New Britain herald., 1919-07-11
VERSAILLES IS l HISTORICAL CENTER
Many Important Events See
 COnSummatiOn There

F. Washington, D. C., July 11.-''If one were to compile a list of the seven historic spots of the world, as a companion set to the seven wonders, the Palace of Versailles, where the German delegates signed the peace treaty, would be sure of a place among them," says a bulletin from the National Geographic society.
 '"There Great Britain first recOg- nized the independence of the United States; there the Third Estate formed national assembly and gave birth to the French revolution; there Wll- liam l. was crowned emperor Of Ger many while Paris was being beSleged; and there representative of the civi- lized world not only made peace with the madman of Europe but signed a document that may rank in history with the Magma Carta and the Decla- ration of Independence.
 Nor is this mammoth palace, which once could house city of 1O,- 900 persons, merely a historic shrine of epochal ceremonies It Vlbrates with echoes of human dramas more vivid and enthraling than any stage piece >Moliere showed there to distract the blase Louis XIV. and his dazzling court.
 There the unhappy Valliere, the n-glorious Montespan, and the austere Maintenon successively loved, infatuated, and exploited the magnifi- cent Louis; there too the brilliant Pompadour and seductive du Barry shone among the galaxy of mistres- ses; and there some ten thousand drunken women from Paris broke through the gate and sent Louis flee ing to the Tuilleries.
 Mere chance set Versailles on a historic eminence Nature provided only fiat, sandy stretch of country, ! so arid that the kings never could get water enough for the magnificent < fountains. Louis XIII. chanced to have a hunting chateau there. So the next Louis was attracted there. lie planned his residence on so grandioSe R scale that the levelling of the land, building of a road to Paris, and con- Btruction of an aqueduct engaged 30,- 900 men for many years.
 r >~~"It was in the same gallery of mir TOTS, literally the 'galerie des glaces,' where the first William realized his ambition to lute all Germany, that the erstwhile subjects of t1e secunu W1p~ liam paid the penalty for his mania to rule the world.
 What scenes those mirrors have reflected! They saw the Louis who proclaimed himself the state, with his diamond embroidered coat and red-heeled slippers four inches high; his bloated, mill<-fed successor whose p most arduous exercise was frying pan cakes for his mistress breakfast; the g irresolute Louis XVI, predestined to disaster, and the tragic figure of Ma .- -rie AntOinette, she who could bow to ten persons with one movement, giving, with her head and eyes, the recognition due to each one,' finally lowing to the headman's blade.
 'The gallery of mirrors gets it's name from seventeen bevelled mir TOTS, more precious than ubies be- fore glass making was reduced to a :. science. Opposite each mirror is a window; and these windows overlook the famous gardens, scene of royal reveleries and regal pomp, where all the sculptors of standing in France were commandeered for innumerable pieces, where the piped waters spout from mouths of gilded frogs and liz ards, while fauns play flutes and dragons kidnap Cupds, and where the stately old trees give one touch of nature against this supremely ar tificial setting.
 '"The mirrors do not exhaust the magnificence of the spacious gallery. They are framed in works of art and surmounted by paintings. One series depicts, in f1amboyant scenes, the ca reer of Louis XIV. Tables and chairs in this hall were of solid silver. The ensemble was typical of the ostenta- tion and the emptiness of the yoke from which France freed herself"