Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1878-06-22
PARIS AND MAY.
Edward K 9 in App s Journal. ]


can who does. " sit here half an hour daily,
my friend" he say. and in he course of the
year you Will see eV.ryb dy VINO is anything on
this mundane sphere diff by you. You can
Judge them, too, from your cUigne of vantage,
as you can nowhere e'se. Each one tancies
himself or herself lot in the crowd. and the
aside his severity, the pruie her smirk, the
hypOcrite his guilr, the man of 4 Tairs his
worried look and hu..teI air. When they get
III here. Tito this 60 1t current on She Paris
bOu'eyaTdS, they feel as Tree and easy as If
Trey v ere-in the middle If the ocean, con-
til ties he friend, siru Gig for Z c1mpari-
son. And you can just study them at your
: ii: EOu ear /" he u fresh type from a new
nation every CAV for your analysis. Turk to
day, Val kte 20 O'Tow, ick-orOWed and
sCru MA z ltvo, u. lonist from South Ameiican
plS inS ;he ne t day, cool and collected Eng
'ishman week from date. and siDuOus John
CHI month hence: there Is unfai ing
ore. Tley al go by here the globe seem
% reNO've a Ound this establishment. and l..
allow its patrons view of the different char
cteI is les OF lie human species wi h0ut Civ
Irg en- se.yes the trouble and fatigue o.
A, / light, when flood of electric light sweep
down aero the great Place de rOpera, setting
out III / ola re lei against dark background
the massive portal of the National Academy
OF Music, al d the Shapely walls of The Grand
H. It, he Cafe de "a Paix is thronged. Ger
TINY he crowds are cosmopolitan; all Ian
ills C. re lie adj erents of the late house of
Bcnap.I te most do cOngreg gate; but they are
hustled by people who represent The red re-
pubic IN heir own country, or by PruSsills
who were at Sedan, or by MexicanS fire. m
Que retarO; and, II pleaSan Nay f ernoOus.
when the Sparrows are half mad with JOY, in
Il long lire If trees oppo e the cdfe. where
the old women in the newspaper kiuS<s are
% ding the wares which they nave just r.
eived damp from the presses, and when AL
phonse and DieadOnne scamper furiouSly hith
er and yOn among the five hundred ladies and
gentlemen seated beneath The awning, and
waiting to he served the scene is more b IL
liant, varied. yivacious, plquant, and amusing
than al other that can be found on the same
number of square feet of space in the hem
spheres. People lounge on the Prado, i'll Mad
rid: they exercise violently in Hyde Park, in
London they strut and Ogle Inter den Liu-
den. in Be- lin: they anguish, fiirt and in
trigue, on The Ring. in Vienna but they prom
enade on the Paris bOulevardS.
The ghost OF pa e e1lIlui never haun 5 the
prOmenader in Lutetid. Long ago the Gaul
discovered that to divide city into two quar-
tiers, one devoted exclusively 10 business, the
enemy-a tick calculatedtO sow diSSensiOn in
the famiIy-and he avoided it. He builds his
towns with shops and residences in he same
ST. eetS, but he ScatterS elegance everywhere:
he carr les the beauty of the park and the for
est into the humbieSt quarters, and he never
lunches down town" Never does he waste
tedious hours slowly crawling "hOmeward,"
stopping. from WEAKNESS, in some gilded club,
where he is perhaps dram, almost before he
is aware, into the vOI tex of dissipation. Even
if he is commercial magnate, his home is on
ment step from the arid atmosphere of parch-
ntnt and copying ink into the pleasant sun
shine of his Wfe'S smiles, and can hear the
music of his childIen's voices. The result is,
hat there are few streets in Paris filed with
dull and dingy warehouses, which, ar six
o'clock in the evenirg, are hermetlcally closed
ike sepuIchreS in New Orleans. Ia every
corner Il re are light and life, innocent
g3yety, and abundant amusement. The
stranger feels lone nf the loneliness which
OveIc0mes him, which seems to stop the
leo Ii Inp ,i..',
settles heavily upon him in Vienna, where the
steady mt mberS of the population appear to
90 To bed at eight o'clock in the. evening.
When other great cities Sleep. Paris wakes:
the cool breeze which rarely fails at eventide,
frC m AITil to Dee mber, puts life in o the
limbs, and the laZit ST mortal feels inclined to
pr' menade. Gle" ms of light, echoes of music,
perfume OF flowers, laut hter of merry crowds,
all encourage and tempt him on. His pulse,
as Pau Ftval says, beats one hundred and
twenty 20 he mute: He feels emancipated,
trlarg ed. inSI ed. No pOdding mortal who
CT mes over SEAS, worn down with brainwnrk,
fieh'ed at symptoms. imaginary or real, Of
Iclplent paialy sis, crippled III wind and limb
iii bt JeTlIble unremitiing transatlantic race
fol f"ltune, ever quits Paris without grateful
CO mmenis on the rest hich 1t has given him.
lie energies frcm it as from a TUT kiSh bath.
elastic and refreshed. He never feels the de
pleS>icn usually attendant upon residence in
gre at city while he Is i'll Lutetia. Unless he
is inpatient of The very repOSe which he
needs, un ess he rebels against the health
away immensely benefited.
He who walks across Paris of fine May
morning, from the Super-central Cafe de Ia
PaiX TO the eXqui lie Park Monceau, aud out
thrI ugh The long line OF p.latial mansions,
past the Triumphal Arch, into the B lis, where
SUI and shade make checker work on the sand
difficult 10 persuade himself that he is in
great city. Provincial quiet eve. ywhere; the
prOfouEG peace of the village street-yet in
nighy metropolis. The thousands of car.
mar111m
hears only confused murmur, as OF waves
breaking ON a beach far away. In the very
eel ter of Paris, in the merry month OF May, an
invalid may find absolute tranquility, and air
ard SunshiIe as refreshing as those of Florida
i'll mid winter. Extreme heats are rare; July
and August sonnet INES bring them, but they
sink away, as if ashamed of themselves. Thev
never linser after nightfall, and only at rare
Intervals does the feS.iv mosquito dare to
Present his bill, wherein he differs from the
polite Tut sCmeW hat Overkeen Paris landlord.
Queen Paris likes the stranger, although she
generally processes to find him eccentric, and,
When-te he tranSgresses any OF her some
via ABSURD conventions she mildly lntimateS
that he Is insane. Despite her Oft-repaatei
criticisms, however, she allows him to do eX-
acIil as lie p.eaSeS; and, II she Is aStonlShed to
see the Eng iShman attrOnt her serene skies
with UIn bI Ella and macintosh, she is too civil
to tell him of it to his face. Great is her Joy,
never heless, i'll little quips aud Sly Ltu5 chs be-
hind his bac &; and sometimes she pillOries
him in rdudertue, sweetly unconscious that
her citizens are quite as ridiculous in The eyes
OF John Bull as he can possibly be in theirs.
She insists that the English are by nature
drO1, and, If her Utmost thought could be
faihOmed, it would be discovered that she re-
CARDS all other foreigners as inclined u T.
version of proper and natural ways. But she
.umnonS fund of cha ity, and, graciOuIly
fnrgiving their shortcomings, welcomes them
heartily. The beatlfc expression of hour
qeOts, who gaZeS at group of tourists admir-
ing some special beauty of he great capital
cannot be described. 1t has something posi-
lively Ielis iOuS in it. The bourgeois SEEM in
rXprtSSlG!y contented that the outside world
Is not so fair as the domain in which his lot
has ben fixed: and he lis ems with n mild in
ciedulity 10 the rhapSOdieS of any foreigner
HhO daIes TO hint that the land vi the orange
ard the palm is fairer than the country where
winter hangs heavily five months in the year
and where the only aOlOrS in the skies are deli
cate blues and ethereal grays And his final
argument, if he be led INFO discussion, is
always the same" This must be a better
place than your home; if it is not, why do you
come here?'
The sef-confdence of an elderly nation is
always somewhat amusing. A community
which is the growth of thousand years
which has been for centuries moulded in the
same mould, refuses with ScOrn to borrow any
thing from the manners of another country
1T CrltlclSeS those manners with grave, super
clllOuS air, as defects due to inferior edusa
ton, or to climate, or diet, and now and then
II cannot refrain from SatiriZing them. The
French, who are poor travelerS-and are the
more Gisincined journey because they
fancy that all the world comes Al thpm-ara