Nasby in Exile: or, Six Months of Travel in England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium, with many things not of travelLocke, David Ross
Philosophy
Nasby in Exile: or, Six Months of Travel in England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium, with many things not of travel
Locke, David Ross
Europe -- Description and travel
The Bois de Boulogne, always beautiful, with its charming lakes, long
winding drives, its parks, tiny brooks and picturesque café, was
unusually brilliant that night. On the shores of the lake large set
pieces of fire works were displayed, while bands of music in odd looking
gondolas blazing with colored fires, furnished exquisite music. The
paths and carriage-ways were lined with small set pieces, which,
together with the constantly burning colored fires, produced an effect
that was grandly weird. All Paris was one blaze of light. And all night
long the people of Paris and all France were on the streets enjoying the
rare sight. After nine o'clock carriages were compelled to keep off the
principal boulevards and streets, so densely were they packed with
people. The Champs Elysées from ten o'clock was one surging mass of
people--men, women and children--returning from the Bois. From curb to
curb was one solid mass of humanity, and such a jolly good-natured crowd
was never seen before. They sang patriotic songs, and laughed and joked,
and had a good time generally. Now and then there would come down the
street a small procession of students, wearing grotesque caps, each
student bearing a Chinese lantern. They sang funny songs, and chaffed
those that passed. But there was not a single display of temper.
Everybody took everything in good part, and every one was superlatively
happy.
During all that long day and still longer night, not a single case of
drunkenness did I see, and during that time I was in a great many
different places, and would have seen it had there been any. There was
fun and frolic on every side. But it was the overflow of exuberant
spirits, and not the outgrowth of too much wine and beer and liquor. In
no city in England, nor, I am afraid, in America, could there be so
gigantic a celebration, so much fun and hilarity, with so little
drunkenness and so few disturbances. Verily, the French, insincere and
superficial as they are, know how to get the most enjoyment out of
life. They have all the fun the Anglo-Saxon has, without the subsequent
horror.
Foreign travel is of a vast amount of use to a great many people. Coming
from Dieppe to Paris there were seated in our compartment two ladies
with their husbands, who were in New York, bankers, one regular and the
other faro, and both with loads of money. The wife of the faro banker
was arrayed in the most gorgeous and fearfully expensive apparel, with a
No. 6 foot in a No. 4 shoe. The other lady _was_ a lady, and she really
desired to see something of the country she was traveling through. The
faro bankeress talked to her from Dieppe to St. Lazarre station, and
this was about what she said:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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