CHAPTER XVII
THE HARRIS PARTY VISITS PARIS
The distance is two hours from London to Dover. Half-way is Gad's Hill,famous as the residence of the late Charles Dickens. Further on isCanterbury, which is celebrated as the stronghold of Kentishmen and thefirst English Christian city. Its prime attraction of course is its finecathedral, which in 1170 was the scene of Becket's murder.
Dover on the English Channel lies in a deep valley surrounded by highchalk hills. On one of these, which is strongly fortified, may be seenevidences of Norman, Saxon, and Roman works.
Every morning and evening the royal mail steamers leave Dover for Calais.The channel ride of twenty-one miles was made by the Harrises without thedreaded _mal de mer_. In the railway restaurant at Calais, Lucillevolunteered to order for the party, but she soon learned, much to theamusement of her friends, that the French learned in Boston is notsuccessful at first in France.
The express to Paris is through Boulogne, an important sea town offifty-thousand inhabitants, which combines much English comfort withFrench taste. From there hundreds of fishing boats extend their voyagesevery season to the Scotch coast and even to far-off Iceland.
The scenery in the fertile valley of the Somme is beautiful. The routelies through Amiens, a large city of textile industries, thence acrossthe Arve; the Harrises reached the station of the Northern Railway,in the Place Roubaix, in northern Paris as the sun faded in the west.
Carriages were taken for the Grand Hotel, Boulevard des Capucines, nearthe new opera house, which is centrally located, and offers to travelersevery comfort. The carriages enter a court, made inviting by fountains,flowers, and electric light.
The first day or evening in Paris is bewildering. Early in the morningthe Harrises drove along the inner and the outer boulevards that encircleParis. Many miles of fine boulevards were built under Napoleon III. Mostfrom the Madeleine to the July Column are flanked with massive limestonebuildings, palatial mansions, and glittering shops, the architecture ofwhich is often uniform, and balconies are frequently built with eachstory. Early every morning the asphalt and other pavements are washed.At midday a busy throng crowds all the main streets.
Parisians favor residence in flats, and they enjoy immensely theiroutdoor methods of living. At sundown the wide walks in front ofbrilliant cafes are crowded with well dressed men and women, who seekrest and refreshment in sipping coffee, wine, or absynthe, scanning thepapers for bits of social or political news, and discussing the latestfad or sensation of the day. The English hurry but the French rarely.
Paris under electric light is indeed a fairyland. The boulevards arebrilliant and the scenes most animating. Everybody is courteous, andall seen bent on a pleasurable time. Cafes, shops, and places ofentertainment are very inviting, and you easily forget to note thepassage of time. Midnight even overtakes you before you are aware ofthe lateness of the hour. This is true, if you chance to visit, as didthe Harris party, some characteristic phases of Parisian life.
Near the east end of the Champs-Elysees, under the gas light and beneaththe trees, they found open-air theaters, concerts, crowded cafes, andpretty booths supplied with sweets and drinks. Every afternoon if theweather is favorable, tastefully dressed children appear in charge ofnursemaids in white caps and aprons, and together they make picturesquegroups in the shade of elm and lime trees.
At breakfast, Leo proposed a study of Paris, as seen from the Arc deTriomphe de l'Etoile, so named from the star formed by a dozen avenueswhich radiate from it. The location is at the west end of the Avenue desChamps-Elysees. This monument is one of the finest ever built by anynation for its defenders. It is 160 feet in height, 145 in width, wasbegun in 1806 by Napoleon and completed thirty years afterwards by LouisPhilippe. Figures and reliefs on the arch represent important events inNapoleon's campaigns. Arriving at the arch, Leo led the way up a spiralstaircase, 261 steps to the platform above which commands fine views ofParis.
The Champs-Elysees, a boulevard one thousand feet in width, extends eastover a mile from the monument of the Place de la Concord. Handsomebuildings flank the sides, and much of the open space is shaded with elmand lime trees. Grand statues, fountains, and flowers add their charm.Between three and five o'clock every pleasant afternoon this magnificentavenue becomes the most fashionable promenade in the world. Here you willbehold the elite in attendance at Vanity Fair; many are riding in elegantequipages, many on horseback, and almost countless numbers on foot.
The popular drive is out the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, 320 feet inwidth, to the Bois de Boulogne, a beautiful park of 2250 acres,containing several lakes and fringed on the west side by the RiverSeine. In the southwest part of this park is located the Hippodrome deLongchamp, which is the principal race-course near Paris, where racesattract vast crowds, especially when the French Derby or the Grand Prixof twenty thousand dollars is competed for early in June.
The Harrises standing on the monument, looked eastward, and Leo pointedout the River Seine shooting beneath more than a score of beautiful stoneand iron bridges, and making a bold curve of seven miles through Paris.Then the Seine flows like a ribbon of silver in a northwesterly directioninto the English Channel. On the right bank is seen the Palais duTrocadero of oriental style, which was used for the InternationalExposition of 1878. On the left bank stands the Palais du Luxembourg,rich in modern French art, the Hotel des Invalides, where rests Napoleon,and the Church of St. Genevieve, or the Pantheon, where Victor Hugo isburied.
Beyond the Place de la Concord are the Royal Gardens of the Tuileries,where Josephine and Eugenie walked among classic statues, vases,fountains and flowers; the Louvre filled with priceless art treasures,the beautiful Hotel de Ville or city-hall, majestic Notre Dame, andthe graceful Column of July. Paris is truly an earthly Paradise. Forcenturies it has been the residence of French rulers, and the mecca ofher pleasure loving citizens. Fire, famine, foreign invasion, civil war,and pestilence have often swept over this, the fairest of cities, yetfrom each affliction, Phoenix-like, Paris has risen brighter andgayer than ever.
Gertrude, May, and Lucille were charmed with the fair vision before them,and were anxious to leave the Arch of Triumph and become a part of thegay city. The carriages drove back to the Place de la Concord, one of thefinest open places in Europe. Around this place the chief cities ofFrance are represented by eight large stone figures. That of Strasburgthe French keep in mourning. In the center stands the Obelisk of Luxor,of reddish granite, which was brought at great expense from Egypt andtells of Rameses II. and his successor. Other ornaments are twentyrostral columns, bearing twin burners. On grand occasions this placeand the avenue are illuminated by thirty thousand gas lights.
In the Place de la Concord the guillotine did its terrible work in themonths between January 21st, 1793, and May 3rd, 1795, when thousands ofRoyalists and Republicans perished. Two enormous fountains adorned withTritons, Nereids, and Dolphins beautify the court. No wonder thebrilliant writer Chateaubriand objected to the erection here of thesefountains, observing that all the water in the world could not removethe blood stains which sullied the spot.
How beautiful the vista up the broad and short Rue Royale, which conductsto the classic Madeleine! Alfonso was entranced with the beauty of thisrare temple, which was begun and finally dedicated as a church, thoughNapoleon earnestly hoped to complete it as a temple of glory for his oldsoldiers. Its cost was nearly three million dollars. A colonnade offifty-two huge fluted Corinthian columns and above them a rich friezesurround the church. The approach is by a score and more of stone stepsand through enormous bronze doors on which the Ten Commandments areillustrated.
Entering the Madeleine, one sees an interior richly adorned, floors ofmarble, and lofty columns supporting a three-domed roof, through whichlight enters. On either side are six confessionals of oak and gilt,where prince and peasant alike confess their sins. Beyond is the altarof spotless marble. How beautiful the group of white figures, whichrepresents Madeleine forgiven, and borne above on
angels' wings! Thisartistic group cost thirty thousand dollars.
On Sunday morning Leo and his friends came to the Madeleine which is themetropolitan church of Paris. Here every Sunday exquisite music isrendered, and here come the elite to worship and to add liberal gifts. Itis a broad policy that no Catholic Church on the globe, not even splendidSt. Peter's of Rome, is considered too good for rich and poor of allnationalities to occupy together for the worship of the Master.
All the Parisian churches are crowded on Sunday mornings, but Sundayafternoons are used as holidays, and all kinds of vehicles and trains areburdened with well dressed people in pursuit of pleasure.
Traveling by omnibus and tramway in Paris is made as convenient to thepublic as possible; nobody is permitted to ride without a seat, and thereare frequent waiting stations under cover. This is as it should be.Nearly a hundred lines of omnibuses and tramways in Paris intersecteach other in every direction. Inside the fares are six cents, outsidethree cents. A single fare allows of a transfer from one line to another.Railways surround Paris, thus enabling the public to reach easily themany pretty suburbs and villages.
Both Mrs. Harris and Gertrude on their return to the Grand Hotel wereglad to find letters from the men they loved. George wrote Gertrude thathe was amazed at the enormous capacity of the manufacturing plants whichhe and Colonel Harris were visiting; that both labor and capital weremuch cheaper than in America. His closing words were, "Learn all you can,darling, I shall soon come to claim you."
Gertrude had read of the laundries on the Seine, so she left the hotelearly with her mother and Alfonso to see them, while Leo, Lucille, andMay went to study contemporaneous French masterpieces in the Luxembourgpalace and gallery. The public wash houses on the Seine are largefloating structures with glass roofs, steaming boilers, and rows of tubsfoaming with suds. Hard at work, stand hundreds of strong and bare armedwomen, who scrub and wring their linen, while they sing and reply to thebanter of passing bargee or canotier.
If the sun is shining and the water is clear, the blue cotton dressesof the women contrast prettily with white linen and bare arms busilyemployed. Though they earn but a pittance, about five cents an hour, yetthey are very independent; mutual assistance is their controlling creed,and few, if any, honor more loyally the republican principle of liberty,equality and fraternity. The women seemed to do all the hard work, whilethe men in snowy shirts and blue cotton trousers, with scarlet girdlesabout their waists, pushed deftly to and fro the hot flat or box ironsover white starched linen.
Each ironer has a bit of wax, which he passes over the hot iron when hecomes to the front, the collar, or the wrist-bands, and he boasts that hecan goffer a frill or "bring up" a pattern of lace better than aChinaman.
Alfonso and his party drove along the handsome Rue de Rivoli, with itshalf-mile of arcades, attractive shops, and hotels of high grade, andup the Rue Castiglione, which leads to the Place Vendome. Here in oneof a hundred open places in Paris rises the Column Vendome in imitationof Trajan's column in Rome. The inscription records that it is tocommemorate Napoleon's victories in 1805 over the Austrians and Russians.On the pedestal are reliefs which represent the uniforms and weaponsof the conquered armies. The memorable scenes, from the breaking of campat Boulogne down to the Battle of Austerlitz, are shown on a broad bronzeband that winds spirally up to the capital, and the shaft is surmountedby a bronze statue of Napoleon in his imperial robes.
Fortunately Alfonso's carriage overtook Leo's party, and they visitedtogether the pretty arcades and gardens of the Palais Royal. In the opencourts are trees, flowers, fountains, and statues, and on the four sidesare inviting cafes and shops which display tempting jewelry and otherbeautiful articles. On summer evenings a military band plays here.Returning, the ladies stepped into the Grand Magasin du Louvre. At abuffet, refreshments were gratis, and everywhere were crowds, whoevidently appreciated the great variety of materials for ladies' dresses,the fine cloths, latest novelties, exquisite laces, etc. The ladiesplanned to return here, and to make a visit to the famous Au Bon Marche,where cheap prices always prevail. Most of the afternoon was spent in theLouvre, a vast palace of art, and the evening at the Theatre Francais,the ceiling of which represents France, bestowing laurels upon her threegreat children, Moliere, Corneille, and Racine. The Theatre Francaisoccupies the highest rank. Its plays are usually of a high class, and theacting is admirable. The government grants this theatre an annual subsidyof about fifty thousand dollars.
Early next morning, the Harrises took carriages to the Halles Centrales,or union markets. These markets consist of ten pavilions intersected bystreets. There are twenty-five hundred stalls which cover twenty-twoacres, and cost fifteen million dollars. Under the markets are twelvehundred cellars for storage. The sales to wholesale dealers are made byauction early in the day, and they average about a hundred thousanddollars. Then the retail traffic begins. The supplies, some of whichcome from great distances along the Mediterranean, include meat, fish,poultry, game, oysters, vegetables, fruit, flowers, butters, creamcheese, etc. Great throngs of people, mostly in blue dresses and blouses,with baskets and bundles constantly surge past you. The whole scene isenjoyable. Everything they offer is fresh, and the prices usually arereasonable. When you make a purchase, you are made to feel that youhave conferred a favor and are repeatedly thanked for it.
The few days that followed in Paris were days of rest, or were spentin planning for the future. The art galleries and the shops on theboulevards were repeatedly visited, theaters and rides were enjoyed,and on Friday morning, the ladies went to the railway station to takeleave of Alfonso and Leo, who left Paris for the study of art in theNetherlands. Colonel Harris and George Ingram were expected to arrivein Paris on Saturday evening.