Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1919-03-25

l ! put up at little place near the
Champs Elysies. ] had some people
to look up, relatives Of the people
with whom am living, so set about
1t at once. 1t was about half an
hours ride on the subway, and then
ten minutes walk along a street with
the most amazing twists in. / did
not stay long that afternoon but re-
turned that evening for supper, which
] did thoroly enjoy. am never lone
some in Paris, but 1t is always pleas
ant to know people where you can
go Just as if you were in an Ameri-
can city We talked, that is, they
did, for ] am a better listener in
French than / am a conyerser. OF
course there was much to talk about.
Monsleur's date farm in Algiers
Cfrom which he had that day receiy-
ed a box of the most delicious dates
| ever tasted; the two boys in the
army; other relatives who had been
in Italy, Salonica, Gallipoli; the
weather, as ii was in Paris, La Ro-
chelle and Ashland; altogether an
utter conversational ragout.
The next day | spent solely in wan
dering around, not looking for any
thing in particular, but enjoying the
change in the city itself. Paris was
no longer city of Suspense but a
city of Triumph. No one any longer
gave attention to the signs "Abri"
which in the war days had been no.
tices OF shelter from air raids. Along
the Champs Elyees were lined the
captured German guns in endless |
In the Place de la Con-
corde around the obelisk Louis-Phil-
lippe had fetched from Egypt eighty
years ago were grouped the largest |
guns OF all as well as tank named
Elfrieda. No longer objects Of fear
and dread, they we're mere things of
for the sightseers who all
day long gathered about them anil
passed on.
At the end of the great Avenue
where the Arc de Triomphe is raised
over it, another change had taken
place. The great symbolic statues
which had been heavily barricaded
and protected during the long period
Of bombardment were again open to
he air. II
The first night the weather had
cleared and from then on until the
very day ! left, the sky remained
making Paris chill and ex-
liirating.
Sunday afternoon l walked down
o the Place Concorde. thru the Gar
lens of the Tuileries, past the Louvre
nd along the Seine to the Cathedral
# Notre Dame Amid all the won I
lerful symbolism of its construction
here is nothing so finely symbolic
S the cathedral itself. This rests on
he fact that it is still unfinished.
The two great towers are uncompiet-
d, and tho the church is eight hun
Ired years old they never will be
ompleted. On the immense base.
he indestructible foundation of the
athedral they were meant to tower
loft growing ever finer and finer
ntil at last attenuated but still as
iring they would seem to disappear
n their final search for God. But
he last heights were not reached and
he day of cathedral building passed.
IN those two incomplete, centuries
Id towers with their memories of
he battles and seiges and fights and .
niseries and even ordinations which (
ave taken place about and within
hem 1t would be laughable If not
acriligeous to rear even the most
eautiful of modern spires. So the
'athedral stands as the Symbol of a
reat truth: That no spiritual edl-
Ice, however firm or vast its foun-
(Cnntinuad on nooa s;vl