Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-07-28
BORROWED FINERY.
How the Parisians Manage 90 Keep
up Appearances.

A Paris correspondent writes: s'The
fashionable upholsterers have slowed away
their ball-seats, curtains and chandeliers;
the horticulturists are sending back to
their gardens and lighthouses their shrubs
and exotic flowers, both of which are un-
mistakable signs that the gay season is
well-nigh over in this gay capital of the
pleasure-seeker's world. One of the pe-
culiarities of Paris is this hiring of orna-
ments for S0ireeS, and it attests notwith-
standing the importance of certain mod
ern fortunes, that much of the luxury of
the present age is advcntitious, not real.
The least entertainment becomes matter
of serious impOrtance-an event upsetting
the internal economy of the house
hold from the garnet to the cellar, and
there is scarcely 'shotel" in the city
where ball can be given without the ne
cessity of hiring, if not a complete suite
of furniture, at least quantity of supple
mentary articles, particularly in those in
stances where the joiner and the paper
hanger have been summoned to add a
room or a gallery TO the narrow, cramped
apartment La America, in England,
even in Italy, no one would ever dream
of being obliged to resort to such expedi-F
ents; and no matter what was the impor-
tance of the festive occasion, people
would rely upon their own resources; a
much more respectfully way than calling
upon Messrs. Gobellot for chairs and or
molu clocks, and Nine. Pernne for pots
japonicas and tearoses.
SIN Paris, however, the insullieiency
in this respect has become notorious, not
only among persons of moderate fortunes,
but even in the great hotels, at the official
and diplomatic receptions, and still more
at the Tuileries, the Luxembourg, and
the Hotel de Vile, where to such an ex-
tent is this practice carried, that on the
morning after any great ball the neigh
boring streets are almost blocked up with
monster vans, sent there to cart away the
flowers and plants used in the adornmenG
of the drawing rooms on the preceding
night.
"At the last ball given by the En-
press one of my friends showed me
yucd gIo1Ios0 which, during three con-
secutive winters, had prosecuted him
it in conservatory in the Faubourg 81.
Germain, when he had poured out his
tale of love to no unwilling ears beneath
the shadow of its branches, and then in
his ecstacy, desiring to materialize the
late, had, Werther-like, scratched it with
heir combined initials, on the bark; |
IN order, dearest, he had said,
hat each time we meet here we
nay add the pleasures of memory to the
happiness of the moment. Y. was very |
badly bit indeed, and WHEN the lady of |
lis love grew cold and changed, as ladies |
will do sometimes, and they no longer |
wen spoke to each other, all of which |
in about a fortnight, he es-
,hewed all other balls at the Hotel R., |
est the sight of that terrible yucd, the
;hosen cODfidant of his illusion should |
eopen the wound and remind him |
If the Joys that were fled. Unfortunate
y, he had not counted upon the
lbiquity of horticultural decorations, and |
70 where he would, on either side of the
seine, in dozen different houses, during |
he next two winters, this yttcG omnibus
IS the bereaved one called the exotic,
eemed to follow him about, as though to
mock at his dreams of constancy and de-
rotion. Instead OF being the domiciled |
,uest of an opulent dwelling, it was mere
y vulgar, peripatetic supernumenary, /
lired out at so much night.
SIN short, although they have invented
he phrase aAd once possessed the article, |
he French are not Grande Signeurs,
,ut value you for what you seem to be,
lot at what you really are, ana really care
Iery little whether you even own a shirt,
provided you always display an immacu-
ate 'dickey' and pair of jewel-fastened |