The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1878-07-13

you ihLo ICoIduIduL lctl III yOul
pockets and examine the state of your
treasury; if it is light, do not 60 in, for
you will find yourself on the stool of re-
pentance for the next six days. Every
thing is charged for, even the napkin with
which you wipe your lips; and after you
have settled your bill, the man for whose
service you have already paid expects a
little something for himself; if he has
taken your umbrella, he charges you for
that; if he gives your hat rub, another
trifing charge; when be pulls your chair
from behind you, he holds out his hands;
and if you fail TO interpret his pantomime,
he can generally hunt up English enough
to make understand that he wants some
argument" The restaurants are all
about the grounds many of them magnif-
Gently fitted up and most of them have
peculiar, and some of them excellent
features About the hour of noon you can
see them in all their glory. This is the
hour that the Frenchman eats his break
fast, and his English and American cousins
who want to appear like Frenchmen eat
their breakfast at the same time. Every
body who can get out of doors; cold
draughts miserable dust, drizzling rain, are
nothing if they can only exhibit themselves.
The breakfast is simply Il respectable
lunch, being taken as general thing
without tea or coffee; or anything else that
would remind one of home breakfast in
England and America. And one of the
singular features of their restaurant bust
ness is that, for many of their most i'm.
portant things, they are dependent almost
entirely upon England. Pickles, preserves,
condiments, soups, preserved meats, potted
hams and chickens, are mostly furnished
by the great firm of Crosse, Blackwell &
Co., of London, their signs meet you
everywhere and their goods are on every
counter and line every shelf. To look at
their catalogue, one would think that they
had taken contract to provision, not only
Paris, but the whole world. Their case in
the annex to the main building is new
revelation of gastronomic wonders and
curiosities 1t almost seems as if they had
exhausted the science of cuisine" Baked,
boiled, fried, frizzled and grilled, everything
that man ever did eat, or even expects to
eat, it seems to me can be found there; and
as for pickles, my mouth waters at the
thought of them. 1t seems astonishing,
but there are no others used at the twenty
four restaurants in and about the grounds.
Sunday is one of the most popular days in
the week; the number of entries some-
times reaching one hundred and thirty or
forty thousand. At breakfast and dinner,
everybody (who is anybody drinks wine,
and this is another grand humbug. The
reason given for drinking the wine is that
the water of Paris is bad. Well, it is not
particularly good, but the ordinary wine is
worse and simply execrable. | believe
there is better wine made to day in Amer
lea, with some very few exceptions, than
can be found in all France. Who that
visited the Centennial at Philadelphia two
years ago, can forget the exhibition of
American wines, equalling everything to
be found in the present Exposition. | am
sorry that there are not some of them here
to show them what can be done on the
other side of the water. recollect that for
six months the Pleasant Valley Wine Co.,
of Hammoudsport, New York, kept their
champaign on constant exhibition, not
only in bottles but free to all corners; and
when the last trial came before the most
critical committee of wine tasters in the
world, they came off with golden honors.
Good wine is dearer here than it is in
London or New York. Many of the
famous restaurants have faded entirely ont
of sight. Tortoui's still remains, but only
the shadow of it's former self. The cele-
brated "Mason Doree'' has long since
disappeared, and the great "Cafe des
Tros- Freres Provencaux," one of the
finest restaurants in Paris in the golden
days Of the Empire, is numbered among
the things that are passed. There are
plenty of celebrated restaurants still where
they know how to cook and know how to
charge, "Cafe Anglais," the "Cafe
American " and the "Cafe CARDINAL" all
on the Boulevards. The most attractive
time to see them is along towards midnight,
after the theatres and concerts are ended.
Hundreds of little tables line the sidewalk
and elegantly dressed men and women,
seemingly perfectly unconscious of the
thousands of passers by, are discussing
their ice cream and cakes, or coffee and
cognac. The interior of the saloons is
brilliantly lighted, and each of the small
tables represents a Republic, kingdom or
an Empire. Imperialists mourn for the
departed glores of the EMPIRE and Radi-
calls predict the future greatness of the
Republic. Monarchists weigh the chances
of the old Bourbon stock coming in for
their legitimate rights, and Communists
curse the whole batch and swear we never
shall see good times again till the rich are
pulled down to the level of the poor, or
society recognized and property equitably
divided. At times it seems as if everybody
was going in for free fight, but nobody
fights. A quiet military looking gentle
man walks leisurely along the streets, ap-
parently looking for nobody in particular,
but everybody in general, and his presence
acts like oil upon the troubled waters; he
speaks to nobody; he carries no policeman's
rattle or club, but he represents a power
before which even kings have trembled, the
organized force which in his person repre-
sents the majesty of law.
Fouche was gathered to his fathers many
years ago, but the terrible system of "es-
pionage" of which he was the father
survives Linn all over France. There ap-
pears to be no such thing anywhere as
personal or business confidence or trust;
every department, public or private, is
surrounded by guards and checks as though
all the people were thieves.
If you GO to the theatre one man sells
YOU ticket another man punches it, n