They Are All Sitting In Their Mural Crowns, - The
Fortified Cities On Cannons, The Commercial Ones On Bales Of Goods.
Strasburg Alone Seems Full Of Life.
She has her arm akimbo, as if
braving Germany, to which she once belonged.
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.
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