The Express.
London, England, 1867-01-09 00:00:00

[STAMPED, Id. ADDITIONAL.]

CIWOPENCE

PARIS IN THE SNOW.

shrieks of the people crowding round would have
done credit to a menagerie. Neither man clenched
his fist nor stood upright, but, in hall-wrestling
fashion, scrambled and kicked until they fell, the
younger undermost, with his opponent's knee upon
his face and chest, kneading him with the action
of a pestle in a mortar. Then the crowd knelt
down too, some aiding the victor on all fours,
others pulling him off the man he continued to
punish, and all clawing and shrieking in a strangely
feminine way. Finally, the carman was driven off
by a friend, bleeding at nose and mouth, and fol-
lowed by the snow-balls of his unsatisfied assail-
ants. This scene took place within fifty yards of a
police-station, in broad daylight, and with as little
interference from administration or authorities as
if neither were in existence. It formed a striking
contrast to a London street row throughout, both
from the clawing action and open hands of the
fighters, their frantic ejaculations, kicks, scratch-
ing., and
pinching., and the childish delight of
the bystanders, who ran off to the police-station
directly the carman was seen off, " to tell of him "
as it were, like so many boys at school, before re-
commencing their snowballing with cries and imi-
tations of what took place.
Within the railed-in enclosure of the Palais
Royal a long slide was formed on the frozen snow,
upon which boys and men went merrily up and
down all day, and until a late hour at night,
shocking some English bystanders by their indiffer-
ence to the grain of the ice, and the impunity with
which they allowed each other to run upon and
throw snow over it. These episodes, however, are
merely indicative of the " permission to play"
given by the administration at this time, and
do not affect the broad fact that Paris rose
superior to the wintry attack under which
London seems to have succumbed. After the
first three days of the snow, and when
a hard frost set in, an even more striking instance
of administrative promptitude occurred. On Sun-
day morning last a heavy rain came down and
froze directly it fell. This did not begin till after
1 a.m., and was at its worst between 2 and 3,
making the streets as slippery as glass. Walking
was most difficult, and riding impossible. The
writer's umbrella was so completely frozen in an
half-hour's walk, or rather hobble, from the Rue
de la Paix, that it could not be closed ; and he saw
the shafts of three vellums broken in as many
minutes, through their horses falling back ; the
masquers both at the Opera-house and the Valen-
tino had to slide and tumble home, and the streets
were literally impassable. This was at 3 a.m.,
yet before 8 all was remedied, the whole broad
thoroughfare bestrewn with yellow sand, and car-
riages and pedestrians traversing it as usual.

a New Paris like
frame • ookaasisamoassx.
Year's-day
dLondon,ayw hi
beganch bad itsin tdirshreeandadyf
wet,
A ie
and
was keenly cold and brightly frosty at midnight,
came a heavy fall, and the city woke the following
morning to find itself enveloped in a thick white
blanket, with too
the snowy flakes
Descending, and with norrer-oeudna lapse
Softly alighting upon all below.
Nothing could have been more sudden or unex-
pected. It had been even mild in the early part of
the previous day, while at night the stars shone
brightly and the air had the crisp sharpness which
so often foreruns • long and bitter frost. It seemed
far too cold for snow. Yet the emergency had been
fully provided for before the day's business began,
and concurrently with the discovery of the fall
the looker-on saw the process of its removal. At
no time was traffic suspended. The eoitures and
maims plied as usual, the omnibuses passed
from stopping-place to stopping-place, and the
holders of "correspondence" tickets were never, so
far as I saw, disappointed. It is true the pace became
wretchedly slow, and the demand both for cabs and
omnibus places was so enormously in excess of sup-
ply that walking was imperative in many instances.
But the visiting and card-leaving of the season was
as much responsible for this as the weather, and it
is • simple face that the organisation of the city pre-
vented both riders and pedestrians from suffering
severely from what seems to have stopped the busi-
ness of London for many consecutive hours. But,
it may be urged, the fan of snowy in Paris must
have been trivial to that in England, and there was,
perhaps, small merit in dealing with it successfully.
The supposition is correct as to fact, but utterly
fallacious in inference. In places which had not been
dealt with by the authorities the snow was several
inches deep, and in the higher portions of the
suburbs huge drifts testified in the early part of the
day to what the condition of the boulevards and
streets would have been if left to right themselves.
My business carried me to the outskirts of the city,
and the bye-roads near the hospital for aged female
paupers, Salpetriere, some of the long wharves on
the more distant banks of the Seine, the suburbs
stretching towards Ivry, were all heavily clogged
with snow. This was before noon. Later, after
spending some hours in the hospice, we
found a marked improvement, and the road-
cleaners and restorers were then busily at
work. Every vehicle we saw was engaged, and
there was nothing for it but to walk back. All
along the Seine, past the Morgue, round by Notre
Dame, by place and street to the very centre of the
city, and on every side, were men at work or evi-
dences of work performed. The traffic on the main
Boulevards was far greater than usual, the shops Yesterday a very numerous
m deputation connected
were full of customers, the cafeSs in the full swing with the Ke
tins the better local goveunuttlof the metropolis for
pm"'
of business. One thing mastered system, and 1
upon the Right Hon. S. H. Walpole, the Howe Pdi2
waited
at
that was dirt. Fast as the streets were cleared of
Iheethelli`c°mweeelinffirti'lindscwat StLaandamaeesiit-hharelrearhil6yriust moneeh,"ftors
serious impediments, sleet or snow or rain camea
down again, and coated them in filth. To crone
broad thoroughfare was to step half-ankle deep in mocu'n'ucuingl""thtehgoe vseurnbjecrnetudtutoringintluececow"
mire ;to walk any distance was to become be- I Lord Eet the
diming the ''Z'pirtlidrientsail association,
... in intro intr°-
spattered with rich brown patches of the colour '
I shade of political opinion,it was of every
and of various occupation'
and consistency of turtle soup. The commission.
Mr. —CCILMASTER the origin
hiarrihd.illechte," of the
noires, who condescend to polish boots in the "tlftmuts in
life.
pre
1:11.11/0:tdiafotirlicrzon, andoi jiwsbuledtbte.htohNitetoibn
jtect.he
Lill
suggested that the
streets, waxed fat and kicked. Jack is apparently
into urn municipalities,
as good as his master at New Year's time, and stand
after stand was tried in vain. The man apparently three on the south anddisevivt:
Thames, each containing about the same porlpulatoen.a.Ptenh:
in charge always professed to be merely taking it waosotwbovi:tht t
ted hat
ttese bodies having greater power than
emosotatsit, local
~,es,t,rdliesoi,oittbterre,t,wreoule d
care of it, en anuttenr, for the real Simon pure,
who had gone on an errand, and would not return considerable red
re veoryf the generall government. These municipalitiesx'
torrahlrt;
tormwsers gio7nhtoarminunicipalitie:iwbeienr for more than an hour, or who was at that par- :ronele.lpossess
fielder moment making merry with his friends,
ovtetterire6srr boards, with some hundred acla of e t
o fwtoohoefl
until it became a positive favour, only to be ob- or more. for defining their powers,
rained by much and practical persuasion, to secure
able to
icoontecereentst.ofte dithffeerepontworcomminitththee shoo, cud
withthdoeail
a ahoeblack's services. number of boards, and government of the
All this time the usual snow sports were carried metropolis more eiliciently, anir
requirements of its inhabitants. "Itistutrul of regard
on with a vigour that showed that the parental sous., iotowmalprororseadoitLmirediruce nuiuber of members to
administration winked hard in honour of the 400
anxious that the itnprovenielaLt The
ld"be elfltecitd"%w'sitr"
season. A hard bout of snow-balling, in which at which they contended had ro-
c'ut
leaat a hundred workmen engaged themselves, took doeeikv!'xi tifehe pritnei_oitfor
various
otpro coni.utodtta;eo•stoofr the House of
Commons. They did n
place on the strip of waste ground opposite the reih.vhritt the
r
boundaries of parishes, but to earteab
Morgue. That representative institution chanced present
areas of jurisdiction, retaining the existing parochial
to be empty, and as group after group of disap
Mr. WAI..POLF You say you simply wish to commit
pointed sight-seekers left its doors they joined rho
rklrof etzloarged area of jurisdiction. You do not
sportive throng outside, and either helped to roll yourself
with
till leave certain po"rw"erso toptahrieshpeas;o:loii.'d 'aouuthoorfitfere
and add to one of the enormous snow-balls being
;should like to ask what are to be the provers of the teal
made within the railings opposite, or pelted each
other playfully into a hideous little show which bar:l,3'o7er oover liether they ore to
the
constituted, and also what are to Beardse t7ife lisio°wrke.rs'l of
as
flaunted its horrors hard by. As no real cur whom you propose to include in the
ttoitoherambo:,l..ies
were to be seen, an enterprising entrepreneur had e
hit upon a brave and profitable expedient for Mr. existing
The municipalities we propose
powers of municipalities under thew
ministering to the popular taste. A life- create
un will have all the
was
oalthericipalettwewtoz Act, as at Liverpool, laniiingham, and
size wax model of a poisoned female
Mr. J. BEALE explained that all the powers at peeve t
exhibited at three lOWA a head, the showman lee- s yutiehe Metropolitan Local msesso.n
turing eloquently upon the sham corpse, pointing meatwfe
Act on
wolell,` underb
I upon the new bodies, and thneveralgicrtiusiele'sh: conferred
red.
to the scars and ulcers produced by the subtle
I to have separate jurisdiction, except fur' ecclesiastical° pur
rss
Egyptian poison it was supposed to have taken in
life, and finally removing the shroud-like drapery Mr. WAr.rote—As I understand, you wish to leave the
City of London in meet respects RI, it and you would
and partly dissecting the body. A cruel mother-
watveyoteunw municipalitiese other. puts of the metropolis,
in-law, au indifferent husband, a passionate but smother munictp.dity greater than the
City of London, wbli' is to have certain controlling poems
lawless love, a murder, which included an unborn
child, were all dwelt upon, to the intense enjoyment conferred
upon
It E—l".;
.
of the whilum snow-ball throwers, who chattered Mr. Iv."-P'"•,,
—I hen, what would Le the powers of the
controlling body'
and grinned delightedly as horror after horror was
generalTey wouldo have
r the control of the drainage,
piled up. Off they set, too, directly their treat was of l'ilrridllgeSEAL:f:-qiro einents, aud of gaol, ; but, of
exepting the government
over, to act as voluntary decoy ducks to their course, ould take the power of deal.
brethren, who were leaving the government show ing those en
you
They ooliflilrsntl'iln
opposite dejectedly in their turn, and to explain Mr. lieni.E nnotawcaxyactrir.
theirto local powers for local improvements, hut in reap::
with much animation and gesticulation that for general improvements paid for out of the general rates,
three sous something very like a real dead body thou there would be the controlling power in the central
could be seen with the additional advantages of I'l'
, :-.;:it?. Wsoff.ran.r.dm
°I
to
maintain
it'
power'
if
caution
—Yee run then upon the question whether
repulsive accessories and dramatic detail. Thus the'.
was formed the nucleus of the little crowd which j for iollroremootaMr. Br_the said there bail been a compromise between
began by snowballing andculminated in a thoroughly ! the
Citan d the rest of the nictropoli., in regard to the
characteristic street row. A drunken carman lounged imposition of the local duties for the puiposes of general
rather sulkily down the Morgue steps, and was improvements. He should wish to sic the metropolis
I :„11;1/ ;Leoaceriiyunotfy of itself. He would the principle
promptly greeted with a snowball in the eye.
geponsweetrrrupl=
to all •
the Mille
Instead of joining in the sport with the rest, he in- I" iun, giving
I would
toftchourse include the gas
i :nil water supplf. At
dulged in a torrent of bad language. This was all
that was wanted. Thu inflammable material was with the great parishes
gas at; wr.eaterrereaecalitiniel,paliel dine bad to
come to the government to do that which if they'had the
there, the cruel instincts were well developed, both rs,rot,h,.oegrroposed bill would give them they could do
by what their owners had just seen and by what rrw:l
Mr. nuatou, Mr. T. Hughes, M.P. Mr. Reardon,
they had failed in seeing. There was a strong dash
(:oortilwiu. the Ilon.
of insobriety, for the new year seems to bring rfrr.
,I,l,foreAss.,,e,rologers,
nearly as much street drunkenness in its train at and Mr. P. Undo.," l▪
iming
also o feed
Mr. WaLiso.e
thehas
urgencifere4
totting toh her Majesty's
comer promised good sport as a victim. Forth-
prove the government of the inetrugiis7" & view
to
iw-
with, with the steadiness if not with the precision
?;;AHLroul.ezza,Al.l`...—Lest, that is my view.
of artillery, the snowballs fell on and about the
any opiunirl at ho
luckless carman. Oaths, expostulations, threats, premature for me to give
and vague rushes from side to side were all fol- noitath.eniess details
that
to be eubmitted to parliament, but
Taitilof liras the
•d government
lowed by peltings and jeers, until the man ran of the metropolis
rspects, and that one improvement would itnonlesatnatlir:l;
amuck, as it were, and struck out wildly
with
e.smaller authority, but having said that
right and left, with both feet and hands. I hog areas
will
except
to
.ocusit me from any further
He soon mat with an antagonist, a shabby opinion,
mattentilr, and that I will take care to coni the lnellfste
best
man of middle age, and forthwith the twain set to
hoteswitat bast.
any
Iftuertrehtto-dir, but I hope
work clawing, kicking, and biting like a couple of yin colleagues
fns
wild cats. There was plenty of determination and The deputation then thanked 'the righrtPi'Mn. gentleman•
the courtesy with which he had received them, and
bloodthirstiness on both sides, and the cries and ',for

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METROPOLITAN LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

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