WHAT I SAW IN PARIS.




CHAPTER I.

LONDON TO PARIS--HISTORY OF PARIS.

LONDON TO PARIS.


Few people now-a-days go direct to Paris from America. They land in
Liverpool, get at least a birds-eye view of the country parts of
England, stay in London a week or two, or longer, and then cross the
channel for Paris.

The traveler who intends to wander over the continent, here takes his
initiatory lesson in the system of passports. I first called upon the
American minister, and my passport--made out in Washington--was _vise_
for Paris. My next step was to hunt up the French consul, and pay him a
dollar for affixing his signature to the precious document. At the first
sea-port this passport was taken from me, and a provisional one put into
my keeping. At Paris the original one was returned! And this is a
history of my passport between London and Paris, a distance traversed in
a few hours. If such are the practices between two of the greatest and
most civilized towns on the face of the earth, how unendurable must they