Foreign Correspondence

Paris, May 2ö, 1873. l' rik xu 1'ond: We have been gratified and astonished to-day with some insight into the arrangement8 for loconiotion in a city like this. As it has been raming all day we remaiuud at our rooms, and about 9 o'clock A. M. a close processiou of one horse vehicles or cabs began to file froni the street opposite our windows, and, turning about a stationary policeman, move on up the street and before our hotel out of sight. This contiuuous line was thus kept constantly nioving slowly by for at least sis hours, and only a few two horse Carriages were notioed. We saw some numbered as high as 10,000. On inquiry we learned that the cabs are inspected every six months and the nuinbers corrocted. There were probably other poiuts at which a similar process is undergone for other portions of the city. Besides these there are thirty-one liues of omnibuses which run from and to important points of the city, - all of which carry inside and deck passengere, - two horse railways and the railway arouud the entire city, and for all points along the river a steamboat omnibus line passing each way every five minutes. These are a much needed, very convenient, and not an expensive convenienoe where distances are so great. Availing ourselves of the boat we went to St. Cloud one day to see the city which was almost utterly destroyed duriug the Prussian siege, and about the cause of which so much controversy arose. The ride was a most agreeable one, taking us first through the heart of the city, betweeu the noted Place des Arins and the aplendid plateau of the Place of the King of Eome ; through the suburbs, and as we turned northward having the village of Issy in view upon the left bank, where Blucher and Davoust had their last struggle tor Paris in 1815, on the day the articles of final capitulation wem signed, where also the approaching troops froin Versailles repulsed the Commune insurgents in 1871 ; also Mendon wbore the Empresa Marie Louise residod during the "atal Russian campaign; Bellevue, noted as the place of the great railroad disaster in 1842, where over 200 persons perished in the burning train; Sevres, whose faine for its celebrated porcelain is known the world over ; and finally St. Cloud itsell', making altogether one of the most interesting of panoramas. We found St. Cloud, indeed, a ruined city, but not like " all our fancy painted" ït. The buildings were all standing and where repaired the injury was scarcely observable at first, but nearly every house ïad been burned out, leaving the walls only, and it seemed almost inoredible ïow few were the exceptions, and yet how unbroken the long streets. The Palace, however, was a more complete wreek, and the place so full of its historical assoeiations will hardly admit of restoration. Erected 300 yoars ago, it was occupied for nearly a century by the Duke of Orleans and his descendants. [iouise XVI. puroha8ed it for Marie Anoinette and it became her favorito residence. In it the famous Council of 500 leid sessions and were dispersed by Bonaparte when he made his first stride to power as First Consul, and it was afterwards frequently his residence. It was Blucher's headquarters after the capituation, and for the late Emperor was a :avorite resort. We found the garden and lts beautiful grounds closed on the day we were there and grim sentinels paced before all the entrances, but the situation was magnificent, upon a beautiful pla;eau looking directly over the river and ;he Bois de Boulognu, and commanding a noble view of the whole wide-spreading city. Two American gentlemen from near Buffalo were making the excursión the same day, and like us unable to pass ;he guards. Inatead of returning by the boat we ;ook the more direct and not less interesting route across the bridge to Boulogne, a city of washerwomen, and through the celebra ted forest. De6cending along the jank of the river tili nearly opposite Suresnes, we had an excellent view of Vlont Valerien and its fortress, which alayed so important a part in the events of the late war which lef t the fort quite destroyed. The hill is ene of the most elevated near the city, being 600 feet above the Seine, and with hostile guns Towning from its summit there would seem to be little hope for the city. In 'act had the Germana desired they could lave utterly destroyed Paris by a general conflagiation f rom several positions oooupied by them, but while war is a relentless and ruthless scourge there are amenities of a nature whioh prevent the promiscuous slaughter of helpless non-combatants and a useless destruotion of great public edifices and works of art. Whether these milder forms of adjusting disputes by the sword are applioable to the "Poor lndian" seems to be debatable as yet. The Bois de Boulogne was in early times an extensive forest, with all the wildness and native grandeur as well as interest of some of our own ; but its vicinity to this city necessarily marked out for it a different lot, and it is now a most extensiva anu. aeiigntiui park, where beautiful paths and highways, Lakes and lawns, grottoes, picturesque cottages, and other improvements abound, side by side with the plain features of a real native forest carefully preserved, and where upon any pleasant afternoon thousands of children, and grown people as well, ram ble about with unrestricted freedoin, culling wild flowers and grasses tocheer their rooms in the city. The celebrated Long Champ race course occupies the southwest corner, where all the appurtenances of fine buildings, restaurants, stands, atables, etc., are to be seen upon a soale suited to the fanious oharacter of the place. In the northwost comer a channing little village, Madrid, Ims grown up, entirely nade np of beautiful villas with all the surroundings of tasto and wealth ; and a little l'urther cast is the garden appropriated to the acclimatizing of foreign birds, animáis, and plants, before they are removed to the colleclion in the Jardín des Plantes in the city. Everything that can malie the place attractive and beautiful as woll as useful has been done; but amid the exigencies of war great daningcs were sustained in all this portion of the ilelightful park, and tho immediate vicinity was the scène of several desperate encounters during that dark period of the Commune reign. But it is along the eastern side where the beauty was greatest and the park most frequented that the waste is most complete, resembling, in fact, some newly cleared field in our country, where tho young trees have sprung up f rom the remaining old roots and all now in vigorous irregular growth. The city fortifícations extend along this eastern side, and every tree within a distance of fifty rods was removed by military orders. Happily tho forest was extensive and the región of the beautiful lakes was not reached so as to be utterly ruined, and no sight in Paris is more animating than the unoeasing roll of carriages along the splendid avenues hero laid out and watered as carefully as the streets of the city, and the numberless pedestrians here resorting to while away the afteinoon. The lakes, one of which is nearly a mile in length, with their bordeis cultivated and laid off in the highest style of landscape culture presented a scène of unequaled loveliness. The great Allus de la Eeine and Long Champ extend the whole lenejth of the park, over three miles, and are about 75 feet wide, with curbing and hydrants like one of the city avenues, and special Allus are reserved for equestrians and kept in a condition suited to this use. it was about 5 p. m. when we passed through the fortifications homeward by the grandest avenue in Paris, the imperatrice (nmo Uhrich), 150 yards wide, with small parks and lawns upon each sido of the main carriage road and extending three-fourths of a iiiile down a gentle descent froin the Arch of Tiiumph de Etoile to the Porte Dauphine, entering the Bois de Boulogno. This capacious highway presented one moving and interraingling succession of carriages, apparently as numerous as the accommodations allowed, and embracing a fair specimen of the wealth, fashion and display for which Paris has not lost lts love as y et. But fine as many of the turnouts were there was less of tight, short knee-breeches and white stockings and showy livery in the footmen, etc, than we have seen at Homo, and the proportion of vehicles drawn by two horses was much less than in the lattercity. Indeed, it seems to us that even of the private carriages here fully three-fourths are drawn by single horses, nor do they appear at all clumsy or ill-looking as they sometimes do in America; and while .speaking of carriages it is noticeable that tho shafts here are alinost universally attached by a joint or hinge which allows them to be turned up and wben the horse is attached they are brought down - an arrangement by which broken shafts are often avoided. This same convenient method we have seen ofteu elsewhere, and without further experience would be inclined to commend their use at home in cities where the streets are paved and the strength of the shafts are not necessarily of so much imperativeness (if that is a proper word). Our day at St. Cloud and the Bois de Boulogne is marked with white. We had heard often of the celebrated Pere Lachaise cemetery and it was set down among the places to be seen. It lies quite in the eastern portion ot the city, and derives its name from an old Jesuit who, over 200 years ago, had his country residence where the Chapol now stands. There are about 200 acres embraced in the enclosure, and the surface ia much varied, but in no particular does it resemble our great cemeteries of Greenwood, Laurel Hill, Mount Auburn, etc. There is no attempt to introduce any adornments of fountains, lakes, lawns or even parterres of flowers, but as nearly as possible every foot of space is not only devoted to but is actually used for interment, and to such an extent is this utilitarianism carried that a large portion of the grounds are quite deprived of foot, paths by which a ready access may be had to each occupied lot. And when, in addition to this, you take into account the mode of constructing these tombs and monuments it is easy to conceive that as a pleasant place for resort and quiet reflection, where something of bright flowers and agreeable associatious may continue to surround tho last resting places of the " loved and lost," Pere Lachaise is quite deficiënt if not actually unsightly. Tho lots are apparently very small, and if the proprietors acquire them in per-petuity, as is generally the case, a small vault is erected covering the space, of brick or stone covered with stucco and generally not more than about six or eight feet in size by ten feet in heightj entered by a grated doorway, the interments being within a closed vault beneath. Of course these structures are sometimes larger, and occasionally something of a more monumental character is erected - as a column or horizontal slab etc, but the prevailing style, whetber large or small, ia the entirely plain structure described, with spaces of seldom over two feet between and with no vacant spaoe in the rear, but all occupied, and with the narrowest possible paths and main avenues that are 20 feot wide. Such is this celebrated cemetery as it presents itself to the eye, - not a " thing of beauty" in the way of tasteful design, interesüng sculptures or classic monuments of any kind, but street after street of these little uncomely blook houses, countless in number. This general statement seems very wide, but a stroll about the grounds will scarcely justify any modification. The forma of epitapha are soarcely more varied, being in general the mere name of an individual or the fmnily name, while the dates and agea are briefly indieated 011 slabs in the interior or in case of some more distinguished upon the exterior of the building. The real interest, and a great and attractive one it is, centers in the bright galaxy of its noble and distinguished dead - its naiues of artists, poets, scholars, etc, written upon tablets more imperishable than brass. Most persons, no doubt, as we did, make the first object of their search the tomb of Holoise and Abelard, whose history has made their names and fame as indissolubly united as if their identity had been one in fact. It is one of the few exceptions to the general form of monuments, boing in the fomi of an open Gothic chapel or temple. The single sarcophagus, on which rest the reclining rnarble effigies of the two lovers, is placed beneath the roof supported by columns only anci visible from every side. The structure is about 15 feet square and with groat appropriateuess and poetioal justice even is made entirely from the celebrated Abbey of the Paraclete, founded by Abelard and over which Heloise presided as the first; Abbess. The sarcophagus is said to have been constructed by the order of Abelard before his death, 1142. Heloise survived unt.il 1164. Besides the names we could not decipher the somewhat prolix historical inscription. The face of Heloise was quite beautiful as sculptured, while that of Abelard was unfortunately disfigured by the absence of his nose. The whole is surrounded by an enclosure of tall iron pickets, and a space of about 10x20 feet was bright with the most splendid pansies we hav% scen; and this, as well as the grave of Marshal Ney, which is a simple iron enclosure without any monument but a bed of those beautiful pansies, is under the protection and especial care of the city. Here He in various parts of the cemetery thn great Marshals of Napoleon, Victov Kallerman, Saint Cyr, McDonald, Lofebre, Massena, Davoust, Lerurier Ney, and Grouchy, and many officers almost as well known. Here we find those names enrolled as high, in a field of honor more glorious far than that of gory warChampolion, Souvestre, Balzac, Madame de Genlis, Laplace, Lafontaine, Moliere St Pierre, Arrago, Beranzer, Raspail, and others nearly as eminent in letters and science. And in little clusters, as it were centrally in the cemetery are those to whom the world is indebted just as much in another way - Bellini.Gretry, Boildeau, Rossini, Cherubim, Chopin. Elsewhere we find Rachel, Taima, Volney, Cousin. But few places can show so many reno wned names. Quite near the entrance, after leaving, we pass bet ween two prisons; one for those who are temporarily incarcerated, the other for those who are condemned to the galleys or to execution, and the space between them is used for purposes of this last process of law. In may 1871, the Commune, who had confined a number of prominent citizens in the latter as hostages for the safety of their own forfeited Uves, seleoted six to be shot in retaliation for six of their own number who. they alleged, had been executed, and forthwith carried out their designs upon the unoffending victims among whom was the Archbishop of Paris. Many others shared a similar fate daring the few days so full of every kind of outrage. For nearly half a mile along the Rue de la Raquetto and upon the side streets as far as we could see it appeared as if' twothirds of the merchandise shops were filled with marbles, flowers, artificial wreaths, and every form of ready-made tributes to deposit upon the graves ; and the venders of flowera and immortelles occupied out-door stands everywhere. The custom of making frequent offerings of these and other testimoniáis of remembrance upon the various tombs is very noticeable in the cemetery itself, where they often accumulate in very large nurabes : sometimes even having small metalic roofs beneath which the annual wreath of immortelle is hung or laid to the number of dozens. The business of conducting funerala is like other pursuits, and in the división of labor which prevails it has become a regular monopoly conducted by a company, the charges being regulated by a tariff varying from a few francs to eeveral thousand, and the poor are deposited in ditches or pits which hold 40 or öp cofflns. There are two other important cemeteries, -that of Montmartre in the northern part of the city and of Mont Parnassua in the southern. The former thongn having the same general featurea in its general arrangement and in the construction of the tombs, is much more neat and attractive in appearance, thongh but little space is given to more ornament. The number of its illustrous dead is not so great as that of Pere lachaise, yet familiar names were often recognized, among them we observed the names of Heine, the poet; Marrast, who figured so prominently in the revolution of 1848 ; Ary Shaffer, the artist ; Duchess d'Abrantes, tho spirited authoross of annals of the old revolution and wife of Marshal Junot, and Vernet and Delaroche, the eminent painters, and many other. Ever yours J. M. WHEELEI?.