Year: 1878

tial person and beg him to inter
cede for you, which he promises to
do, and then forgets all about it
as the day approaches you begin to
grow nervous. Everybody else is
going and you are about to be left
out in the cold. You fly down to
the legation, but all the invitations
have vanished days before, and
twice as many were promised as
were received. AS tie time draws
near, despair may be seen depicted
on hundreds of fcountenances One
woman looks as though she had
just lost her uncle; and another as
though her house had been overrun
with poor relations. Money is freely
offered, bribes are openly promised,
and on a recent important recep-
ton a very fine lady who figures
largely in fashionable society, hay
ing failed to procure her invitation
through legitimate channels, paid
one hundred francs to a footman to
smuggle her through a back door,
and the secret was never found out
till a couple of honest servants be-
gan quarre!ing over the spoils.


It is now high time to sum up
! the merits and dement's of this
Great Exposition which these wan
ing October days warn me is rapid
ly drawing to close. Those who
have followed me in these letters
will doubtless recollect that on my
arrival in Paris in April, it was ex-
ceedingly doubtful even then if the
Exhibition would really take place.
Two mighty factions - the Com
munists and Imperialists - were
sternly arrayed against the Repub-
lie; threats bitter and deep we're
openly made that no Republican
Exhibition should ever take place
in Paris. Only a few days before
the opening band Of rioters were
arrested by the gendarmes shouting
for Napoleon and the Empire. It
was evident that another coup d'etat
was anxiously expected and hoped
for; the result was eagerly can
vassed in the little Inperialist
clubs which are scattered all over
Paris. and in the dim prospective
they could see once more revived
the faded glories of the Empire.
All these expectations have been
doomed to cruel disappointment.
The Exposition has taken place.
Instead of a comparative failure, it
has been a remarkable success.
Hundreds of millions have been
added to the material wealth OF
France, and the Republic, after a
struggle with the man who above
all others was suspected and feared,
has come out scathless from the
ordeal, and to-day it stands on as
firm a foundation as any govern
ment in Europe. It is worth while
noting that while murmurs of dis
content and open attempts at as
sassination have shaken Germany
to its very center, and while riot
and bloodshed have been rife in the
most stable governments Of Europe,
Notwithstanding the opposition from
without and the discordant ele-
ments within, France has reached a
degree of national prosperity I'M
equaled by any other country on
the face Of the earth. This pros
perity is not entirely owing to the
Exposition. She was prosperous
before the Exposition commenced,
and she was emerging from her
disaster when the Empire to which
she paid nearly ten thousand mil
lions of francs was experiencing
such financial ruin as she had never
known before. For every Exposl-
ton which France has given she
has some trophy to show. A me-
| mento of the first is the Grand
Palais d'Industrie, on the Champs
Elysee. The improvements inaug-
urated for the second are seen all
along the beautiful avenues and
boulevards which are now the chief
glory of Paris, and when the E1-
position of 1878 shall have closed,
for ages to come the splendid
palace of the Trocadero will look
down upon the Seine, glorious mon
ument to the Congress which gath
cred about it's banks in this year OF
grace, breathing peace on earth and
good will to men.


AS there is no condition without