The Catholic World, Vol. 09, April, 1869-September, 1869Various
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 09, April, 1869-September, 1869
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
"The thing indeed has succeeded perfectly; the very first
morning the coaches were filled, and several women even were
among the passengers; but in the afternoon the crowd was so
great that one could not get near them; and every day since it
has been the same, so that we find by experience that the
greatest inconvenience is the one you apprehended; people wait
in the street for the arrival of one of these coaches, in order
to get in. When it comes, it is full; this is vexatious; but
there is a consolation; for it is known that another will
arrive in half a quarter of an hour; this other arrives, and it
also is full; and after this has been repeated several times,
the aspirant is at length obliged to continue his way on foot.
That you may not think that I exaggerate I will tell you what
happened to myself. I was waiting at the door of St. Mary's
Church, in the Rue de la Verrerie, feeling a great desire to
return home in a coach; for it is pretty far from my brother's
house. But I had the vexation of seeing five coaches pass
without being able to get a seat; all were full: and during the
whole time that I was waiting, I heard blessings bestowed on
the originators of an establishment so advantageous to the
public. As every one spoke his thoughts, some said the affair
was very well invented, but that it was a great fault to have
put only seven coaches on the route; that they were not
sufficient for half the people who had need of them, and that
there ought to have been at least twenty. I listened to all
this, and I was in such a bad temper from having missed five
coaches that at the moment I was quite of their opinion. In
short, the applause is universal, and it may be said that
nothing was ever better begun.
"The first and second days, there was a crowd on the Pont-Neuf
and in all the streets to watch the coaches pass; and it was
very amusing to see the workmen cease their labor to look at
them, so that no more work was done all Saturday throughout the
whole route than if it had been a holiday. Smiling faces were
seen everywhere, not smiles of ridicule, but of content and
joy; and this convenience is found so great that every one
desires it for his own quarter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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