Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/246

 thousand francs. A correspondent gives the following amusing account of the affair:

"In consequence of a large placard posted over the walls of Paris this morning, I passed through the gate of the private garden of the Tuileries, and made my way, in company with a crowd of citizens of all classes, through the apartments occupied but a few months ago by the ex-Emperor and Empress. The printed invitation announced that we might see the rooms in which the 'tyrant' had lived for the modest sum of 50c., but that, should we think proper to take tickets for the concert, 'whereby these saloons might be at length rendered useful to the people,' we should be permitted to enjoy the extra show gratis. I took a ticket, and joined myself to a hot stream of people who belonged to every nationality and rank of life, and whose remarks and criticisms were most edifying. There were shopkeepers and their wives, only too delighted to take advantage of the mildest dissipation; gentlemen whose National Guard trousers were rendered respectable by the gray jacket or blouse of a citizen; humdrum housewives who approved everything, and gaped their admiration of so much gorgeous wall-*coloring; there were flaunting ladies in bonnets of the latest fashion and marvellous petticoats, who criticised the curtains and pointed the parasol of scorn at faded draperies; people who felt the heavy hand of the spectre of departed glory, and people who exulted at beholding the hidden recesses of an Imperial mansion laid bare to the jokes and ribaldry of Belleville and La Villette. Every class of Parisian society was represented in the throng that swayed and hustled through the rooms; but the saddest sight of all was the knot or two of decrepit veterans from the Invalides who leant against the balustrade of the grand staircase, and gazed with pinched-up lips and dry