Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1859-01-18
THE GAZETTE.
TUESDAY MORNING, JANUARY Is, 1859.
SK ETCUES OF PARIS.

SHOPPING IN PAKis.-Eery other shop
keeping nation eau he lodged. but N" one
can well dodge a Paris w"man-clerk. ito
into the shop, and the clerk polit"ness, man
or woman, is SO perseyering, 80 enNelopmS,
that there is no escaping the purchase vi
something. He or she is ready for YOU. and
IN TO you. in all your twistings and turnmSs,
and he or she pursues YOU. and meets You,
and foils YOU with such charming suavity'
that YOU admire the genius. even II you de-
testthe perseverance. The French language,
some say, was created for love-making, but
this must be amistake. ~ it was clearly ere
ated for pathos in shopping. | give you a
specimen in nv experience this evening:
Coyrrcr1oxER's Suor.-SHoprER.-"Have
YOU anv chestnuts sugared?' t-Ha'ronS
gldces.)
WOMAN SHop-KEEPER.-"Ah no." lin APP
narent despair Mon Dieu, All Just sold.
.Jen suis desohe." i'm double despair Let
me send Monsieur some. What is your num-
Der. They shall be there right Off
Pathetic appeal to Heaven, and a broken
heart for having no chestnuts! What could
l do but purchase a whole lot OF bon bons
from such a sufferer, for Christmas and New
Years?
FRENCH ArorHECARlES.-A man might
die here a hundred times before TN" apothe-
cary would get ready for one the prcscrlp-
ton of the physician. 1t is II . possible 10
get poison from the apothecary, and hence
"charcoal," jumping off the column in the
Place Vendome, or drowning in the SEINE,
are about the only ways of shutting OF thus
mortal coil. Laudanum evcncannot he got at.
Physic is we'll guarded here. You ORDER IA
prescription in the morning for Il dying pa
tient, perhaps, and you get it late In the
evening. 1t comes 10 You then done up IN
all sorts of peculiar ways, and with all sorts
Of careful marks, the preparation Tor which
costs a great deal of time. OF course then
..medicinc" il dearcr here thanin the United
Ssates,-but a great consolation is, the pur-
ity and certainty of the article. The mspee-
tors of drugs here-if any exist-do their
duty, and patients do not take all sorts OF
unknown stufs as in the United States. !tts
a law here in France that you shall sell just
what you profess to sell. and nothing inferior
10 il, without proclaiming the fact.
No Go-AuEAD HERE.-But il wont 10 to
hurry in Paris as i'll New York. The 60,
ahead is only an American-ism, Go ahead
here. and YOU will 90 into the gutter, or smash
up things. Every thing seems 10 he arrang'
cd upon the slow bat sure scale, and hence a
burrying man is a sort of IA mailman, danger
Gus about house, and i'll shop destructive to
things in general. You cant walk in streets
here IA in New York, with the quick step,
the wild eye, the hungry look. tor IN" l"'lce
would be after YOU. and the carriages ana
omuibuscs would run over you. In New
York, according to law. 4 horse gives way t"
a man, but in Paris, u man gives way to the
brute. Bear this in mind. and look bei"i,
YOU leap across the streets, or the horse VIII
tread over YOU, and make hospital pro'endeT
of you. Don't 60 ahead here. then. at all,
Get rid ofthe New York ef1orescence gas II
YOU Fan, and march as other people here
march, without hurry. or worrS. or fuss or
puff. Heed notthis. and you will soon kh"cs
of the skin from all your knucktes against
the doors, break half the things i'll the little
band-box shops.-run into the peoples hats
and coats and frockS, and be arrested at list
and taken to the Prefecture of Police, t"gl'e
an account of yourself. Nothing hurrleS
here but the hackney eoachman, and he only
At the corners of streets. TO run over you When
crossing. En- arant' the French "go-ahead
is only for soldiers. never for cirilians. 1t
takes here 300 years 10 build a church. "th'
er things in proportion. We knock one up
out of pine wood, in thirty days. Theirs
however. lasts forever; ours only the hrsthre'
-Ner York Erp.