Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/99

 PARIS 89 sumption, as they supply the greater part of the capital. At the pavilion specially re- served for the sale of meat more than 15,- 400,000 Ibs. of beef, 8,800,000 of mutton, 19,- 800,000 of veal, and 5,500,000 of pork, form- ing in all a total of nearly 27,000 tons, were disposed of; while for poultry and game the figures are: chickens and capons, 3,226,885; rabbits, 1,281,017; pigeons, 1,593,347; larks, 1,774,628; hares, 161,103; partridges, 405,281 ; deer, 7,014. The number of eggs sold reached the total of 213,500,000, and the weight of fresh and salt butter is estimated at 11,000 tons. The sale of fish has increased immense- ly within 25 years, for while only 138,600 Ibs. were brought to the central markets in 1850, the total for 1874 is 50,600,000, an eighth of which was made up of fresh-water fish. The octroi duty upon oysters has risen from 800 francs in 1848 to 12,000, the tax paid upon the 12,000,000 oysters consumed by the Parisians in 1874. The vegetables and fruit disposed of weighed more than 6,000 tons. The earliest historic mention of Paris is by Julius Cassar. On an island in the Seine he found a town of huts, the stronghold of one of the 64 confederate Gallic tribes. Much in- genious conjecture has failed to clear away the obscurity that involves the etymology of its name Lutetia, and the origin of its inhabi- tants, the Parisii. The former may be a Latin- ized corruption of three Celtic words, luth, ihoneze, y, or of two, louton hesi, signifying a dwelling in the waters; and the latter are supposed to be an offshoot of the Belgse. They were a fierce race of hunters and warriors. They burned their town rather than yield it to invaders in 52 B. 0. When physical re- sistance was finally overcome, they were slow to accept Roman laws and customs. The local genius was early manifest in opposition to im- posed authority. An insurrection broke out in A. D. 286, the two leaders of which, up- borne on shields, were proclaimed emperors by the people assembled near the present site of the hotel de ville. Between 358 and 360 the future emperor Julian, who retired here to win- ter quarters, and in the Misopogon has record- ed his affection for " dear Lutetia," confirmed old rights and granted new privileges to the town, which rose to the dignity of a city and took the name of Parisii. For centuries it was the residence of a Roman prefect. Its commerce, at first principally carried on by the river, was in the hands of a trading com- pany, the NautcB Parisiaci, which, existing as early as the reign of Tiberius, long outlived the Roman domination, contained the germs of the future municipal government, and has left in the city arms of to-day its symbolic mark, a galley with oars and sails, and the motto Fluctuat ncc mergitur. The palais des therm ts, some remains of which 'are still to be seen, was occupied. by several Roman empe- rors, who made Paris their headquarters while their legions were striving to repel the irrup- tions of the barbarians. As the vitality of the overgrown empire grew faint and fainter in its extreme members, Paris suffered greatly from these irruptions. In 451 it was saved from Attila's invasion only by the courage and wis- dom of St. Genevieve, and in 464 was stormed by Childeric L, king of the Franks. His son Clovis made Paris his residence, embraced Christianity, and built a church dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, which was afterward placed under the invocation of his wife's friend St. Genevieve, who died in his reign, and remains to this day the patron saint of the city. He broke the last weakened bonds of Roman domination, and Paris became in- dependently Frank. While under his feeble successors of the Merovingian dynasty Roman civilization was fading away, the church rose to wealth and power. According to the legend, Christianity was first preached in Paris in the middle of the 3d century by St. Denis, to the place and manner of whose death some wri- ters attribute the origin of the name of Mont- martre, which other etymologists deduce from a heathen temple of Mars that once stood on that hill. A chapel dedicated to the true God and St. Stephen was erected in the reign of Valentinian L, on the site of an earlier altar to Jupiter now covered by the cathedral of Notre Dame. The Carlovingian monarchs, like their predecessors of the Merovingian line, rarely inhabited Paris. Doubtful legend and conjecture ascribe to Charlemagne the merit of originating the university of Paris. The Normans repeatedly attacked the city in the 9th century. The Parisians finally appealed for aid toEudes or Otto, count of Paris, whom, after he had repelled the invaders, they pro- claimed king in 885. His successor 100 years later, of his blood but not his direct heir, was Hugues or Hugh Capet, the first king of France properly so called, from whom directly or in- directly descended all French monarchs down to Louis XVI. Paris now increased in honors, privileges, wealth, influence, and population. Her schools, illustrated by such teachers as Peter Lombard and Abelard, were resorted to by the youth of all Europe. The powerful or- der of the templars erected a fortress on the ground where the Marche du Temple, with its 2,000 dealers in old clothes and in every other conceivable second-hand article of economy one of the most curious of the curiosities of modern Paris now stands. The foundations of the cathedral of Notre Dame were laid. Philip Augustus (1180-1223) recognized the university as a corporation, and granted to its officers a jurisdiction independent of the royal courts, over the quarter of the city to which it gave its name. He caused a new wall to be built about the town enclosing 625 acres ; by a formal act he gave all the refuse straw of the royal apartments for the benefit of the patients of the Maison-Dieu ; he established two cov- ered markets, and even ordered pavements for the streets. Louis IX. greatly promoted