Paris: With Pen and Pencil

Paris: With Pen and Pencil

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Title: Paris: With Pen and Pencil Its People and Literature, Its Life and Business
Author: David W. Bartlett
Release Date: October 25, 2005 [EBook #16943]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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PARIS:
WITH
PEN AND PENCIL
ITS
PEOPLE AND LITERATURE,
ITS
LIFE AND BUSINESS

BY
DAVID W. BARTLETT
AUTHOR OF "WHAT I SAW IN LONDON;" "LIFE OF LADY JANE GRAY;" "LIFE OF JOAN OF ARC," ETC. ETC.
ILLUSTRATED.

NEW YORK:
HURST & CO., PUBLISHERS,
122 NASSAU STREET.

PREFACE.
The contents of this volume are the result of two visits to Paris. The first when Louis Napoleon was president of the Republic; and the second when Napoleon III. was emperor of France. I have sketched people and places as I saw them at both periods, and the reader should bear this in mind.
I have not endeavored to make a hand-book to Paris, but have described those places and objects which came more particularly under my notice. I have also thought it best, instead of devoting my whole space to the description of places, or the manners of the people--a subject which has been pretty well exhausted by other writers--to give a few sketches of the great men of Paris and of France; and among them, a few of the representative literary men of the past. There is not a general knowledge of French literature and authors, either past or present, among the mass of readers; and Paris and France can only be truly known through French authors and literature.
My object has been to add somewhat to the general reader's knowledge of Paris and the Parisians,--of the people and the places, whose social laws are the general guide of the civilized world.
[Illustration: CHURCH OF ST. SULSPICE.]

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
LONDON TO PARIS,
HISTORY OF PARIS,
CHAPTER II.
RESTAURANTS,
A WALK AND GOSSIP,
THE BOURSE,
CHAPTER III.
LAFAYETTE'S TOMB,
THE RADICAL,
A COUNTRY WALK,
CHAPTER IV.
THE CHURCHES,
NOTRE DAME,
L'AUXERROIS,
SAINT CHAPELLE,
EXPIATOIRE,
MADELEINE,
ST. FERDINAND,
VINCENT DE PAUL, &C.
CHAPTER V.
LAMARTINE,
VERNET,
GIRARDIN,
HUGO,
JANIN,
CHAPTER VI.
PLACES OF BLOOD,
PLACE DE LA CONCORDE,
CHAPTER VII.
THE LOUVRE,
PUBLIC GARDENS,
THE LUXEMBOURG PALACE AND GARDENS,
THE GOBELINS,
CHAPTER VIII.
THE PEOPLE,
CLIMATE,
PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS,
HOTEL DE INVALIDES,
JARDIN D'HIVER,
CHAPTER IX.
M. GUIZOT,
ALEXANDER DUMAS,
EUGENE SUE,
M. THIERS,
GEORGE SAND,
CHAPTER X.
PERE LA CHASE,
THE PRISONS,
FOUNDLING HOSPITALS,
CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS,
LA MORGUE,
NAPOLEON AND EUGENIA,
THE BAPTISM OF THE PRINCE,
CHAPTER XI.
MEN OF THE PAST,
THE FATHER OF FRENCH TRAGEDY,
THE GREAT JESTER,
THE DRAMATIST,
CHAPTER XII.
THE FABULIST,
THE INFIDEL,
THE GREAT COMIC WRITER,

WHAT I SAW IN PARIS.
CHAPTER I.
LONDON TO PARIS--HISTORY OF PARIS.
LONDON TO PARIS.
Few people now-a-days go direct to Paris from America. They land in Liverpool, get at least a birds-eye view of the country parts of England, stay in London a week or two, or longer, and then cross the channel for Paris.
The traveler who intends to wander over the continent, here takes his initiatory lesson in the system of passports. I first called upon the American minister, and my passport--made out in Washington--was vise for Paris. My next step was to hunt up the French consul, and pay him a dollar for affixing his signature to the precious document. At the first sea-port this passport was taken from me, and a provisional one put into my keeping. At Paris the original one was returned! And this is a history of my passport between London and Paris, a distance traversed in a few hours. If such are the practices between two of the greatest and most civilized towns on the face of the earth, how unendurable must they be on the more despotic continent?
The summer was in its first month, and Paris was in its glory, and it was at such a time that I visited it. We took a steamer at the London bridge wharf for Boulogne. The day promised well to be a boisterous one, but I had a very faint idea of the gale blowing in the channel. If I could have known, I should have waited, or gone by the express route, via Dover, the sea transit of which occupies only two hours. The fare by steamer from London to Boulogne was three dollars. The accommodations were meager, but the boat itself was a strong, lusty little fellow, and well fitted for the life it leads. I can easily dispense with the luxurious appointments which characterize the American steamboats, if safety is assured to me in severe weather.
The voyage down the Thames, was in many respects very delightful. Greenwich, Woolwich, Margate, and Ramsgate lie pleasantly upon this route. But the wind blew so fiercely in our teeth that we experienced little pleasure in looking at them. When we reached the channel we found it white with foam, and soon our little boat was