Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1876-06-08
care a darn how many Second Advents
move in ON either side.' ..-
And he stalked grimly on his way.
LIFE IN PARIS.

w.
LIFE IN PARIS. q
The incest Place in the World to Go to the
Devil In.
Charles Dudley Warner writes from
London to the Hartford COurant: No
doubt the world will have to begin
over again. 1t cannot be that this
Paris civilization is the last work in
civilization. And yet it would be diff
ficult to say how you could improve it
in its kind. Nowhere else, l venture
to say, is life made so easy, so guarded
from shocks and angularities the cor
ners are all rounded off, and yOu glide
on in 4 smooth current. 1t may bear
you to the devil; that is your look
out nobody will question you-every
body, in fact, will kindly help you.
Yet, after all, going to the devil here,
rs elsewhere, is Il matter of your own
choice.
Perhaps this is one reason why
foreigners like to come here. They
can choose their way without any im-
pertinent interference, without any
chidings in fact from their own con.
sciences, for they ascertain that the
monitor which they have regarded rs
conscience is only the deterring opin.
ion or standard of living, which they
have left ut home. And if sin consists
in the violation of ones conscience,
they get OH more pleasantly here than
elsewhere.
1t would he a crude injustice to sup.
pose that the Paris civilization has
made life agreeable by eliminating
conscience but to i superficial Obser.
walton it seems that things are done
here and lives are lived that would be
condemned elsewhere, without the
least feeling of guilt or, least of I'LL,
| remOrse. You may account for this
by saying that vice here, even in its
cOarser forms, is not so vulgar and OF.
fensive, as it is, say, in London; that
/ the refinement of the life here extends
even to that which is essentially I'm.
refined but it remains true, and it is
Il phenomenon Of very curious sort,
abundantly testified by competent OBJ
| servers OF Paris life, that the great sin
of society, the descent of woman from
her vestal throne, is not the irrepara-
BILE ruin here that it is in any English
speaking race, and is not attended
with the same sense OF degradation or
loss of self-respect.
You logically say that this very fact
condemns society itself. But it won't
answer to jump to that conclusion
without asking if the English capital
and society are on the whole any
sounder than the French. l confess
that. l have no means of judging
either, except by what hear, for i
travellers external observations are
very delusive. Nowhere, I suppose,
are the ties of home life, the affection
ate attachments Of the family, strong
er than in France, and this sweet vir-
tue is at the root of i'll social sound
ness. The casual sojOurner will neither
hastily attack nor defend the develop
ment of life he sees here; it is enough
to try little to understand it.
- You remember the expressive shop
signs here, Au Bon Diable. There are
no bad devils in Paris: the devil is
always a good fellow, almost II gentle.
man, and the primary assumption that
he is 50 may tend to put him, for
aught know, upon good behavior.
At least you see that the moralities
are judged from point of view Oppo-
site to ours. Life is begun on differ
ent plane, and it is fair before pro.
nouncing judgment on the plane, to
look at the results.
And what I have chiefly in mind now
are what may be called the material
and physical results. If the society
here is as corrupt rs we are told it is,
and am neither saying yes or no to
this impression, it is remarkable that
there is here so vigorous, SO virile i
development of some of the best fruits
of what we call civilization. We read
of the decadence of ancient societies
which wealth and luxury had corrupt
ed, of their extinction and effeminacy.
There are certainly no external signs
of such a result here. No one can
doubt the vigOr of the race. Ofcourse
Paris-and it, like all other great cit
les, would probably not long sustain
itself if it were not constantly REIN
forced by fresh country blOod-otfers
examples of enfeebled youth and pre-
mature old age, but the general impress
sion one receives is of men strong and
full of vitality and of women in high.
er and sounder health than the wo.
men of America, women capable of
taking care of themselves in the world
and producing the armies that France
still thinks she needs to maintain her
position in Europe.
do not know what show France
will make in our Centennial exhibit
ton, whether her industries and her
artificers will astonish the world as
they did at the world fair in London in
1851, but believe that the interna-
tiOnal fair which is decreed for Paris
in 1878 will exhibit the French people
still in advance of all competitors in
the finer departments of industry. It
is hopeful sign for them that they
are willing to learn, and are breaking
out of that conciet Of absolute supe.
riority (which appears just now to he
breaking out in the Germans) that OBJ
tanned for them once the title of the
Chinese of Europe. endeavOred the
other day to attend meeting (but the
crowd was too great) held by Victor
Hugo and Louis Blanc to raise money
to pay the expenses of delegation of
wOrkmen to attend and report upon
our Centennial exhibition. NJ. Hugo
made one of his most characteristic
addresses-you might think Il little too
characteristic, since in speaking of
this delegation from the old world to
the new, he said to the workmen, ''you
go from the land where was born
Jesus Christ to the land where was
born John Brown" But the demon.
stratiOn both as it regarded the speak
ers and the audience was 4 very re-
markable one; noticeable for two
things: First, in contrast to Germany,
the liveliness of interest in our exhi-
bition, and second, the avowed and tu-
multuous sympathy with the American
republic. An extraordinary thing, it
seems to me, when we consider the
nearly universal sympathy of our PEG.
pie with the German side of the late
war.
It is not only in the industries that I
believe France will lead in the exhi.
bitiOn of 1878, but incontrovertibly in
the fine arts. 1t is in these ~ clearly