Look, North From The
Obelisk, Up The Rue De La Concorde, And The Splendid Church Of The
Madeleine Bounds Your Sight.
On your right are the Gardens of the
Tuilleries; on your left are the Champs Elysees; behind you is the
Chamber of Deputies.
Both before and behind you, in the Place
itself, you have a splendid fountain, each being a round basin,
fifty feet in diameter, in which stands a smaller basin, with a
still smaller above it, supported and surrounded by bronze figures
of rivers, seas, genii of fruits, flowers, and fisheries, and all
manner of gods of commerce and navigation, all spouting water like
mad.
See the famous marble horses from Marly. How impatient they look to
break away from the athletic arm which holds them! what life and
spirit they show! how beautiful they are! Take one look now at the
Arc de Triomphe; it is nearly two miles off, but looks very near.
Now turn; and directly opposite, at some distance, you see what
James Lowell calls the "Front door of the Tuilleries."
The gardens are full of beautiful children. Their mothers or nurses
are sitting under the trees, while the children run about at will.
There are thousands playing at ball, driving hoops, jumping ropes,
shouting, laughing, merry as children will be and ought to be.
Let us take a stroll in the Champs Elysees. You have never seen any
thing so beautiful, so captivating, as the scene. It seems like
enchantment. All the world is here - young and old, poor and rich,
fashionable and unfashionable. All for their amusement. Let us see
what this group are looking at so earnestly. A number of wooden
ponies are wheeled round and round, and each has a rosy-cheeked boy
upon it. Here is another in which they go in boats; another in
chairs. This amusement costs only two or three sous apiece to the
children. The parents or the nurses stand around enjoying it almost
as much as the children. Let us walk on. See that little fountain
gleaming through the tender green of the young leaves as you see
them in the pretty wood that forms a background to the picture. All
along in the road you observe fine equipages of all sorts standing
in waiting, while the gay world, or the poor invalids whom they
brought to this place of enchantment, are walking about or sitting
in chairs, courting health and amusement. Here is something still
prettier than any thing you have seen - a beautiful little carriage
that can hold four children and a driver, drawn by four white goats,
with black horns and beards.
The French are peculiarly kind to animals. No law is necessary in
France for the protection of animals from the cruelty of their
masters. You meet men and women, very respectably dressed, leading
dogs with the greatest care; and in the fashionable drives, every
tenth carriage (it seemed to me) had a dog lying on the seat, or
standing on his hind legs, looking out of the window.
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