New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-05-03
LIFE IN PARIS.
LETTER ERnM ARsENE HOUssAYE.

-AMEDEE ACHARD-A PIoUs DUELIsT.
[PRoM A REGULAR CORRESPONDENT TIE TRIBUNE
PARIS, March 22.-I have just returned from the
races at Longchamps, where more than one of your
countrywomen appeared to-day leaders of the
fashion Formerly America used to come to Paris To
take lessons of grace and dash but to-day she comes
to dictate her modsh laws. The time will come
when the typical Parisennes will be American
women,
We have almost always here a Holy Week trameh
in tempests of rain or hail snow. Ii seems as II
heaven wished to give the earth white resurrection
robe after the pcnance OF Lent ms year, NOV"
ever, we have had a radiant sunshine, WHICH
shows good intelligence between heaven and earth,
due perhaps to the late change in the Cabinet. Inc
chestnut trees are about to bloom. The flowers OF
Easter opened under the most beautiful sun OF Silver
Nature. though shivery STILL ventures TO loosen her
zone. Like the fair maid of Ovid, the leaves and
flowers blossom in her hands Her blonde locks scat
ter the perfume of the hawthorne and the primrose
She il crowned with two red branches of the Judea
tree and two of the white lilac She treads the green
CARPET of the springing wheat she wears III her
bosom a spray of peach blossoms she breathes In
passing on the snowy boughs of the apple trees anu
SMILES TO see il is not the frost that them with
silver
Isaw all nations in the Champs Elys6es and the
Bots de Boulogne The pilgrimage to Longchamps
still exists with plenty of pilgrims though there Is
no Abbey. II was the opening spectacle Oh the
Spring. The women smiled like roses, though some
were hidden in their coupes like vioiets ion must
not think we are less Catholic now than in the days
of the Abbey for IL was. after ALL more than
succursa of the opera There is letter extant OF d.
Vincent de Paul, in which he reprOaches the nuns
there with wearing perfumed Spanish gloves and
Aame-coored ribbons But that IL only beginning
For if we can believe him, the doors Of the cells
were left open at night. So when Mademolseile lie
Maure of the Opera took the vail at Longchamps she
made no change in her habits. Her admirers OF the
green-room came to the convent and enjoyed
her singing all the same IN the Ienebrs.
The chronicles Of the eighteenth century are full
of Longchamps. Who has forgotten the tradition
of the four horses harnessed with gold and silk
which drew the coach of La Guimard, followed by
that of La Duthe silver couch of Venusf In 1883
an Englishman was seen at Longchamps with
coach whose wheels Clittered with precious stones.
His horses were shod with silver set with rubles and
emcrads.
The Arstophanesque comedy was to-day replaced
by a New-Years pantOmime Carriage-oads OF
maskers passed by scattering their ess, their con-
ceti their grains Of attic salt lumpsOf stupidity
JeannOt saluted with his red cap or looked with
lantern for rosere. Cadet Roussel, dressed IN gray
paper philosophical good-naturedly. The servant
of MOere asked for a certificate of slack-law. re-
counting all sorts of scandalOus stories of the fash
ionable world. sometimes with the figure of Dorine
and again with the affected airs Of Prccie4se
Do you know why LOngchamps exists no longerS
Il is because it exists continually. The Iiosannah
has changed 10 Hurrah, and horses are the saints
OF the new calendar. Formerly, people came from
every point Of France 10 assist az the ceremonies OF
Longchamps Now. nobody takes the trouble TO 60
except those who out for airing. The fashion
journals will tell you what there is under the
sun of Longchamps. That is not my affair. l have
already spoken to you of the great dress question
Unfortunately it seems that tire fashions re-
anire still more material than ever. When the
Creator made woman, He placed in her outrageous
dressn groOm fg leaves and vine leaves against the
day when c0quetry should lead her to finery.
Dresses in those days rnined no husbands but the
women were not less fair when they bathed their
bare feet in the dew with only their hair for nm
brellas. But there came time when 1t was decided
that the business of woman waste spin wool Soon
she had slaves to turn her spinning-whee, and
already the poets began their TRADES. But it was
far worse when the women passed from wool To silk,
and then began tO embroIder figures and flowers in
gold. The prices of the dresses of ancient queens
and cOurtesans already made pretty contrast with
that of the fig leaf. But at least, in antiquity and
the middle ages, .ne dress lasted a long time. The
historians tell us that gala robes reappeared on
every great occasion: the dresses of great grand
mothers were proudly worm To-day queens and
courtesans wear their gowns but once. They would
think themselves dishonored if they did not change
their clothes every day even nature changes its
yesture.
9 | Of us talk of something more seTiOus
The funeral professions succeed each other rapidly.
The great generation Is passing away. Edgar Quinct
followed close upon Ledru-Rollin. He died sud
denly ~ if he falling asleep, after more than
half century of labor. You mi ght say of him that
ne was a working man Of thought who never rested
for Sunday. For men of letters and for statesmen
there is no repose but in the grave. No has set
more ideas in motion in the domain Of philosophy
than this restless thinker who died without finding
his philosopher stone He wished TO be everything,
but he discovered that man WAS nothing no more
than a reed bending under the hand of destiny but
at least like the thinking reed of Pascal, always
rising towards God. Edgar Quinet was profoundly
religious In his fine book on the Revolution he
that what destroyed the of that time was their
denial of religion. There can be no society without
worship, any more than there can be harvests with
out sum- The idea of God il the sun of the soul.
Edgar Quinet had shared in all the emotions OF
France since Napoleon L to our day. He assisted IN
the ardor of youth the fall of the first Empire, at
the restoration of the Bourbons, at the revival of
Greece He was in the Romantic revolt; he fought
against the Government of July. He belonged TO
the Constituent Assembly of 1S4S. The coup detat
gave him the long leisure of exile He only returned
TO France at the last revolution which made him a
representative of the people but a representative
rather too platonc. Latterly he sat with folded
arms recognizing that the march of humanity is
slow. When l speak of folded arms refer to the
politician for the man of letters died pen in hand
under the eyes of his wife. the daughter of Media