New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-10-22

ART AND LITERATURE LESS REQUTTED-THE |
THEATRES STILL APPARENTLY PROSPEROUS.
lFRoa STAFF CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUNE.l
PARIS, Sept. 15.--It Is the dull season in Paris, |
but the dulness of Paris would pass anywhere else
for mad gayety. speak of the outside world, for |
there is gayety all in the world of society and
fashion; not a salon open suppose, on either bank
of the Seine. None the less does whirl go in
the streets which might well persuade tho visitor
who enters this magic circle for the first time that
the spell Is at its height, and all the charms
potent The real truth is Paris has never since
1870, been what it the same for its own
people nor the same for the stranger During the last
ten years have known it well most foreigners
know it. have been there three OF four times a
year, oftener. That the war and the Commune
should have left their marks the city is but
natural but there is a change Of different kind
1t is the collapse of the Empire which has shorn its
capital of much of that glitter in which Frenchmen
and other people took such keen delight. Neither
streets nor shops. hotels nor museums the Champs
Elysees the Bots de Boulogne, have been so
thronged as they in the days when the of
Dutch Admiral sat the thron of France, and the
daughter of Spanish adventures set the fashions
for Europe. No doubt the Paris shopkeeper aments
those days. He little of hero, little of a
Frenchman that he would rejoice to see
the Tuileries once more something between
music hall and millinersl shop, ruled
by Napoleon in whose veins ran
not drop of Napoeonc blood. Talk with him, and
see. If you can keep down your disgust at his
meanness of spirit, you Will find him. sometimes, an
amusing fellow enough He does not particularly
mean to be amusing, but his views of life are enter
tanning when they are not debasng. lie belongs
to a class which must, fear be excepted from the
classes which compose the France that all the world
admires and sympathzes with-the class which
Doudan raging against the Commune to which they
tamey submitted calls la iste Ell sOtte b0HrGeOise de
Paris. Talk with the woman who sells you papers
at the Mosques you will hear the same story from
all. Business throve under the Empire; IL has
never thriven since; the Emperor understood
what was good for trade we wish he were
back again. Go a step higher lor lower to the
man who made fortunes by gambling on the Bourse,
who speculated in State secrets and grew rich by
fraudulent contracts awarded the price of useful
rascality, the arstocracy of the Boulevard lauss-
man. mperlalists to a man. So are the cocOttes.
So are not few Of what is called the American col
onv more particularly those who have causes
of sympathy with some Of the above named gentry,
and who have done their worst to make the name OF
American contemplate among Europeans who see no
other specimens. Respectable people, who are not
wicked but only dull and who believed in the signs
of external prosperity they saw all around them,
must DC reckoned in the category of devoted
Imperialists. One and all. they lament the Empire
and they would rejoice, perhaps. to hear any one
who detestcd it, acknowledge that with 1t passed
away some Of the glory of Paris. Nor would they
thank you for pointing out the other side of the pie
ture; for asking them in what all this ended, and
why it so ended and why it is that throne built on
rottcnness and corruption is to tumble over.
They would not even think il civil if you told them
that their own satisfaction with the state of things
that G. isted for twenty years one of the most
striking proofs Of the moral decay which the En-
pire had fostered for It's own purposes.
However did not mean to moralize. The facts
supply their own moral. Paris is, at this moment,
reaping what she has sown. | called 1t the dali sea
son. but that was from social point of view IL is
fine season when commercial activity H. or ought to
be- at its height the above ALL so Tar as the
shopkecpers of the splendid quarters are concerned
when the flow of foreign coin into French pockets
used to be fullest and strongest. Bat the 10Th
May has paraly zod business, and the Foreigners 90
not come The jewellers of the Rue de Ia Pax the
fancy shops of the Boulevards the great dry goods
establishments like tho Louvre, the Bon Marche,
and a dozen others known to Americans, the Paals
Royal tho cafes and restaurants are all alike com
planning OF slack business The great Worth HIM
self seemed almost idle. My windows looked
into his which stood wide open and
opened on empty parlors. | mover saw half a
dozen carriages at a time near his door. In other
seasons, one side of the Rue de la Pax has been
choked from the Rue Neuye st. Augrstn to the
Place Vend6me. There was never a crowd-saye on
the day of Therss funeral-On the Bouevards them
selves The greatest block in all Paris used to be
ut the junction Of the Boulevard DIES laens ana the
Boulevard Montmartre, where, toward SIX IN the
afternoon, an active man might wait hye minutes
before he could make his way across the street.
Now YOU never have to walt. The ParIsians VINO
drive their carriage have left town for their estates
in the country or for the seaside and the carriage
driving foreigner has not arrived to take their place.
Al the busiest hour of the day the cab stands are
half full Look into Brions-Brion ls the great
liverv-stable keeper of Pars-hls immense yard s
crowded with carriages idle day after day. The
worry coachman who drives you tells you he gets
fyer and less generous pour JOues, and he proves 1t
nv the excess of his gratitude for the trle you be-
stow on hun.
Never were there so few English here; seldom, of
late years. so few Americans. OF the men and
,yonen who pass YOU between the Madeleine and the
Rne Richelieu three-ourths speaking French, and
not more than one-fourth either English or Ameri-
con II used TO be about half and half; nay, a
Frenchman once protested wittily against the com
nlete surrender of this magnificent quarter to the
Anglo-Saxon race urging that some enterprlslngGaul
should omen a shop or two in the neighborhood with
To-; nm marie Frapcdis,in the window. The Mosques
sunnlv most significant indication of the state of
tho foreign contingent. Tho London morning
papers are for sale in Paris on tho evening OF
nublication and brisk trade has been done In them
for wears past This year not more than half as many
ara sod IA formerly So told me CHEEKY Madame
uchel who still keeps her post at tine corner OF the