PECULLAR PAVEMENTS.

Evening Star, Issue 11695, 29 September 1902, Page 5

PECULLAR PAVEMENTS.

* Streets'paved with glass are not by l any weans unknown (says an English'contemporary). The famous Rue de la Republique at Lyons is a notable example. Here the pavement is laid in glass blocks, Bin square, which are so symmetrically fitted together as to prevent the possibility of water passing between the interstices. Compassed grass has been used in the construction of a Philadelphian street with, it is said, admirable results; and not long since a scheme for employing compressed paper for a like purpose was mooted in Russia.

An Italian nobleman has lately had the courtyard of his palace paved with slabs of marble,granite, and other stone, every one of which has been brought from a different land. 'Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Australia have all supplied materials for this curious mosaic, which is composed of over 500 pieces, each engraved with the name of the country or State from which It. 'came.

On the occasion of his accession to the Throne of Bavaria,; Maximilian Emanuel had one of the roads leading to his palace payed, with plates of burnished "copper, which, gleaming in the sunshine, had all the effect of the more precious metal, gold. Down this road it was his intention to proceed ig royal pomp, but his purpose was unfortunately frustrated by a gang of robbers, who one night ” overpowered the guards and carried off much-of the valuable paving. ' , - Louis XIV. had one of the courts of his palaefe at Versailles paved with squares of silvery each-of which recorded some triumph t° the French arms. These surrounded a large tablet of gold, in the centre of which the sun—the monarch’s favorite emblem—was represented by a dazzling blase of costly, gems. Another court of this most fumptuoiis dwelling was paved with slabs o| jasper, agatef and other Tare stones. ,

Pasting from the gorgeous to the fantastic, we may mention the strange fanev of a rich Berlin tradesman 1 , who had the walks of the garden that was attached to hjs coiintiy villa, laid down with a number of eoflm lids, which he had been at coneiderabls lime and expense to collect.

They wire 6f Rnd csMitit)iw, 'from the wooden covering fop-the peasant ,to the most elaborate metal work designed - for poble or prince J On hla death' some years hack his son replaced them -with ordinary gravel, and Kubsenufently presented the mpßt valuable to a local museum. Tombstoftes " are - hot. infrequently employed in parts- of- Nottinghamshire,- Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, and Leices tershire for the purpose o'f paving, and- a year or so back the inhabitants of the Vale of Belyoir raised' a vehement protest against their being used for a pathway leading to the parish' church.. The local authorities, however, endeavored to excuse themselves oh the groultd that they had plenty of old gravestones on band, which,, if utilised, would assuredly save tie ratepovers’ pockets. Even more gruesome, .however, is the pavement at Gwandn, Africa, in the making'd{ which over. 12,000 human skulls are Said to have been employed. The town, which is oval in shape, is girdled by a ring of lofty poles, tin the summit of every one of which is placed a skull, while each of the six gates is led up to by a pavement of skulls, which from constant friction gleams like a way of polished ivory.