Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1914-07-08

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leave the cultivating of the soil I?
surely would be more social than the
isolation of a large portion of our
farm homes.
We saw little farm stock, other
than farm horses, on our ride to
Paris. There We're many fine horses.
Their roads were perfect Mcadams
roads are put in on all main drives
and are as smooth as a floor, para
disc for the auto fined. Our train is
making sixty miles an hour and it
would seem that so light cars would
not keep the track, but we are told
that accidents are not as common as
with us.
We are in Paris, the city of foul
men and fallen women, the city that
the world ayes in its degrading fash
ions where character is below par
and trickery and deception are the
rule.
Perhaps few comparisons would
furnish the reader food for thought.
France and Germany are only a few
square miles apart in area, either of
them about once and a third the
area OF Montana. Great Britain is
about twice the area of Iowa. Paris
is little larger than Chicago. These
two cities have nothing in common
in appearance. Chicago with its sky
scrapers, Paris a five story city,
mostly built out of a soft lime rock
while it presents an appearance of
solidity, yet does not impress with
grandeur.
This was known as a city before
the time of Christ, but it was not
made as modern city until the
time of Louis Napoleon. He almost
rebuilt the city, cutting through it
two main avenues, making many
parks and pulling down unsightly
buildings. The Seine river divides
the city, it is one hundred and ten
miles from the ocean and small
lighters bring to the city a large
commerce. This river is crossed by
many bridges; it is about as wide as
the river at Des. Moines, Iowa, a
very dangerous stream, often food
ing the city. At the time we were
there it was at the danger stage and
each day it was feared it would in
undate the city. Along this river are
its most attractive places.
First we visit the church La Ma
deleine, built by Louis the Fifteenth,
q beautiful place; little farther
down we come to the Colorado Ven
dome erected by Napoleon in 1906
out. of 1900 cannon taken in war 1t
is cast to represent different battles
and from cannon taken in these bat
ties, similar one was erected in
Rome at the same time. Just above is
the Grand opera house, said to be
the finest in the world; little farth-
er up this street is the Bourse, the
clearing house for all France and
occupying the place of our Wall
Street Retracing our steps to be-
low the Madeleine church we come
to the place De Concorde. This is a
beautiful circle; in the center is the
mate to our Central Park obelisk,
beautiful fountains and statuary are
On all sides. To one side of this
circle is the CHAMPS Elysees, to the
other the Tuileries; both of these
beautiful parks. Back of the fuller
les is the Louvre, the greatest dis
play of statuary and paintings in
the world. We walked for a half day
through its halls and our guide told
us that we had barely seen one sixth
of it,. During the commune in 1870
portion of this was destroyed, but
IL HdS USeu IeUulll anu one COulu
hardly believe the destruction by
these bandits had ever occurred. The
valuable library was burned at this
time, but the most priceless treas
ures were saved. At this time all
this section was lain waste by this
mob. In the place De ConcOrde
where now stands the Obelisk be-
fore spoken of, once stood the gulo-
tine, under which was beheaded
Louis the sixteenth and Marie An
toinette his co2sort and hundreds of
notables.
Farther up stream stands Notre
Dame, the largest church in France.
This is a beautiful building of the
eleventh century; it is on an island
in the Seine, as is also the Palace of
Justice, once a church built by Louis
the ninth in the 18th century.
Crossing the river we visit the
Pantheon; this was church until
Victor Hugo prevailed upon the gov
eminent to make it a monument to
free thought and descriptive pic
lures of that belief. Here Hugo is