New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-03-12
LIFE IN PARIS.
rr1ER FROM ARsENE HoUssAYE.

KMY-M. HOUSSAYE'S MASKED BAlL-MARRIAGE
or HENRY uOUSsAYE-NEw ART PUBLICATIONS.
lYRoM REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE rRIBuSE.l
PARIS, Feb. e.-The week has been crowded with
svents tempests at Versailles squalls at Paris the
Wimpfen trial. the reception of Alexandra Dumas
H. at the Academy. and finally the burial OF the
Carnival which was nevertheless in perfect health
in fact it may be said that Ash Wednesday was Its
resurrection day.
If talked politics would tell you how uncer-
tain are the best informed men of the future
dined with NJ Theirs on Shrove Tuesday; very
brilliant banquet where everybody was clever es-
pecially the master of the house OF course the
oompany was not exclusively OF the Left Center
The Duchess Coonna said she did not like Centers,
because men without faults are equally without
virtues. 1T is only at the extremes that you hnu
great men, Princess Troubetzkoi exclaimed
"But M. Theirs proves the contrary" Some one
.noka Of nrinces and NJ. Emile de Girardin was re-
preached for having deserted them. He did not
care to excuse himself but said the favor OF princes
was like luck at play. "You win at first, but you
end by losing everything in their company"
Madame Theirs, who never speaks without saying
something-unlike so many women who only speak
to saw notbing-said among other things, one which
deserves TO be preserved, What makes men so uh-
happy is their inordinate thirst for happiness"
w
Dumas and that of the Comte d'IIaussonville The
difference between them Is that the first is written
for eyerybody whilc the second appeals only 10 the
refined. NJ d'Hanssonville is q fastidious man WHO
cares very little what is thought OF him In theioWer
classes He thinks, with some reason, that IL Is u
merit in literature not to be adapted TO everybody
He SAYS that in letters well as the arts all that Is
good is confined TO the initiated. In substance as
we'll as in form his speech was more felicitous than
that of Dumas What succeeds at the Academy Is
not knock-down wit, but that discreet ceverness
which plays with its fan. at the same time without
prudcry In one word, 1t is French aud not Gaulsh
wit.
To one who cannot read between the lines, many
clear hits at the author OF the Dame d"1 Came"dS
wonId be incomprehensible, but to those who have
learned the rhetoric of the Institute, it was de-
hghtful treat. Alexandra Dumas will be none the
worse for it; but he had to listen, he who under
stands everything to more than one cruel truth 1t
was his own fault for why should he have delivered
his own enlogy under pretext of prasn0 the poet OF
Mary StHarti Why should he have compared That
tragic queen to that tragi-cOmic Young woman who
is called the Lady of the Cam6lias.
But what arc these tournaments OF eioquencc at
this hour when Paris is borne on whrlwlnd OF
dance and of politcsi Next Friday shall have the
honor of receiving at my house most OF the Partisan
and American bellies. shall say nothing about the
toto afterwards but shall tell you little about 1t
beforehand only wanted five bundled persons.
the cream of the cream the flower of the early peas
the ne ulns ultra Bat am literally besieged. The
Opera Bal did not succeed because there was such
a mixed society; they say that my venetian
fate will succeed because everybody viii
know or guess at the others; po1tlcal
society diplomatic and high life. The women are
going so rccklessly into costumes that Worth and
the three or four great dressmakers of Paris have
gone crazy over their needles. Several women are
TO change their costume several times. and L shall
have to set aside room for these metamorphoses.
This mysterious salon will bell star" dressing
room; in fact for this night all the women will be
actresses because all will play part or other
under their hoods. So the men may beware OF the
brigands 4 la Hood. as in Sherwood Forest There
seems TO be no fear of these dangers as the most
serious personages are willing to risk
them. For three days l have been IN
visible. as if had the Heliotrope Of
Dante TO escape the necessity of refusing invita-
tons. You cannot imagine the farces which are
played by men in pursuit Of pink card. One man
sent me bis seconds yesterday under pretense that
had gravely insulted him in shutting my door Oh
him. NY seconds answered that we would see the
sunrise if he wished it, in the Bots de Vincennes-
the women. 1t is rurored that am about to lay
AWAY nv bachelor life for which it is certainly time
but the origin of this story is that am about to marry
nv oldest Sod NJ Henry Houssaye, the historian.
II is love match after the American and not the
French style. We often dined at Count POtockr s.
who since he 20 years OF age has had the fancy
of numbering his wears by his millions He is now
seventy-twO years old, and has seventy-two
millions Do not be alarmed; nv son Is not marry
ing the millions of Count POtOcki. They would be
n great embarrassment to him with his severe taste
for the history of antiquity. He marries young
and lovely Italian princess, PigDatelh, Princes:
Cercbiara, whose father embassador of the
King of Naples in Russia In the course of dinins
and sitting together the Historian and the Princes
perceiyed that they were in love. Is not love
match the true marriage de conrenancs? The Princess
who is the eldest child, and who has no brother
brings as dover to her husband the title OF Prince
of Cerchiara But what is far better she brings him
her beauty and her heart, without mentioning
palace at Naples where they will go to rt through
their honeymoon.
But see that | am committing an indiscretion IL
giving You a piece of news which have refused tC
give to any journal in Paris
To change the subjec., there are few new books
though they are reprintiug a great many old ones
For instance, here is st. Beuye, who comes out OF
his grave with articles OF DIS earliest YOUTH tue nc"
Cause,ies da Lund. st. Beuve was rather pleasant
talker but unfortunately in his talks you perceive
the school slightly gone to seed the odor of the
lamp the mody perfume Of pedantry. His fault
was that be saw neither high nor far lie committed
the error of holding his dark lantern. which was
sometimes very brilliant one to the trivial side OF
things Therefore over all that exquisite work
where there are so many charming pages you Will
soon sec stealing the shadow of neglect 1t is not
wise to reprint fifty volumes where the great figures
of literature obscured by the infinitely little.
new journal has been started under the title