New-York tribune., 1875-12-25
LETTER FROM ARsEyE HoUssAYE.

LETTER FROM ARSENE HOUSSAYE.
ACQUIRES or The wINIER-GEN. READ - SOME
THOUGHTS or THE PARIS spARTANs-vENCs or
MILO n AEMs-A PCS BY ACDER-MCHELETs
PosrHCMoUs BOoK-NAPOLEoN's OPINION OF
HIMSELF.
TFRou 4 REGULAR CORREsPONDEyT OF THE TRIBUNE1
PARIS, Nov 25.-The French nation is recon-
structn its fortunes thanks TO the business houses ah
the crops but French society yet shows no renais-
sance IN vain that several gallons are opened To the
bean monde; tho beau monde docs not go Princess
Mahldo and Princess Troubetzkoi wear in vain their
Eger.a smiles; their salons are not half what
thev were in the days OF the Empire, when
Princess Mathlde herself held plenary court and
Princess Mettench brought together with such grace al
the arstocracies Tie Winter opens badly unless Amer
lea sencs OF her lovely families Russia mas
rather abandoned us but gayeties begin again She
will return Prince Constantine GortschaKof has Just set
ont for Venice where he VIII find his wife and daughters
and take them tO Rome. Princess Marie d'OlgorouA.
nee Basiews started yesterday for Venice she Is 10
occupy this Winter the magnificent palace which she
bought Of the of Countess Apponyt After passing
fifteen Winters st Rome, Countess Huogonow returns
TO Ct Petersburg Princess MencnikoG has also gore
hack 10 Russia Princess Baratyvsh has gone % Italy
The Duke and Duchess ot Fenan-Nunez have gone back
TO snain where there promise of gaycty this Winter
What remains 20 us The society Of the spartans, OF
whom / have already spoken. The Spartans, after
vacation. came together again lhe DINER dhy ut
their fprtnishty dinner. and parto0k OF their black
broth fratcrnally. We had 20 lament the absence Of
Gen Read and 0f Lord LyttOn who last year replaced
tile Duke OF Persguy and the Duke OF AcquaNva Lord
Iytton X IN Lisbon, where ne Is dehshung the ForIu
rucse collectors with his beautiful pictures and rare
euloslties He been turn treated to surprise In
seeing al the Russian Minister'S the wonderful teasr"
roto of q Holy Family, by Leonardo da Flncl, an ell
craving ~ which is to be puhishcd IN the ArlSte
Gcn Read Als fJrsalcn the spart2ns for Athens. E'
has written us an eloquent letter the ancient and the
modern cities Both alike familiar to the American
drplolnat Hs is a. much cotsmporary Of Pericles
aud Acibades n of the Greeks to-day he Is OF
those who consider the past the true hsht Of the
uue The surviving Sparans 40 dinner the other day
we're Panl do st Victor Edmond lie Goucourt, Prince
Gaiitzn Henry Hossaye dc BOisgODey, CASTOR JoIvet
tho MARQUIS de Rouge Robert Mitchell the biblophic
jacob Zem Cabanel. Carolus Duran Cheyalier Nisra,
and lac VINO these lines. They did me the honor 10
make mc president; but nave no night to te place Tor
/ neither abstemious nor gourinand simply iGio"
NV caprice at the table, sometimes hungry and some
times rebslious Besides, We spartans than
we are bantes. We eat pOHLars diI THGes' and |S
drink champagne though not with the Rabelasian appe
rte Of Charles MOnseet We more for the
living literature OF the conversation about the
table than for the dead literature OF The mehu-
What there is charming this fOrtnighy festival
which liz u from O'Clock dBtl midnight, if that the talk
Il always unprecedented whether IL be social or po-
Itical or literary Here Of the thoughts which
picked up at the last dinner;
savans are like libraries disorder where you never
nnd what you arc looking Tor.
Peope think poet born make verses-as II he mad
rhying dictionary In his heart How many poets loss
the poetry Of the heart for that which 10 printed In books