The Harris-Ingram ExperimentBolton, Charles E. (Charles Edward)
Science
The Harris-Ingram Experiment
Bolton, Charles E. (Charles Edward)
Science fiction, American
The Harrises standing on the monument, looked eastward, and Leo pointed
out the River Seine shooting beneath more than a score of beautiful stone
and iron bridges, and making a bold curve of seven miles through Paris.
Then the Seine flows like a ribbon of silver in a northwesterly direction
into the English Channel. On the right bank is seen the Palais du
Trocadero of oriental style, which was used for the International
Exposition of 1878. On the left bank stands the Palais du Luxembourg,
rich in modern French art, the Hotel des Invalides, where rests Napoleon,
and the Church of St. Genevieve, or the Pantheon, where Victor Hugo is
buried.
Beyond the Place de la Concord are the Royal Gardens of the Tuileries,
where Josephine and Eugenie walked among classic statues, vases,
fountains and flowers; the Louvre filled with priceless art treasures,
the beautiful Hotel de Ville or city-hall, majestic Notre Dame, and
the graceful Column of July. Paris is truly an earthly Paradise. For
centuries it has been the residence of French rulers, and the mecca of
her pleasure loving citizens. Fire, famine, foreign invasion, civil war,
and pestilence have often swept over this, the fairest of cities, yet
from each affliction, Phoenix-like, Paris has risen brighter and
gayer than ever.
Gertrude, May, and Lucille were charmed with the fair vision before them,
and were anxious to leave the Arch of Triumph and become a part of the
gay city. The carriages drove back to the Place de la Concord, one of the
finest open places in Europe. Around this place the chief cities of
France are represented by eight large stone figures. That of Strasburg
the French keep in mourning. In the center stands the Obelisk of Luxor,
of reddish granite, which was brought at great expense from Egypt and
tells of Rameses II. and his successor. Other ornaments are twenty
rostral columns, bearing twin burners. On grand occasions this place
and the avenue are illuminated by thirty thousand gas lights.
In the Place de la Concord the guillotine did its terrible work in the
months between January 21st, 1793, and May 3rd, 1795, when thousands of
Royalists and Republicans perished. Two enormous fountains adorned with
Tritons, Nereids, and Dolphins beautify the court. No wonder the
brilliant writer Chateaubriand objected to the erection here of these
fountains, observing that all the water in the world could not remove
the blood stains which sullied the spot.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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