Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-02-21
MAGNIFICENT VERSAILLES
Marvellous Town In Which the Peace
Conference Is Being Held
BUILT AS A RESIDENCE OF ROYALTY

World Has Had Its Shaping.
There is an electrical train that runs
out from Paris to Versailles and moth
ing is so delightful in summer time as
to start off for day to that eminently
impressive old-world town and its
truly exquisite surroundings. Twenty
minutes in the train from the glare de
'Alma and one step out in Versailles,
with its broad avenues bordcred with
centuries-old trees and its spacious
squares. The Place d'Armes in front
of the palace is marvellous with its
quaint tagging. and 1t is separated from
the great court of the palace by mag
nifcent gates and balustrades. Sta
tuary there is, of course, in plenty and
many old-world memories. Here the
crowd surged, an angry mob from
Paris composed mostly Of women de-
manding bread, and the young Queen,
Marie Antoinette, appeared on the
great balcony and lifting little Prince
Louis in her arms showed him to the
crowd, and as the angry demand was
reiterated, her clear voice rang out,
"If you have no bread, eat cake
Here, too, on the steps up to the palace
the Swiss guard were slaughtered as
they tried to save their royal masters.
Those were sorry days, and why
should these memories come up so
vividly when today the sun is Shining
and there is no angry mob, only a
very few sightseers, and the great
palace is closed to the public, for 1t
Is war time and no more can one roam
through the picture galleries-but
there are two pictures there in the noble
gallery of battles the remembrance Of
which grips one. One commentaries
the 1901 war-the dear "Patrie"
by wounded cavalry
man supported on his horse between
two comrades and pressing his coun-
try's flag to his breast, and the other
ah! may it be prophetic indeed, lie
a French cuirassier on
clutching an Uhlan by the
throat and shouting, "Prisonnier!"
The sun is shining gloriously and
the palace gardens will be far more
pleasant in the late afternoon, and the
cool green Of the hamlet beyond the
Trlanons makes a strong appeal, so
off we go with our camp stools over
our arms and our picnic meal in a
basket, in search of the tram-car that
'uns between Versailles and the ham
let.
LIE hameau is quite exquisite. the
sweetest spot, with iakes and sstrsanzsl
Ellis ard woodland, and grouped around
the lake lies the hamlet itself. half a
dozen or more quaint little old-world
cottages, the long, low manor, a farm
a water-mill, the dairy, etc., all blitl-
to please the fancy Of a little queen
who weary Of the pomp Of court, loved
to come here with the ladies and gen.
tlemen Of her court and play at being
lust folks" Their summer home, lie
Petit Trianon, was quite near. 1t was
simple, a one storied building Of rose
colored marble with marvellous colon
made and garden that would satisfy
any artistic craving, but 1t Is not sim
pie enough to appease the heart hunger
hat doubtless felt the approaching and
inevitable end Of the hollow court life
Of the day-and so the hamlet was
created!
There are carp in the lake-carp Of
every size and color and age. 1t is
said that some of the hoary among
them are the identical ones that Marie
used to feed In the gay.
debonair days Of long ago. Be that as
it may, one gathered up the crumbs
from lunch and, stepping over the low
wires that separated the lawn from
the path, one knelt beside the lake
to feed the fish, and was it because
the thought Of the young queen was
so uppermost in mind that garden"
called out from he other side, "Hola!
croyez-vous par hasard que vous etes
Marie-Antoinette ct que vous avez lie
droit de marcher sur lie gazon!"
Think you by chance that you are
Marie e-Antoinette, that you permit
yourself to walk on the grass!" Such
a laugh went up from all the group
that like ourselves were picnicking
around and the garden" himself was
vastly amused by his sally to wit.
There is a place where one can feed
the carp at the corner between the
manor house and the dairy where the
lake curves up to the road, and here
the curious creatures know the pub
lie will feed them and they congre-
gate in enormous numbers. The
one is that wherever there is a parti-
cularly beautiful bit of landscape one
can sit down and enjoy it and each
new view of the hamlet is enhancing.
There is a wonderful walk to the
Versailles forest from the hamcan
past the Trianons, the Grand Trianon
where the empire furniture sreahs
of Bonaparte and Josephine, and the
Petit Trianon is full of m msmories of
Marie-Antoinette and her good-na-
tured Louis, who loved nothing so wei!
as making locks. Both Trianons are
full of art treasures, but who cares
to go indoors on such a heavenly dav!
Nature is art enough for us. So on
we go, past the end Of the Versailles
canal, that battling piece of water
one seems never able to get around
somehow, for it is made in the shape
Of a cross. We leave 1t on our left
and plunge into the cool, green depths
of the forest. Do any forests but the
French have their cool, green light,
those wide, grassy avenues, those de-
licious little bridle-paths? The still
ness is intense, scarcely a birds note
is heard, then as one, too, is stilled
into silence the hum Of insects is clear
ly audible, but it is n discreet hum,
there is nothing aggressive about it and
as one watches one sees the little wood