Beautiful, Wicked Paris

July, 18, Near Waterloo Deai Mr. Editor: I concluded my last letter at St. Germain wherewe got our first glimpse of Paris. From there we rode througb suburban towns, noisy and busy as ; city, to the gate of Paris. The fortifications are so distinguished at this point, that one sees only an iron gate wide and hospitably opened. We rode in witboul having our tires exaniined by the officers to see if tliey contained wine. That is the latest modo of smuggling wine iuto Paris and severa! have been detected. At once we saw the Arch of Triumph in the distance and so immense is it, that we were greatly deceived regarding the distance to it. ATTKACTED ATTENTION. Hariy's red cap and our general saddle-sore appearance as well as the extreme heigbth of our wheels, at once got the attention of the crowd. Even Paris stopped in the midst of her mad riot and paid the honiage of curiosity to those long, lauk, American globetrotters. We passed the Arch of Triumph, glided among the myriad cabs in the Champs Elysees, and reached the gardens of the Tuilleries. Here we swerved aside and passed the Louvre, the Pont Neuf, and reached our hotel, St. Pierre, where we were glad to get four brick walls about us and recover from the vértigo whicb Paris had given us. couldn't astonisii tiie si'üinxes. I don't wish to annoy you with the oft told tale of seeing Paris but there may be interest in knowing the rapidity of an American bicyclist in 'doing' Paris. On the iirst morning, there was rain and we went to the Louvre where we wandered through endless galleries of paintings, sculpture, antiquities, and curiosities. We saw the Venus de Milo, but her great age prevented the ecstacies of admiration due so fainous a beauty. Had she been younger - well I can't speak for Harry. The sphinxes stared at us with the same flxed and stolid features which they had preservad for ages. We cou'd astonish Paris but if the sphinxes were moved they did not show it. Among the paintings, we found difliculty in going iuto spasms just at the correct aud conven tional time. Great masters wearied us while lesser lights won our sympathies. Eubens, Murillo, and Raphael, however were masters of our feelings and we graciously granted them unstinted praise. By noon we had traveled nearly every gallery of the Louvre and we left it to tramp for a while amidst the wonder? of Paris. A WILD PLACE. First, the Bourse, or chamber of commerce, where we arrived at the busiest hour and watched the writhing, gesticulating, shouting and apparently mad Frenchmen buyiug aud selling stocks. It was a Babyion, Bedlain, and 'purgatory loosed. Chicago and New York chambers of commerce are mere sheepfolds com pared with this. Here again, we attracted attention aud we modestly withdrew. SO.ME PECULIARITIES. We strolled on toward the Opera House, and made several ineffectual attempts to deposit mail in fire alarm boxes. The system of mailing letters in Paris is a mystery yet. There are some phases of Parisian life peculiar to say the least. There are four places in Paris where you eau get a drink of water aud 400,000 where vou can get wine. Bananos cannot be bought in Paris. You can drop a nickle in a slot and get a cup of hot chocolate. Ifyou sit down beneath the Eifel tower, an old lady comes around with a receipt for two sous and collects it, too. THE MADELIXE, ETC. But our sight seeing. After the Opera with its magnificence and grandeur of architecture, we went to the Madeleine, the edifice surrounded with monster Corinthian columns and with an interior which awes and overwhelms by its solemnity and the suggestive sacredness of every adornment. Pictures and descriptions of these places are so numerous that I pass them with baste. After visiting numerous smaller places of interest, we returned to our hotel, and on the followingday rode out to St. Cloud, Sevres and Versailles. At the latter place, we lingered some time in the magnificent gardens, where every artífice had been tried to make a prince happy. The Gallery of Battles, and the appartments of the queen iiext and the Salie del'Oeil Boeuf, scène of famous intrigues. At noon, post baste back to Paris. A visit to the Trocadero, Eifel Tower, Champs de Mars and an hour in the Luxembourg art-gallery. WE CELEBRATED. Snnday was the French national fete day, celebrated mach like our 4th of July, and because it happened on Sonday was celebrated with so much more vigor. Early we visited the Place de la Bastile, finding that and all the streets extravagantiy decorated with the tricolor. Then to the Pere Lachaise cemetery ■where so niany world-famous men are buried and here we rode our wheels through an intricate throng of calis hacks and trucks to the Arch of TriUUlpll. l'nless one is as much at home awheel as on feet, one can not venture ou Parigian boulevards ornarrow streets on a bicycle.. The hackmen delight in shouting and attempting to confuse a wheelinan. We saw a cavalry parade and the president of Frunce in Iris carriage foliowei by miinerous otlier men of note. Ever} park was occupied by venderá of useless toys and by fake shows of infinite variety. GAY BIQHTS IN THE EVENINGh But the evening. Then Paris celebrated and we went afoot both in the swell quarters and the slums. Bacchus ruled supreme ; every one was drunk 01 verging upon it. Gangs of students froin the Latín quarter, with girls paraded the street. The girls threw one arm about their fellow's neck and made drunken gyrations with the other. Hacks and cabs rolled by with shrieking companies of girls and men. The trees in parks were thickly hung with red chínese lanterns, which threw a fiendish glow over these riotous proceediugs. Beneath the trees, danced soldier boys with drunken girls. Old men passed us with their girlish captors whom they ogled and smirked at hideously. One girl, dressed in blooiners with pockets in them, swaggered insolently down a main boulevard shouting and singing, while lier hands were plunged in her pockets. To us this was all afeverish dream, a phantasma, and wearied at last we retired and on the following morning after seeing the tomb of Napoleon, we left Paris to recover from its debauchery, and rode out into the quiet and peaceful country toward Brussels.