Year: 1878

him for money against any other
landlord in the world. Before the
Exposition opened the principal
hotel-keepers met in council, and,
as reports had been circulated
that they were preparing for ez-
tortion, they solemnly pledged
themselves that under no clrcum-
stances would they raise their rates
a franc. The Exposition had not
been open a week when they raised
their prices twenty per cent. In
two weeks after they made a fur
ther rise Of thirty, and after that
your bill was filed with all sorts of
vexatious little charges for towels
and soap and candles and napkins,
for attendance,s and even the gov
ernment stamp attached to your
receipted bill was included in the
account. If you ordered a cup Of
tea, they charged you franc for the
tea and two francs for the loan of
the teapot. Extortion and robbery
became q regular and respectable
business and the Frenchman who
allowed foreigner to escape from
his clutches without squeezing him
dry was regarded by his fellows as
a madman or fool. One night
friend of mine stopped on the
boulevard and inquired his way to
the opera; the person of whom he
inquired directed him all right, but
as he turned to leave demanded
franc; my friend promptly knocked
him down; the gendarmes rushed
in and arrested him, but when the
matter was explained the foreigner
was released, and the Frenchman
was taken in. In France, lying has
been brought to the perfection Of a
fine art, and the man who persistently
sticks to the truth is regarded as a
sort of immoral renegade-a fellow
whose position it would be difficult
to locate in the heavens above or
the earth beneath or the waters
that are under the earth.


While the Peace Congress has
been shouting hosannah, and has
been prophesying Of the blessed
time when the lion shall lie down
with the lamb, France has been
steadily drilling her battalions, the
memory of the little Corsican still
survives, and the POSSIBILITIES of
another Austerlitz and Wagram are
still beacon lights to the young re-
cruits who fill the.ranks Of the re-
publican army, and notwithstand-
ing the offerings Of 1878,
there are low rumblings in the
political volcano portentous of evil
in the coming time, and the child
perhaps is now born who, before the
silver shall have blanched his locks,
will see the whole map Of Europe
transformed, and new names and
new dynasties occupying the places
of those whose line of succession
has been unbroken for over a
thousand years.


AS dislay Of industry and art
the Exposition at Paris has been a
grand success, it's benefit have been
shared by all classes, and it is sat-
isfaction to know that the poor have
not been neglected; provision was
made for the humblest classes and
the great manufacturers in the
different departments of the repub-
lie sent their employees to Paris by
thousands the government and the
capitalists seeming to be determined
that nothing should be lost upon
the people. In awarding the palm
of excellence the task is surrounded
with very little difficulty. In this
Imperial Exhibition-the exhibit OF
England stands out with regal
magnifcence, which has distanced
all competition, and which silences
even the voice of envy, and this
supremacy was so manifest thatit
was deemed no small honor to
equal her in any department. The
United States has come out Of the
struggle, not only with honor, but
profit and the orders which her
manufacturers have alreadyrecei7ed,
are more them compensation for all
the trouble and expense Of the Ez-
hibition. THERE'S one feeling which
I find general among both English
and Americans, and that's the most
perfect and unqualified satisfaction
at the prospect of returning home;
after comparing their own system