2 28 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



this feature of the French character which gives them such a pre-eminence 

 in the great scene-producing arts of architecture and landscape gardening. 



Paris is the master-piece and triumph of French artistic genius. It 

 is the most beautiful city of modern times, and it is doubtful if any of 

 the great capitals of antiquity could vie with it in beauty or art. 



It is not in the beauty of particular streets or structures thai the 

 boasted beauty of Paris consists. Chicago and some others of our 

 American cities present business blocks and single streets equaling, if not 

 surpassing, any in Paris. It is the general picturesque or scenic arrange- 

 ment which gives to the French capital its superior claim. Every great 

 avenue seems to have been so arranged as to terminate in some grand 

 monument or public edifice, which closes and completes the vista. No 

 great palace, theater or church is thrown aAvay or robbed of its effect by 

 being hidden from view in the side of some narrow street. A notable 

 instance of the effort of French taste in arranging city scenery is found in 

 the position of the new opera house. This marvel of architectural and 

 sculptural art, costing over ten millions of dollars, fronted upon an oval 

 area by the side of one of the great boulevards; but its magnificence was 

 too great for its position ; half its effect was lost by the lack of distance 

 from which it might be seen. To remedy the defect, a broad avenue was 

 broken through one of the densest quarters of Paris, stretching from the 

 front of the Opera to the palace of the Louvre, and now the traveler, 

 looking up this avenue, sees this great monument of architecture in all its 

 grandeur. Many instances may be quoted of this attention to scenic 

 effect in the avenues and public buildings of this great French city. 



Come with me to a height near the western extremity of Paris. In 

 the midst of a large circular area stands the Ai'c de Triomphe, the grand- 

 est triumphal arch in the world, begun by the first Napoleon and finished 

 by the last. Let us ascend to its summit, one hundred and sixty-two feet 

 above the pavement. From this elevation we look down upon one of the 

 finest city views on this globe. Twelve broad avenues stretching forth 

 from it like the rays of a star — each one lined with its rows of trees, in 

 some cases several rows — appear like lengthened parks. At the foot of the 

 hill to the westward a city gate intercepts but does not interrupt the 

 avenue, which is seen stretching away in the distance till it reaches a bend 

 in the river. Turning our faces eastward, the great city, with the homes 

 of two millions of people, lies before us. Yonder, at the southeast corner, 

 the River Seine enters and sweeps to the northwestward, till near the center 

 of the city it bends to the southwest and passes beyond the walls, curving 

 again to the north and leaving space outside of the walls for the Bois de 

 Boulogne, the largest, finest and costliest of the parks of Paris. Near the 

 middle of the part within the city are found two islands, on which the 

 original Paris, the Lutetia of the Parisii, stood two hundred years before 

 the opening of the Christian era. 



Let us follow the line of this eastward avenue, stretching down from 

 the Triumphal Arch, touching as a tangent the northern bank of the river, 

 and serving us as a medial line from which to study the city. This avenue, 

 perhaps the most famous and beautiful on the earth, is called the avenue 



