Saunterings | Page 9

to keep all the money in the family! That was
the ambition of a girl of seventeen.
I like, on these sunny days, to look into the Luxembourg Garden:

nowhere else is the eye more delighted with life and color. In the
afternoon, especially, it is a baby-show worth going far to see. The
avenues are full of children, whose animated play, light laughter, and
happy chatter, and pretty, picturesque dress, make a sort of fairy grove
of the garden; and all the nurses of that quarter bring their charges there,
and sit in the shade, sewing, gossiping, and comparing the merits of the
little dears. One baby differs from another in glory, I suppose; but I
think on such days that they are all lovely, taken in the mass, and all in
sweet harmony with the delicious atmosphere, the tender green, and the
other flowers of spring. A baby can't do better than to spend its spring
days in the Luxembourg Garden.
There are several ways of seeing Paris besides roaming up and down
before the blazing shop-windows, and lounging by daylight or gaslight
along the crowded and gay boulevards; and one of the best is to go to
the Bois de Boulogne on a fete-day, or when the races are in progress.
This famous wood is very disappointing at first to one who has seen the
English parks, or who remembers the noble trees and glades and
avenues of that at Munich. To be sure, there is a lovely little lake and a
pretty artificial cascade, and the roads and walks are good; but the trees
are all saplings, and nearly all the "wood" is a thicket of small stuff.
Yet there is green grass that one can roll on, and there is a grove of
small pines that one can sit under. It is a pleasant place to drive toward
evening; but its great attraction is the crowd there. All the principal
avenues are lined with chairs, and there people sit to watch the streams
of carriages.
I went out to the Bois the other day, when there were races going on;
not that I went to the races, for I know nothing about them, per se, and
care less. All running races are pretty much alike. You see a lean horse,
neck and tail, flash by you, with a jockey in colors on his back; and that
is the whole of it. Unless you have some money on it, in the pool or
otherwise, it is impossible to raise any excitement. The day I went out,
the Champs Elysees, on both sides, its whole length, was crowded with
people, rows and ranks of them sitting in chairs and on benches. The
Avenue de l'Imperatrice, from the Arc de l'Etoile to the entrance of the
Bois, was full of promenaders; and the main avenues of the Bois, from
the chief entrance to the race-course, were lined with people, who stood
or sat, simply to see the passing show. There could not have been less

than ten miles of spectators, in double or triple rows, who had taken
places that afternoon to watch the turnouts of fashion and rank. These
great avenues were at all times, from three till seven, filled with
vehicles; and at certain points, and late in the day, there was, or would
have been anywhere else except in Paris, a jam. I saw a great many
splendid horses, but not so many fine liveries as one will see on a
swell-day in London. There was one that I liked. A handsome carriage,
with one seat, was drawn by four large and elegant black horses, the
two near horses ridden by postilions in blue and silver,--blue
roundabouts, white breeches and topboots, a round- topped silver cap,
and the hair, or wig, powdered, and showing just a little behind. A
footman mounted behind, seated, wore the same colors; and the whole
establishment was exceedingly tonnish.
The race-track (Longchamps, as it is called), broad and beautiful
springy turf, is not different from some others, except that the inclosed
oblong space is not flat, but undulating just enough for beauty, and so
framed in by graceful woods, and looked on by chateaux and upland
forests, that I thought I had never seen a sweeter bit of greensward. St.
Cloud overlooks it, and villas also regard it from other heights. The day
I saw it, the horse-chestnuts were in bloom; and there was, on the edges,
a cloud of pink and white blossoms, that gave a soft and charming
appearance to the entire landscape. The crowd in the grounds, in front
of the stands for judges, royalty, and people who are privileged or will
pay for places, was, I suppose, much as usual,--an excited throng of
young and jockey-looking men, with