The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1872-07-12
The Neither Side Of Paris-A Modern
SOdOm.

SOuOm.
a correspondent of the New York
Home journal gives the following sad
picture OF the moral and social cor
ruption pervading the French capital
What manner of sights and sounds
and creatures are likely to surround
the path of modest American mat
ron who may happen to speak and un-
derstand French, and who wishes to
show her young daughter the wonders
Of that city which claims to be the me-
tropols of the civilized world? The
pair may promenade Broadway and
Chestnut street for years and never
meet with anything calculated to dis
gust or annoy them, provided only that
they choose the hours OF daylight for
their rambles. Miss Anonyma might,
it is true, brush past them and aston.
ish them with the splendor of her rouge
and the grandness Of her attire, and
Mr.. Deuceace might possibly stare at
the pretty face OF the younger lady;
but there all annoyance would end. But
in Paris it is not SO. An atmosphere
of evil hovers over all things, and un.
der its influence there spring to light
horrors from which modesty and limo.
cence can neither veil their faces nor
| avert their eyes. Let the careful moth.
er, if she will, continue her daily walks
to such elegant and frequented places
of resort as the Boulevards, the Rue de
la Paix, the Rue de Rivoli, or the
Palais Royal, yet shall she not escape
from the vileness which surrounds her
like sea. Acts of the grossest indie
cency, perpetrated by the well-dressed
strollers on the asphalt, or by the ele.
gantly dressed children that frequent
the gardens of the Tuileries and the
Palais Royal, will assail her gaze. Let
her strive to take refuge from such
sights by turning to the windows of
fashionable print-shop, and her eyes
| will rest on pictures Of Undesirable
indelicacy, daintily engraved and col
ored pictorial double entendreS, and many
but where the purport of the pictured
scene is perfectly unquestionable. She
flies for escape to the photographers
next door, and portraits of shameless
women in attire BETTING their charac-
tiers are the leading attractions of the
window. The image shop across the
way looks innocent enough, and she
turns to that only to behold the i'm ,1od-
esty of print and photograph surpassed
in the marvelously executed little group
of clay figures which stand side by side
with statuettes of the Virgin and our
Saviour. She enters a bookstore and
purchases some of the works of tho
leading novel writer's of France, and
she sees upon the title.page the names
of such large and well-known publish
ing houses as Hachette or Michel Levy ;
but on opening the pages she finds her
self seeking for amusement and IN
stlucton by perusing minute descrip-
tons of scenes of atrocious vice, II, in
deed. the story does not turn upon the
preparation of some crime too horrible
for her even to have imagined its exist
ence. She goes to the theater, and
froA- her box at the Gymnase or the
Coincide Franchise she beholds unfold
ed before her scenes of unbridled anC
unpublished pre- gacy from which is t.
be learned the moral lesson that 10 b'
virtuous is to be stupid and uninterest
ing, and that TO be vicious is TO be bril-
liant, charming and successful in SO
: ciety. She takes up newspaper, tn
, Figaro, for instance, and the anecdote
: which crowd its columns will brin
scorching bushes to her already burn
: ing cheeks. The trail Of the serpen
is over everything. The vice, whic
/, in other large cities is like an ulcerou
: sore on an otherwise healthy body,
! here, like a scrofulous faint, pervadin
: the entire system. Woe to the careful
! mother if she suffers her daughter t
= walk the distance of half block i
bright daylight in the most fashicnabl
: quarter of Paris, for French politene'
will be at hand to insult her youth an
8 innocence by foul words and looks an
= insulting touch. Such is Paris; sucl
! | doubt not, was Sodom.