Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1917-12-27

| always had vivid imagination of
Paris and at last great good fortune
called me there to attend to some mat
ters connected with my work here so I
can tell you a little about that Won
derful city, the capital and idol of La
Belle France. 1t surprised me to
find such an ordinary depot, not equal
in any respect to the New York Cen
trail or Pennsylvania, excepting as to
noise and hustle. The deafening and
continuous honk! honk! of the taxi
cabs, the densely crowded streets and
general commotion makes you mind
your eye" in order to get safely over
street crossings. The streets are poor
ly lighted and the autoes have only
kerosene side lights. The marvel is
that there are not more accidents. |
presume the scarcity of light is a war
economy. [ notice by the papers that
New York is also dark after II o.
clock p. m. Sub-ways are much pat
ronized and quite equal in every way
TO those in New York. The rooms
we occupied were dark and not COM
fortably warm. The meals were plain,
but well cooked tho Of course butter
and sugar are not much in evidence.
The houses are provided with fire
places but they consume too much fuel
to be used much these war times.
American air-tight stoves would be
a God-send. The French stoves are
such poor contrivances and have such
small fire pots. I wonder they do not
learn about our stoves and make some
like them. 1t seems as if they are
loath to forsake old habits and Gus
tones. The Americans are going to
teach them a lot and the Americans
in turn will profit by many Of the good
ideas of the French.
Paris abounds in palaces, cathedrals
and various places Of amusement of
which her citizens are justly proud.
All the leading theatres receive a sum
Of money yearly from the government
for their support or at least did before
the war. One Of the great glories Of
the capitol is the wonderful opera
house standing in the heart of the city.
It cost $5,0O0,O00 to build it and is in
deed a marvel of architectural beauty.
Paris differs from many other large
cities in that it was laid out according
to a plan that would allow it to grow
up thru centuries and have room to de-
velop both in size and beauty. AS a
result the city is a network of beauti-
full broad streets and avenues, planted
profusely with thrifty growing trees,
The business streets are also beautified
by row after row of shade trees. There
are many open places at the street
| intersections, each embellished by foun
| tains, statues and memorial arches.
cannot begin to describe the beauty
and elegance Of these squares with
their marble curbings, playing foun-
tains, flower beds and luxuriant foli-
age Of every description. The place
! de Carrousel and the Place de Con
corde are fine examples of these
quares, the last mentioned being spok-
en- of as the most beautiful of the kinC
in the whole world. Here stands the
Egyptian obelisk brot from Luxor. L
makes one think of Cleopatra's needle
in Central Park. On this particular
spot the guillotine was set up during
the French Revolution and here moro
than 5000 people lost their head
within the space of 1 y years.
| The great cathedral Notre Dame
with it's wonderful three storied ives
front and world-renowned rose win
dow, once seen can never be forgotten
A few words about the Louvre, once
royal palace, now the largest picture
gallery and museum in the world.
could see but little of it in my hast,
visit 1t would take hours just to wall
thru its magnificent galleries withou
stopping to study its art treasures o
take note Of the interesting materia
gathered from the four corners of tn
: earth 1t interested me to recall tn
fact that Leonardo da Vinci's famou