A GLIMPSE OF FRANCE. 



187 



judge of her soldiers from the specimens I saw. 

 Small, spiritless, inferior-looking men all of them. 

 They were like Number Three mackerel 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 Amer- 

 ican 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 people ? 

 Has he taken such a hold of their imaginations 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 counte- 

 nance. 



Coming from England, the travelling 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 fol- 

 lows 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 the journey, is 



