Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1873-07-29
The Jaraiu mabIIIs.

] WlAuout Ntdllluk tuln tauaouo tafutu Z
And the guide books say married women
may see il with their husbands. II may
be we'll. The Jardin Mabille Is some.
how synonymous With the iancied Ii.
cense and abandon Of Paris pleasures
And what are the attractions OF the Jar
din Mabille2 IL is often described IN
letters 10 the press, and much oitener in
personal narration Of experience, aud |
venture 10 say the impression in the
general mind is OF great scene OF rev
elry and mirth, in which the exuberant
spirits and excitement Of the time find
exercise in n comical, extravagant and
athletic style Of dancing. This is the
potion that the travelled man conveys TO
his innocent fellow man, and that tour
lists give when they write letters OF
travel. The wonder is, where tsnrists
expect to go when they die; for their in
eviiable habit Of drawing the long bow
would make them people large terri.
tory. il lying were TO be taken notice Of
The reality Of the scene OF revelry
in the Jardn Mabille is to this common
idea about as the reality Of German
masquerade ball, in which there are
scores Of overcoated, hated, tobacco
splitting men TO one masquerader, is TO
the general idea OF the gaiety and rev
elry OF such performances. Upon the
ground, by the stand of the fine or
chestra, two couples, the women evi-
dently stock performers, dance the fig
ures OF quadrille in style more or
less extravagant. according to their
genius and muscle. The great attrac
ton, and greatest feast, is where the fe
male dancer gathers up her skirts, TO
free her movement, and filings up one
foot as high as her head. This one OF
them may be expected to do every time
the figure comes TO the motion OF for
ward and back. The other extraordi-
nary motions consist chiefly Of that
staggering and swaying of the arms in
time with the feet, which Aimee and
other French singers in opera boune
have made familiar to American eyes.
Around these two couples the spectators
who have come to see the fastest life in
Paris gather in ring, as at a wrestling
match in New England on training day.
Peradyenture, in favorable night, there
may be performers enough to form two,
or possibly three, Of these half quad
rifles, each of which will have its
crowded ring OF gaping spectators.
The performance is varied by waltzes,
which, as they do not admit of the peeu.
liar Jardin Mabille step, are less attrac-
tive to the lockers on.
This is the reality of the fancied scene
of dancing revelry which is thought the
great attraction of the Jardin Mabille.
Some scores Of we'll dressed women visit
the garden in pursuit of their avoca-
ton, and in general place themselves
unobtrusively on the benches that are
scattered around it. Some are bolder
in manner, but men who hold out no in
vitation are not exposed to solicitations.
Many OF the women seem to come quietly
as to an exchange, and when they have
found that the remaining spectators have
come to see fast life in Paris, but do not
mean business, they as quietly depart.
The revelry and mirth OF the Jardin
Mabille are of the tamest. But 1t is a
beautiful garden, and with its shrubbery,
its arbors, fancy grottoes, miniature foun-
tains, its booths for various little games,
its brilliant lights and music, it has the
eject Of fairy scene. 1t is only as a
scene of fast fun and revelry that it is a
delusion. Unquestionably the French
have the genius for comical mirth in a
high degree, but this garden is too much
a place of business. The visits OF Ameri,
cans and English are its chief means of
support, and these go to see and not to
perform.
Philosophical analysis of the pleasures
to be sought in places where, for the
time, the habits Of moral restraint is
thrown off finds them divisible into two
elements-women and wine. 1t does
not require a sea of the latter, nor the
crossing of seas to get it. And even in
the former there are signs patent to the
sight of all of illicit indulgence as oon-
venient as attractive in its costume and
outward appearance in the large towns
in America as can be found in Paris
The silly American man who boasts Of
his experience of fast life in Paris is a
poor humbug. He is either lying about
very coarse and commonplace expert
ence or lying without any experience at
all. But, as Americans are, by birth
right, intelligent, and as intelligent men
meet with no temptation in Paris in any
more refined, or elegant, or public a
shape than in the lABge cities at home,
the rational conclusion is that while in |
Paris they generally live virtuously, and |
pursue the improvement Of their minds
in its refined public amusements and in
its treasures of art. But it will not do |
to begin on this feature in paper which |
is already so long.