Around The Base Of This Beautiful Column Many Of Those Who Served
Under Bonaparte, Or Who Remember Him With Affection, Hang Wreaths
And Garlands As Expressions Of Their Tender Remembrance.
This is
still done; these memorials are ever there.
At one time this was
forbidden by the government, but to no purpose. At last, an officer
was stationed at the foot of the column with a water engine, and
with orders to play it upon any one who should bring any votive
offerings to the fallen hero. A lady, whose love and admiration
could not be so intimidated, came the next day in her carriage,
which she filled with wreaths of flowers, and stood up in it, and
threw wreath after wreath at the foot of the column, crying out, as
each one fell, "Will you play your engine upon me?" But not a drop
of water was sent at her, and she deposited all her offerings, and
went away unharmed. I suppose a Frenchman would sooner have been
shot than have done any thing to quench the enthusiasm of this
heroic woman.
One thing struck me much in Paris, and most agreeably, and that is
the good appearance of the children. This is not confined to the
rich; you will see a very poor woman leading her child, really well
dressed. You never see boys idling in the streets; you never hear
them swearing and quarrelling. If you ask a boy to show you the way,
his manner of doing it would grace a drawing room. I am told that
the French are never severe with their children; that the French
nature will not bear it; that strong excitement makes the children
ill; that the law of love is the only one they will bear.
Stop with me now on our walk, at this little low cart, just by the
sidewalk; it is as you see larger than a common handcart, and much
lower, and on four small wheels; it is full of china, all marked 13
sous. See how pretty these cups and saucers are. After your looking
at all the pieces, the owner would say, "Bon jour" very kindly to
you, if you took nothing, but we will take this pretty cup and
saucer; as a remembrance of his little cart. As we walk along, we
shall see many others, containing every thing you can imagine.
I bought many things in the streets, - combs, saucepans, clothes-
brushes, &c. Look into this shop window; see these lovely flowers,
and, in the midst of them, a small fountain is playing all the time
to keep them fresh. Look at those immense bunches in the windows, -
of pansies, violets, hyacinths of all colors, ixias, wall flowers,
tulips, geraniums, narcissus; and O, this is not half the variety of
flowers! look into the shop; there are bushels of them and other
flowers, all ranged round the wall; the perfume salutes the most
insensible passer-by; it tells of the songs of birds, and of the
delights of summer time. You cannot resist its influence. Let us go
in and look at the flowers. The person who keeps the shop has the
manners of a lady; she wishes you good morning; and, if you do not
behave just as you would if you entered a lady's parlor, you are set
down as an American or Englishman, who does not know how to behave.
When you leave the shop also, you must remember to say, "Bon jour,"
or you commit an offence. How kindly the lady who keeps this flower
shop shows us all her flowers! how she seems to love them, as if
they were her children! We must get a bouquet to show our gratitude
for her kindness, though she would not demand it. At every street
corner is a woman with a basket of violets and evergreens. She
offers them in such a pretty way, taking care that you shall take
their perfume. You cannot resist them.
Now, suppose we were taking a walk, some other morning. Before us is
the "Place de la Concorde," all glistening in the spring sunlight.
See, there, in the centre, is the Obelisk - a monument of the time of
Sesostris, King of Egypt, erected by him before the great temple of
Thebes more than three thousand years ago, or fifteen hundred and
fifty years before Christ. This enormous stone, all of one piece,
seventy-two feet high, seven feet and a half square at the base, of
red granite, and covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions, was given
to the French government by the Viceroy of Egypt, in consideration
of an armed and naval establishment which that government had helped
him to form at Alexandria. Eight hundred men struggled for three
months in Egypt, in the midst of all manner of hardships, building a
road and constructing machinery to drag the obelisk, completely
cased in wood, down to the Nile. It cost two millions of francs to
place this monument where it now stands. This was done with great
pomp and ceremony in October, 1836, the royal family and about a
hundred and fifty thousand other people looking on.
Now try to place yourself in imagination at the foot of this great
Obelisk of Luxor, mounted up as it is upon a single block of gray
granite of France, covered all over with gilded engraving of the
machinery used in placing the great thing where it is. The Place de
la Concorde itself, which surrounds you, is eight sided; and if the
excavations around it were filled with water, it would be an island,
seven hundred feet or so across, and connected with the main land by
four elegant little bridges. But instead of water, these "diggings"
are beautifully filled with flower gardens. At the eight corners of
the island are eight pavilions, as they are called; or great watch
houses, of elegant architecture, occupied by the military or the
police, as occasion requires. Each of these forms the base of a
gigantic statue, representing one of the principal cities of France.
It is as if the whole eight were sitting in friendly council for the
good of Paris.
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