IT is natural that so impressionable a people should give way to enthusiasm unbounded, when it was a question of doing honour to so great and popular a man as Victor Hugo. The preparations made for yesterday's ceremony were on a scale of magnitude such as is rarely, indeed if ever, undertaken in the case of the most wealthy and princely; and promised to culminate in a display memorable in history. From the time the remains of the dead poet were conveyed from the Avenue Victor Hugo to the imposing catafalque erected under that splendid monument of Napoleonic glories, the Arc de Triomphe, tens of thousands of people poured from every corner of Paris to witness a scene which has not been beheld since the earthly remnants of the Great Napoleon were removed from St. Helena to the Invalides. Those acquainted with Paris cannot fail, by the aid of a little imagination, to form some idea of the sight which, yesterday's ceremony was likely to present. There is no more beautiful or impressive spot then the roomy place on which the superb triumphal arch stands. At one extremity lies the Avenues des Champs-Elysees with its trees rich with foliage, and at the other, slightly diverging, is the broad and majestic avenue leading to the Bois de Boulogne, that most verdant and charming of parks and fashionable resort of Parisians. The central spot is also the point of union of a number of spacious thoroughfares lined with imposing structures; and from it can be seen in every direction splendid palaces, glittering domes, and smiling greenery. Yesterday, the magnificent triumphal arch, with its numerous sculptures representing the victories of the "Little Corporal," was partially hidden by a veil of crape, while, the same funereal symbol was interwoven with the multitude of tricolour flags, and flags of every nation waving all along the route of the procession. The immense crowds which we are told gathered the day before to view the poet's body lying in state, and thousands of whom remained all night about the Arc de Triomphe and along the route, was increased a hundredfold as the hour approached at which the cortege was to leave on its way to the secularised Walhalla in the Rue Soufflot. Every inch from which a view of the proceedings could be obtained was crowded with occupants; and an instance of the fabulous prices asked and offered for windows and balconies is to be found in the statement that the owner of a balcony in the Boulevard St.-Germain, where it abuts on the Boulevard St.-Michel, declined to accept £240 for the use of his point of vantage.
Newcastle Daily Chronicle, June 2
Victor Hugo's Funeral
Victor Hugo's Funeral
Table of Contents
Miracles of healing - Christian Miracles or Healing
History of Russia: Christian Versus Barbarian
History of Japan: Early Christian Martyrs
The Jesus of History
The Assyrian Origin of Devil Worshippers
The Christ Of Dogma
The early history of Constantinople
