The mirror., 1919-08-14
I @lNOUIS XIV of France,
YgME@N who suffered from de
IK2N@gn lusions of grandeur" pos
leNzGlu n;blu fo ncoo for oxtonf

H9gM$N who suffered from de-
bSEG@g1N lusions of grandeur" pos
eEgy sibly to a greater extent
than any other mortal before or
after him, caused, among other
costly follies, number of foun-
tains to be built on his So, 900, ,000.-
600 Versailles estate, the place
where the Germans signed the
treaty of peace. Louis is dead
now-in fact, his demise took
place over two hundred years ago
but his Versailles fountains are
still in working order and ready to
put in an afternoons squirting, pro-
vided the aid of the government,
the municipality, and three rail
road companies is forthcoming. to
say nothing of $4,000 in cold
cash. 1t was arranged to let these
scrumptious fountains squirt $10,-
900 worth or so when the peace
treaty was finally signed, for it
was felt that, though times are
hard, an event so momentous fully
justified this extravaganza. They
had not been turned on since 1914,
and it might we'll be that some.
where among the pipes or reser-
voirs such deterioration had taken
place during the period of mac
tivity as would cause something to
break soon after they began go
ing good" The tests showed that
the famous squirters we're 0. K.
however, and fully capable of put
ting on a regular performance.
Sterling Heilig, a writer in the
Kansas City Star, has dug up some
interesting information about these
fountains, particularly as to the
engineering problems and labor
involved in their construction.
He says:
THE details seem fabulous.
Some $4,000 men and 5000 horses
were employed in forming the ter
races and leveling the park. The
whole subsoil of the forest is fairly
honeycombed with mysterious con-
duits and immense vaults for the
storage or exhaust of the torrents.
After making the alleys and basins
they found that the situation was
too high-the water of the neigh
borhood would not rise sufficiently.
To supplement them the king said:
Bring water from the River
Seine!'
1t was IA miles away, at Mar
ley. Seven years we're occupied
in building the machine of gigan-
tic water wheels, still today as
tonishing, which works perfectly
at Marley, pumping the water in
to its pipes and reservoirs.
''Yet. with all this, the giant
fountains of Versailles consumed
80 much water that the three mon
archs whose extravaganza preceded
the French Revolution never really
had enough water to make all the
fountains gush together freely, at
pleasure. One of Louis XIV's
original ideas had been to bring
the waters of the River Eure to
Versailles by canal. In 1851, 22,-
600 soldiers and 5000 horses were
employed at this work, with such
results of sickness that Nine. de
Sevigne wrote to Busy -Rabutin
of 'chariots full of the dead driven
away by night
Mine million was expended on
the Aqueduct of Maintenon, whose
ruins remain today. The soldiers
set to work building it mutinied,
and in 1883 the work was stopped
by war. Later, a more complicated
system of great pipes. reservoirs,
and concealed basins were added
to help out the original sources
and the machine for Marley. They
all still exist, in perfect working
order. forming the subterranean
network about Versailles for many
square miles, which is alleged,