The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-08-21
AMERICANS RIPE.
French People Securing Their
Harvest just Now.
Editor Morgan Finds Tourists
Are Good Picking"
NAPOLEON'S TOMB.
The Kansan's Long Suit to Seek
Dead Heroes.
Thinks Partisan Women Are
Gay and EfBervescent.
NAPOLEON'S TOMB

When was boy there was sons,
uCherries Are Ripe" exhorting every
body TO have some. Here in Paris
think the people are singing Americans
are ripe" and everybody is trying to
get some. The business men of Paris
do not take their vacation in the sum
yner time, for that is the season when
the American tourists are ready for the
harvest, and It is the best crop in
France The hotel in which am stop
ping has a thousand rooms. and fully
half OF them are occupied by travellers
from ''the states" as our country IS
sometimes called on this side of the At
llantic. co into the stores or principal
cafes and It seems as II the English
llaaguage had moved to Paris Every
American who comes to Europe at all
makes Paris one OF his stopping points
ana shopping places Things are not
cheap here Except kid gloves and
1ewelry, you can buy better goods at
as low or lower prices IN Hutchinson.
But the name Paris" has ar alluring
Sound when attached to those lines IN
which Paris notably leads and, there
fore, a Partisan gown or hat or neck
lace Is a regular souvenir OF a Euro
pean tour. The women folks shop
from morning to night, and the men,
fFrais, growI at the shopping and admire
the display of millinery and other things
which are exhibited free every after
noon and evening. The main promen-
ade streets of Paris are the boulevards
or. as a friend of mine calls them, the
-'buIlyvards," and 1t takes very strong
minded man OF woman to resist the
temptation of learning all the latest
styles in hats and lingerie as they go
strolling by.
In my wandering about Europe I
have had q singular experience. one
OF my long suits is to hunt out the
places where the great men of the
nations are buried and beside their
monuments to moralize on their lives
and wonder what they would think II
they were back on earth for visit.
In London I stood by the tomb Of the
duke Of Wellington and the gentleman
in charge told me eloquently Of the
man who defeated Napoleon In Ger
many I was at the grave Of Butcher,
and the German sexton proudly told
of "the man who defeated Napoleon"
In st. Petersburg I visited the last
resting place of the cars, and the
guide related with pride Of Alexander
the First. the man who defeat ted Ma
poleon.' So when came to Paris
this time. almost my first object was
the tomb of NAPOLEON, the man who
was "defeated' by so many men, but
who as a matter of fact, was only
licked because they all jumped on him
at once and somebody failed to do as
he told them to do. The French peo-
pie love the memory of Napoleon, and
his tomb, under the dome of the
church at the Invalides, Is fitting
memorial to the soldier who first con-
quered France, then the rest of the
continent. and whose changes of the
map were only partially wiped out by
the com bination of all the powers and
potentates of Europe. In deep
round marble crypt or well, about
forty feet in diameter and twenty feet
deep, lies the body of the great Ma
poleon sealed in a block of porphyry
and into the repository the French
man or the tourist looks down with
awe as he sees the tomb of the man
who had Europe trem bling for twenty
years.
The entrance is guarded by an old
soldier with the cross of the Legion Of
Honor upon his breast. and around the
porphyry are some of the flags Ma
poleon captured and the names of bat
ties in which he had personal COM
mand. (The battle of Waterloo is not
mentioned.) If Napoleon had not made
that fool march into Russia where the
snow and the cold routed the army
which no other foe had even held in
check, there is no telling what would
have been the history of the world for
It would have been just France and
the Other. After his old and reliable
troops had been scattered by the frosts,
ne came near to keeping his hold with
soldiers whom he was said to have
taken from the cradle. But he couldn't
quite make this luck turned and
down he went before the hunters
The French women impress me
greatly. first with their good clothes.
OF which they often display more than
] am accustomed to seeing. and.
secondly. with their industry and abil-
ity. They seem to run the shops and
stores and do the retail business of
the country They are saving and
thrifty, keen at bargaining and cal
culating in their dealings. They are
saving and thrifty, keen at bargain
ing and calculating in their dealings.
They are ten times more IN evidence
in business than are American wo-
men. and I had supposed it would he
the other way The same uuickness
to see the point which enables them
to make clothes look stylish is carried
by them into business. In the coun-
try they do their full share Of the
farm work and in town they do more
than their part of the selling and buy
ing. They do not do this as If they
were forced to it by poverty or by
necessity. but because they are better
fitted for it than are the men.
suppose the men require more time
G0r military grandeur and for poll
eacs Every Partisan IS a politician
and his interest is not confined tC
Wrench affairs. but is international
and he IS a pro- Russian or an anti
English or something or other with
reference to the rest Of the world. and
be whatever it is he IS that with al
his might.
Coming so recently from St. Peters
burg. where a revolution is hiding
around the corner, to Paris. where the
streets and public places are always
reminding me Of the Franch revolu-
ton, the comparison between these
times in Russia and those IL
France is very interesting. Only 12C
years ago France was governed by ar
absolute monarch who wanted no con-
gress or advice from the people. The