208 AN OCTOBER ABROAD. 



France, if I may judge of her soldiers from the speci- 

 mens I saw. Small, spiritless, inferior-looking men 

 all of them. They were like Number Three mack- 

 erel or the last run of shad, as doubtless they were 

 the last pickings and resiftings of the population. 



I don't know how far it may be a national custom, 

 but I observed that the women of the humbler classes, 

 in meeting or parting with friends at the stations, 

 saluted each other on both cheeks, never upon the 

 mouth, as our dear creatures do, and I commended 

 their good taste, though I certainly approve the 

 American custom too. 



Among the male population I was struck with the 

 frequent recurrence of the Louis Napoleon type of 

 face. " Has this man," I said, " succeeded in impress- 

 ing himself even upon the physiognomy of the peo- 

 ple ? Has he taken such a hold of their imagina- 

 tions that they have grown to look like him ? " The 

 guard that took our train down to Paris might easily 

 play the double to the ex-emperor ; and many times 

 in Paris and among different classes I saw the same 

 countenance. 



Coming from England, the traveling seems very 

 slow in this part of France, taking eight or nine 

 hours to go from Dieppe to Paris, with an hour's 

 delay at Rouen. The valley of the Seine, which the 

 road follows or skirts more than half the way, is 

 very winding, with immense flats or plains shut in by 

 a wall of steep, uniform hills, and, in the progress of 

 he journey, is from time to time laid open to the 



