Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-07-28
IMMORAL PARIS.
The Philosophy of Vice In the
French Capital.


education for their sons, much less their
daughters. Boys, of course, must take
their chances everywhere, and the most
careful parental training cannot protect
sons from contamination; and woe to
the boy, even at home, who, without
other reasons, has not at least the slim
ulus Of pride to keep him from doing
mean or dirty thing For our daughter
at home, where obscene books, pictures,
plays and newspapers are prohibited
things, and where woman is deemed
pure unless her conduct or conversation
stamps her otherwise, there is compara-
tive safety. But not 50 here. That
which gives EesJ so tne leading nansr o. 81
Paris .he .i,s Figaro, is that it daily fills
columns with the Guours Of Parisian
life, such as never appeared in an Amer
ican paper without an indictment fol-
lowing for obscenity. Here the press
teens with
WORKS INTERDICTED WITH US;
those of Balzac, Dumas, Paul de Koch
and scores of like character, ancient ard
modern. The statuary of the public
gardens, the painting of the galleries,
the prints of the shop windows, all instill
lessons which we wish our daughters to
know nothing Of, aud the stage scarcely
teaches any other lesson than the Joys
and sorrows of Illicit love, the success of
the adulterer, the hoodwinked husband,
or the badly fooled wife or relations. The
truth is plays with any other plot than
1ne ofan amorous character fail to draw;
nor would single theater iu Paris pre-
sent anything | shodld wish my unmar-
ried daughter to see, were not the Oden
and Francois sustained by subyention
OF the government, and thus enabled to
keep the legitimate drama on the boards.
But even vice is becoming classical.
Dumas fills has been elected a member
of the Academy, and his Demi- Monde is
bulletined at the Francois. While an
American gentleman deems all women
pure, a Frenchman thinks any woman he
meets may be otherwise.
NO HARM IN TESTING HER ANYHOW.
If he is mistaken, he expects nothing
more than the rebuff of silence or aver
sion. i do not mean to say there are no
pure French women, or that the average
Frenchman does not believe there are
such; but, like the fisherman, he throws
his hook into any attractive pool baited
in d thousand insidious ways, and han
died with exquisite skill, If he succeeds,
well and good; if not, he whistles on his
way with devil-I-care freedom, and tries
his luck further on, A young lady here
never goes out unattended. The parents
know the use she makes Of every hour;
who are her female companions; what
books she reads, and the character Of
the amusements sbe Sees Everywhere
and every hour she is shielded and
guarded. The American girl comes here
with her parents with American ideas.
She goes as she has gone at home, free;
all nature art, literature and amuse-
ments are open to her when she has ac-
quired the language, which the parent
acquires with far more difficulty, if at
all. | have known an American girl
reading
THE MOST LAsCIyI0Us TALES OF BALZAo,
while the mother, good, prim woman,
simply thought she was becoming an ac-
complshed French scholar. An incl
dent of yesterday gives an insight into
the rearing of French children. Often.
bach is the leading composer of the
lighter or buffo operas, and himself op-
crates two or three theaters in Paris,
where many American parents who never
enter theater at home never fail to 90
with their families. 0ffenbachs daugh.
ter was married last week, and last
night, for the first time, she saw one of
her fathers plays. Can | say more2 Is
there need of moralizing2 A girl may
come through a season Of Partisan life
without sin, but she has learned much
she had better never known, at least till
after marriage, Nor is it untrue, as |
personally know, that men who in ear.
lier years learned to know Paris feared
ITS DEADLY MORAL MIAsMA
on their very wives What is the moral
law of Paris2 All they deem evils are
prohibited of course. But why, theE,
are not the vilest and most degrading
that human flesh is heir to put DOWN.
Surely the police, with its argus eyes,
know as much as the sojourner of day
or month, Two reasons are given. One
is that the parties must be taken in the
criminal action; they may not be pun
ished like the vagabond and loafer, on
general principles. And the same sort
Of forbearance is extended to them as to
the gambler with you. A second reason
is, and think the sin in the eye of the
government is not in the criminal ac-
ton, but in its becoming public, or, as
they put it here, making scandal" A
courtesan may ply her trade on the pub
lie street within certain bounds and
within certain hours; if she is drunk,
unfortunate, or fails the proper medical
examination, she is arrested and impris. |
oned. Not one in FIVE who live life OF
shame are, as many suppose, registered |
and subjected to medical examination.
Comparatively few who throng the lob
bies of the theaters, pose themselves in
its boxes, or frequent the numerous balls
and concerts, are thus enrolled. But
aside from all these there are the cafes,
and particularly such as are all-night
houses, where the most
FEARFUL AND BEAsTLY ORGIES
nightly take place, and these are not |
hidden, but in the most crowded streets |
Of the city, The American restaurants,
Nelder and Nells, are the prominent |
samples Of these, but no less to be con.