets eighty feet and to the
right and left Pan and Flora, Jupiter
and Juno, and a hundred attendant
nynphs and goddesses fall to squirt
ing like rival fire companies Iaboring
for the prize of silver trumpet.
Most of the visitors to Versailles re-
turn by train; we preferred voiture
and the highway-distance ten miles
We pass through the village of ST.
Cloud. and by the side of the govern
ment mandatory of Sevres plate; we
skirt the banks of the Seine, lined
with beautiful villas, and enter the
Bots de Boulogne, which is another
scene of enchantment, another COM
pIication of cascades, and forests, and
lawns. and terraces, and beauties of
nature and art, at the remembrance of
which my beggarly pen acknowledges
it's utter poverty, and goes quietly into
bankruptcy.
One of the attractive features of the
Bots de Boulogne is it's great drive,
which on pleasant Sunday afternoons
is lined and damned with thousands Of
open carriages filed with brilliantly
dressed ladies, respectable and other
wise-sorne of whom go to see, and
others to be seen. There were equip
ages in which the color of the horses
and the color of the livery of coach
man and footman were carefully
matched, not only with the carriage
lining but the shades of the dresses of
the occupants. There were carriages
lined with lace and adorned with flow
ers, ana filed with sweet faces and
gorgeous toilets; but I am afraid that
almost every one Of them was not
very good.
And that at last is the impression
Paris leaves upon us. There is no sin
certify in its life; there is no earnest
ness in its purposes. If, as Montesquieu
says, in substance, Virtue is the main
spring of a republic, and honor the life
of a kingdom" there may be many
kingdoms yet in France, but there will
need to be general change CT heart
before Paris can produce a real re-
public There is a goneness about the
French capital an idea of moral in
completeness, that kills all sense of it's
high cultivation of the fine arts. It's
myriad beguilements are fevered,
Haunting and unsatisfactory, because
wholly bereft of the domestic charm.
AS has been said many times, there is
no word in the French language to ex-
press the idea of home The houses
are dreary and comfortless, because
the people live in the streets, either for
the purpose of seeing or being seen.
The moment the laborer has hand
disengaged, he Seizes his offspring and
sallies forth; the wife takes her coarse
sewing and sits upon the damp flag
stones, if she can go no further: "any-
where, anywhere out in the world"
Those who can afford it dress superbly
and ride, ride always; those who can
not, sit in the parks or stroll. This
system is not the growth of a day-it
has been encouraged by a succession
of kings. The LouiSeS were, without
an exception, voluptuaries, and the
Napoleons fired the public sentiment /
with martial arQOr, IlH pfOIilSdcy anu
proves make up the religion of France.
The strength of the race has Seen
dwindHng. They sit by their ruins and
trace the dim figures of antiquity, even
as the old Indian seeks to retrace the
trail blazed through the forest fifty
years ago. But the hieroglyphs are
overgrown; the over-stepping race, the
huge-thighed, fair-haired, plodding, in
dustrious, strong-limbed, breadwin-
ming Germans, have levelled the fin
ger-posts and trodden down the bruised
bushes, and though the sun shines
through the clearings it falls with a
brazen and unfamiliar light. The hope
of such a people is revolution-not of
the Paris mob, but of the people of
France. A Paris revolution is merely
a tendency without healthy nucleus or
calm poise. 1t uses without controlling
the basest elements of society, and
vents it's insensate fury on edifices and
arches. The hope of France is else
where than in her chief city. God send
that the spirit of true republican liber-
ty-not license, but liberty regulated
and protected by law may rise out
of her Corn fields green and sunny
vines" and assert it's beneficent sway.
And so, having preached my little
preach, I will retire into the provinces.