PARIS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6936, 27 October 1900, Page 2

PARIS.

THE CITY OF LIGHT. A QBE AT NATIONAL FETE. (Paris comsponJent, San Francisco .Argonaut.) The Parisians call their city "La Ville L iere "—The City of Light. They might S call it "The Light City" Or better still "La Ville Legere"— The City of T evi'ty for, aside from the illuminations in honour of the national fete ,there is " lisrhtuess " everywhere in Paris. I The tone of its venal Press is light, irresponsible, reckless. For days sensational predictions of riot have been printed, and on the eve of the great fete day of France in glaring type appear such inciting headlines as " A Nationalist Coup d'Elat NiriDed in the Bud," " The Dreyfusards Downed;" "Loubet Spat Upon," "The Army Takes Its Revenge." The people themselves are light-hearted, frivolous, and gay. During these days of festival they waltz and polka on the street corners; they lunch in the parks and ia the Bois ; and young and old alike on every square go whirling time and lime aijain around and around on the fantastic merry-go-rouhds with their galloping pigs aad can,- ' tering giraffes. From the students in Montmartre who will drag their unclothed models in lofty floats through the streets — from the peddlers on the corners of the boulevards who peddle obscene toys — to the statesmen in the Chamber who make a jesfc of bloodshed, who play with such edged tools as rfyt and sedition, and who juggle with the passions of mem — all is levity in this "Light" City. Tho coming of the Fourteenth of July was anticipated with not a little apprehension, by the Government this year, and every nrecaution was taken to guard against disorder and riot. On the night of the thirteenth the gates around the fortifications were closed to prevent large numbers of peonle from the country coming into Paris. The surveillance of the police was strict. On the fourteenth, every cab or carriage that passed through the B*ois on the wav to Longchamp, with the exception of the carriages containing officials and statesmen, was thoroughly searched. The police force on duty throughout the city day and night numbered over thirty-five hundred men; fdr the volatile French are never to be counted on. Amd despite the nearly thirty years of uninterrupted republicanism the Government well knows that there are SMOULDERING FIRES OF REVOLUTION STILL. ; To the Palace de la Concorde^ came the usual delegations of Nationalists to han«» ' wreaths over the statue of their lost city — Strasburg. N«ver before was the statue so heavily hung with tributes. It was completely covered with flowers and wreaths and garlands several layers thick. The members of the League of Patriots came in a body very early in the morning to place their wreaths at the foot of the statue. And the Alsatians who live in Paris came on their annual pilgrimage to the .monument in as large numbers as thirty years ago, when the loss of their fair city was new and the wound still bleeding. But there was no mad extravagance in the demonstration about the statue. It was ardent but orderly. The absence of Paul Deroulede was remarked. He has usually been a prominent figure in these fourteenth of July pilgrimages to the Strasburg monument. But this year he was not here. He is out of town. He is taking a rest-cure at San Sebastian in Spain. Everywhere good humour prevailed. Even the Nationalists, the Socialists and the Anarchists seemed comparatively content with the existing state of affairs, and the day was marked by the absence of political demonstrations of anything approaching a revolutionary character. The few affrays that took place were individual rather than by concerted action, and the " screams of the injured," made so much of by the sensational press, were mostly hysterical. The usual melee occurred about the Cascade, where knuckle-dusters and loaded sticks were in evidence, but little real injury was inflicted. The people who were <% carried to a neighbouring chemist's " were mostly overcome by the heat and the crush and! excitement, and not really hurt. Of course the Socialists gaive veut to their feelings in. revolutionary songs. Strains of the "Marseillaise" and "La Carmagnole " broke out at times, and you would now and again see squads of men wearing red roses in their button-holes. The Nationalists shouted "Vive Deroulede!" "Vive PArmee!" and the Anarchists muttered threats at times, but only once was tiher&"» scrimmag© of any real seriousness. It was near the Pavilion d Armenonville, on the edge of the Bois. Luckily the greater part of the police force very wisely had been, concentred there and at the Cascade, where riots have taken place before, so the hurling back and forth of iron chairs and fierce epithets in lieu of missiles was soon quelled and peace restored. The numerous- " bonsculades " that took place in different parts of the city— the worst were in the Avenue des Acacias, the Rue Royale, and Rue Boissy-d'Anglas— were really more like college "rushes" than political riots. The opposing factions would line up facing each other and hurl missiles back and forth for a time. Then the " bagarre " would cease as suddenly as it began and good humour would reign again supreme. • DANCING IN THE STREETS. On the street corners there -is dancing. And ■on .the Place de la Bastille there is dancing. On the fourteenth of July, 1789, after the people stormed the Bastille and took the grim old prison and razed it to the ground, the next thing they did was to post a notice, "DANCING HERE." And now on every fourteenth of July, " ici Ton danse." It is ai part of the programme of the celebration that is never omitted. The couples whirl and spin and the dust rises from the wooden pavement. But what matters it! The giddy waltzes, aaid the polkas, and mazurkas, and the gay quadrilles go on at a wild, mad pace. And the first ,rays of the morning eun see the revellers still dancing on tiie open street. "Passee la fete, la fete continue," is a saying of the French. And when the dancing stops the band plays on. They hire a cab, and drive up and down and back and forth, serenading the peaceful dreamers in the hotels along the boulevards. The man who plays the horn is not exactly what you would call sober ; the cab-driver i& unmistakably tipsy ; amd the only sober member of the party is the unfortunate horse. Poor, jaded brute, what has he not had to endure? The day had been no fete for him. When the sun was quite an hour high six bandsmen in a cab pulled up in front of :the Grand Hotel. And there they puffed and blew, and blew and puffed, but they could not make a tune. Only weird strains issued from their horns. They tried their hardest, but one after another they fell asleep. The cabdriver fell asleep. How long they stayed there I do not know, for I, too, feel asleep waltdng for their serenade. This good-humoured celebration, so devoid of any really serious riots, must indeed have been a happy surprise to the Government. So many things have pointed toward a possible ou. break of popular discontent on this day. The municipality went to an enormous expense for decorations and illuminations and fireworks. Tho illuminations alone cost one hundred and fifty thousand fTancs more than usual, and the effect was certainly very fine. Many of the churches were decorated. Noire Dame — (hat venerable pile — was coquettishly decked out in red, white, and blue. Between the gargoyles on the roof were fastened clusters of flags, and a broad band of red was stretched across the whole front of the facade, showing in 'the spaces between the columns of the arches, just below the two square towers. It gave a very gay and festive appearance to the ancient church. Also from the slender cower of the Sainte Cliapelle the trircoloured banner waved. And I saw some clusters of our own fair

flag in different parts of the city. I think tho French must look upon us as almost their best friends now, and would go far to keep our friendship. The decorations were all more graceful and beautiful than any I have ever seen before. The beautiful fla? of France was everywhere used with gi^at effectiveness. San Francisco could well take a lessen from Paris in the art of municipal decorations. The way our beautiful banner is degraded — the hideous printed strips of red and white and blue cotton rags, like the weekly wash hung out to dry, that are used so much in our city, are never seen here, even in the cheapest quarters. One of the most effective decorations I have ever seen in any city was at the time of Victcr Hugo's funeral here in Paris. The Arc de Triomphe was hung with a loner and graceful drapery ,of some soft, black fabric. It was attached to the top of the arch near one corner and dropped in loose folds till near -the ground, and then was looped to the side with a rich, black cord. It was a very simple yet striking decoration. And far more effective, I may add, than the conventional black-and-white rosettes you see sb often plastered over every place as J A TOKEN OF MOURNING. But then the French seem to have an inborn artistic taste that not every nation possesses. And never ha.'s it been more apparent than in the decoration and illumination of the city for last Saturday's celebrations. Everthing was most carefully planned to make the day a grand success politically and artistically, as well as from the standpoint of a 'hostess entertaining her guests. . The event of tihe day was the customary review of troops at Longohamp. Despite the heat, it passed off magnificently. There were something' over twenty thousand men on the field, though the number was really appreciably diminished by those who fainted by tihe wayside. It is no exaggeration to say that we could see men drop out of the ranks three or four or half a dozen at a t:me.. from sunstroke. What an unnecessary hardship for the troops to have had to carry the whole of their heavy uniforms, overcoats, and all tihrougib all the scorching teat of that long day! " But to strangers in Paris a far more interesting slight than the review was the magnificent and lavish illumination of the city. The Avenue de la Bois de Boulogne, the Champs Elysees, the Place de la. Concorde, the Place de i'Arc de Triomphe, were converted into veritable fairy-land. Long linos of gas-pipe had been run along the walks, nbout ten feet from the ground, and form them myriads of gas-jets, covered with globes, gave the effect of rows of large, white, luminous balls hanging in mid— air. , Thousands of Chinese lanterns were suspended in tie trees, «sud miles of electric wires, carrying "incandescent burners, were stretched across the avenues and interwoven in the shrubbery. The Place de la Concorde was a blaze of light. The dignified. facade and dome of the Opera were outlined against the blackness of tihe night with rows of nxinute lights sparkling along its skyline. The Arc de j Triomphe was illuminated as it had never been before. Th© trees of the boulevards were festooned with bunches of incandescent burners in fantastic shapes, resembling marguerites and other flowers. . LAVISH ILLUMINATIONS. As for the view up and down the Seine, it resembled nothing I have ever seen before so much as a great sky-rocket the moment after it bursts. Long lines of lights, in graceful curves and swerves, and luminous stars, both large and small, were projected against the dark night sky. On the river the bateaux mouehes, with tiheir myriads of swinging paper lanterns, danced back and forth between tihe stately bridges,, broad, stationary bands of light. Adding to the witchery of the magic scene, great searchlights threw broad 1 streams of light, now this way, now that. In the back-ground the majestic Eiffel Tower, blazing from base to summit, stood out against tihe blackness of infinite space, the grace and beauty of its lines accentuated by the invisibility of the clumsier supporting framework. Never Before has Paris been so lavishly illuminated. It seems a pity to re-cord the panic that occurred at the very close of this successful day. It was on the Place de la Concord©, where curiously enough two similar catastrophes have occurred before under very similar circumstances. At one of the, fetes celebrating the marriage of Louis the Sixteenth and the unhappy Marie Antoinette there was a panic in which more than two hundred people were crushed and trampled to death. The stampede on Saturday evening luckily had no such disastrous results, though several died from injuries received, and many of the gay sight-seers were badly hurt. When the people began to move after the grand exhibition of the Tuileries fireworks was over, the stampede began. In almost motionless admiration the vastthrongs packed in the great square of the Place de la Concorde had watched the grand display of the " feu d'artlfice." The long sheaves of light shooting up into the air and bursting, one after another, in rapid succession, the deafening din of bursting bombs, the witchery of the vari-coloui"ed light blazing out and dying down again, and the great revolving wheels spitting fire and whirling in hundreds of fantastic designs, held them spell-bound, as it were. But when tho display was over they wanted to breathe, and they wanted to move, but they could not. Anc[ then there was a mad stampede to get away. There seemed to be an entire absence of the police force on the Place, and the result was pandemonium. Like so many other catastrophes that have taken place in Paris, it could have been all avoided by proper police regulations. Barring the unfortunate calamity at the very close of an otherwise liappy day, this has been a fourteenth of July to be long remembered by the French as one of the most successful fetes they have ever celebrated. And the magic spectacle of the beauti ful City of Light illuminated and decorated more lavishly than she ha? ever bean before, will linger longt in the minds of the many strangers within her gates, whose good luck brought them to Paris in time to " assist " at the celebration of tho great national fete of 1900.