After such an exhibition as this it was only natural that the people
should turn from the soldiers to find the greater interest in the
miles of wreaths that came from every corner of France. These were the
expressions of the truer sympathy with the dead President, and there
seemed to be more sentiment and real regret in the little black bead
wreaths from the villages in the south and west of France than there
were in all the great wreaths of orchids and violets purchased on the
boulevards.
The procession had been two hours in passing a given point. It had
moved at ten o'clock, and it was four in the afternoon before it
dispersed at the Panthéon, and Deputies in evening dress and attachés
in uniform and judges in scarlet robes could be seen hurrying over
Paris in fiacres, faint and hot and cross, for the first taste of food
and drink that had touched their lips since early morning. A few hours
later there was not a soldier out of his barracks, the scaffoldings had
been taken to pieces, the spectators had been distributed in trains to
the environs, the bands played again in the gardens, and the theatres
opened their doors. Paris had taken off her mourning, and fallen back
into her interrupted routine of pleasure, and had left nothing in the
streets to show that Carnot's body had passed over them save thousands
of scraps of greasy newspapers in which the sympathetic spectators of
the solemn function had wrapped their breakfasts.
IV
THE GRAND PRIX AND OTHER PRIZES
I think the most satisfying thing about the race for the Grand Prix at
Longchamps is the knowledge that every one in Paris is justifying your
interest in the event by being just as much excited about it as you
are. You have the satisfaction of feeling that you are with the crowd,
or that the crowd is with you, as you choose to put it, and that you
move in sympathy with hundreds of thousands of people, who, though they
may not be at the race-track in person, wish they were, which is the
next best thing, and which helps you in the form of moral support, at
least. You feel that every one who passes by knows and approves of your
idea of a holiday, and will quite understand when you ride out on the
Champs Élysées at eleven o'clock in the morning with four other men
packed in one fiacre, or when, for no apparent reason, you hurl your
hat into the air.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account