The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1841-04-03

"a TOUR de tae q la longueur dc jupe.-ExPEDIToN
EXPLOITATION.
81, PLACE DE La nouRsE, PARIS
There, ladies' send your measures, your
lengths and your breadths, your rotundities, and
your defectuosities, simply by letter, to "the'
Oudinot, No. n, Place de la Bourse, Paris, and
for H. S., II. los, or 81, you may be made the
most graceful most boutdnte, most elastic, and
most happy of females!
This specimen Of French advertisement by
no means belongs to the exaggerated class. 1
could tell of sailors, who measure geometrcal-
y,"-of stay makers, who 'restrain the passions
by the cut OF their stays ;n-of hair-dressers.
whose pomatums add vigor to the intellect ;',-
OF water, called phenomena, whose properties
are so extraordinary that merely its external
application binders the hair from becoming grey.
prevents unpleasant dreams, takes away all
wrinkles, and renders the skin fresh and healthy
as that OF an infant six months old of a Dou-
Dire, which makes the nails as beautiful as mother
of-pearl the skin as soft velvet, and the teeth
much whittier than snow; of rouge,n and a
'.white" combined with it, to give color 10 the
skin so natural, that, if possible, ii gives tint
even more natural than nature herself; Of pom
made Irephlicome, which win not allow a sin
gle hair ever TO leave the head without special
permission; OF roseate cream which makes
the Oldest grand mamma look younger than her
grandchildren; of paste called Fannie de la
pedu, which defes and defeats the most obdu-
rate and atrocious disorders of the skin of an
almond and guimauve soap which gives a sort
Of supernatural beauty TO all who use il; of
poudre a Pamedine, prepared for the lovers Of
luxurious baths, and which so softens and
whitens the skin that the softness and whiteness
are quite "serapffc y of creme de Taiko, for
both young and old boards, which has the effect
of rendering shaving .quite a luxury = Of an
"epilatory paste" which irightens away in a few
seconds any daring intruders, in the form of
stubborn down. on the chins or cheeks of the
angelic portion OF creation; and of " water to
rinse the mouth with" that leaves so ravshng an
odour, that in summer weather bees actually ar
rive by swarms at your mouth, imagining you to
be nothing less than "a bed of violetsn By
the bye, have made up my mind i" not" TO use
I" this water to the end of my days.
The advertisements in French provincial
papers are far less amusing. The reason is OBJ
vious,-all that is elegant, fashionable, and dis
Hngue is TO be found in Paris, and cosmetics in
French country towns are even more rare than
cleanliness, which would. doubtless appear next
to impossible TO those who have travelled in the
French Piorinces. The country newspapers
are about twelve inches square on an average.
printed In types as old as Guttenburg, and on
paper apparently dyed in saffron They are lit
tie better, in most of the departments, than
mere registers of notarial Sales or Authorizations
aet"'tires. There are of course many excep-
mons 10 this iuie, as. for example, the Memorial
Bordeidis, edited by thu, bold anu nuble cham
pion of order peace, and obedience M. Hem;
Fonfrede. Then there is the Courier de PLsere
journal OF 'sgreat merit" of the Wing school !:
and paper published in the Pas de Calais
whose fame radical provincial leader has
been extended by some foolish prosecutions.
Rouen, Havre, Lyons, Bordeaux, Lille, and
Nantcz, have tolerably good weekly or twice or
thrice-a-week papers, all of the size of the Ma
ional, or a little less. The advertisements in
some Of them pay the expenses of the publishers
and the. editors receive some foriy or fifth
pounds per annum for their labors ill rcquited
indeed but who is well paid in France, except
an opera dancer or man COOKE
The French provincial papers cannot be com
pared for moment with the country papers OF
Great Britain. do not mean 10 speak of their
size, their type, their paper, or their advertise
ments merely, when | say his-but of their
contents, their w.t. information, research, statis-
tics, and local knowledge. In this, as in all
other matters, except soups and dancing, " old
England for ever" say l. And vet will not
deny that in some ten or twelve French provin-
cial papers there is good deal of genuine ia
lent, and sometimes sound reasoning. But there
is one immense obstacle to the French provin-
cial newspapers ever becoming of great import
ance in directing public opinion in that country
and that is-the system Of French centrdHzd-
ton. Paris is the government-Paris is the adj
ministration-Paris is the source-Paris is eve
nv thing. This system of Capitalization is car
ried TO such extent, that If little wooden
bridge over some mountain torrent should be
damaged or destroyed by sudden thaw at the
breakup of long frost, the bridge could not be
repaired or rebuilt though situate five hundred
miles from Paris until the Minister Of the Inte-
rior, Minister of the Public Works, and the adj
mi,isfrdtion des points et chaussees had been
consulted, nor until reports, maps, surveys, and
estimates had been ordered, made, transmitted,
examined, returned, revised, re-cxamined, and
finally approved. This is no caricature bu, an
exact statement of deplorable truth 1t was
the Emperor Napoleon who habtuated the pre-
sent generation of the French to this centraiza-
ton system, and though they feel every day its
hourly Inconvenience, both moral, political, and
physical, they are so used to Its workings. that
they know not how 10 set about opposing il, es-
pccially as they are stunted in their mental
growth by the depressing influence Of the system
itself. The provincial press, therefore parakes
of the character of the people of the provinces
and consequently all who wish in those provinces
10 know what is going on, take in or read Pa
ris paper. Sometimes il happens that new
provincial paper is started, on what are called
short time all rush TO the new light with avidlty
But by the time few numbers have appeared
the Journalist discovers that he has been born
before his time, that he is greatly in advance of
the age in which he lives, and that the depart
mept in which he resides has been too long
babituated to midnight darkness 10 estimate or