approached we entered a wilderness of odorous flowers and shrubbery, sped

through it, and then, excited, delighted, and half persuaded that we were

only the sport of a beautiful dream, lo, we stood in magnificent Paris!

What excellent order they kept about that vast depot! There was no

frantic crowding and jostling, no shouting and swearing, and no

swaggering intrusion of services by rowdy hackmen. These latter gentry

stood outside--stood quietly by their long line of vehicles and said

never a word. A kind of hackman general seemed to have the whole matter

of transportation in his hands. He politely received the passengers and

ushered them to the kind of conveyance they wanted, and told the driver

where to deliver them. There was no "talking back," no dissatisfaction

about overcharging, no grumbling about anything. In a little while we

were speeding through the streets of Paris and delightfully recognizing

certain names and places with which books had long ago made us familiar.

It was like meeting an old friend when we read Rue de Rivoli on the

street corner; we knew the genuine vast palace of the Louvre as well as

we knew its picture; when we passed by the Column of July we needed no

one to tell us what it was or to remind us that on its site once stood

the grim Bastille, that grave of human hopes and happiness, that dismal

prison house within whose dungeons so many young faces put on the

wrinkles of age, so many proud spirits grew humble, so many brave hearts

broke.

We secured rooms at the hotel, or rather, we had three beds put into one

room, so that we might be together, and then we went out to a restaurant,

127

The Innocents Abroad