The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1878-10-19
PARKS LETTER.
Travels In the Rue Drouot.
From An Occasional Correspondent


the Rue Lie Pelletcr, continues, IN despite OF
the IIaussmanisatlon Of the Second Empire
and the Duvaisation of the Third Republic,
10 maintain its character as an essentially
French and more SO Partisan street Strange
tricks have been played with most Of the thor
oughiares in its neighborhood; still the Rue
Drouot has hitherto trumphanty defied all
the attempts of an iconoclastic municipality
TO cut it to pieces.
After breaktasi-I mean the dejeanera Ia
toulrhette, not the coffee, eggs, bacon and toast
hour-say about two in the afternoon, is the
time to travel in the Rue Drouot. 1t is not Il
very quiet place, being normally, perhaps as
busting AS commercial street in an average
American city, which, from an artistic point
of view, it in no way resembles; still it is free
from the inccsssnt and deaiening roar of the
main boulcvards One likes to hear the "city's
busy hum and towns as tranquil, say, as
Cordova or Toledo in Spain, or Client or Bru'
res in Belgium, are apt after time, to induce
fit of the meagrims. When people are real
ly alive it Is incumbent upon them now and
again to exhibit signs of their vltallty-but
the boulevards which stretch from the Made
line to the Bastillc are more than alive; they
seem to be hytercal, delirious, or in perma-
nent crisis OF some great agony, which con-
strains them to make terrific disturbance.
The exceeding erceness of those who were
wont to come out of the toombs of old has been
accounted for by the supposition that when
they emerged from their caverns in the morn.
ing they were likewise exceedingly hungry,
aid uncertain as to where they were to get
any breakfast, may have had much to do with
their habit of shrickng and running amuck.
From sunrise to midnight you hear on the
boulevards the wellnigh lncessant cracking OF
whips sound extremely distressing to ner
vous ears, bringing your mind back as it does
to the time of negro slavery and inducing the
suspicion that the ferociOus Legree, indetin-
itely multiplied, is operating upon Uncle Tom
at every corner Of the street Fortunately the
whips are only those Of the omnibus and cab
drivers. wish that they would not agitate
their thongs quite SO frequently or so violent
ly do not think that the French are de-
signedly cruel to their holses save in so fara
they drive the poor, halfstarved screws in AM
Theoretically laundering and careless man.
ner, but they seek to stimulate the sorry jadcs
by startling reverberation, which they produce
by throwing out the lashes of their whips lat
orally, somewhat as Mexican "greaser"
throws out his lasso. Now, when a whip is
thus cracked by Jehu as skillful as the Pos
tilion de Lonjumean the horse Is duly quick
ened into action, and no harm is done to any
body; but when horde Of untutored and IN
disciplined characters come numbering, cat
terlng, plunging, Or crawling six abreast on
the Boulevard Poissonmiere tlourshing their
whips and tlinging out the lashes in all drec-
tions, and you happen to be riding in IA cabin
the midst of the ruck, the chances are about
equal rs to your own driver hitting some pass
ing passenger over the bridge Of the nose, or
Of a playful cabby, either to the right or the
left of you, cutting out your eye as he tloun-
ders past
To such pcrils you are scarcely exposed in
the sober Rue Drouot the traffic is never long
and, indeed, at some periods SO
trifling is the press Of locomotIon that the pc
destrian can enjoy one of the most dearly
priced privileges ola Frenchman, that of walk
ing on hot afternoon in the centre of the
roadway and with his hat off. The practice
dates from the time when sidewalks were I'M
known in tne small streets of Paris, and peace
able people walked mt large, just keeping clear
of the great black gutter, to avoid disputes
about the wall. There may be those who re-
greet the ruisseau. There were, forty years
ago, barelegged industrials who earned a
livelihood by carrying ladies safely across the
swollen kennel after IA shower Of rain. For u
lady the fee was ten confines, for child or
pet poodle five; but the open kennel did not
disappear without many conservative signs.
The existing drainage Of the City of Paris
is, | am given to understand, "A colossal monu
ment of sanitary engineering, and in scien-
tlic sense perfect am sure that NM. Vic
tor Hugo and Maxine Du Champ have writ
ten eloquently and extensively enough about
the sewers; still | cannot help tancying that
the practice of deodorisation continues to leave
to be desired. The smell of the
back streets of Paris in warm weather is even
in the most fashionable districts, the reverse of
agreeable. No charge, however, Of this ma.
ture need be adduced against the Rue Drouot,
which is, comparatively speaking, a very an
cient thoroughfare, and in which, VIXEN you'll
are travelling in it. you find so many interest
ing sights to engage your attention that yon
are indifferent to the odors of the place. |
have been told that the kitai -gorod at Mos
COW is not Il very sweetsmelling locality; that
parts of Constantinople are redolent of a de-
,idedly villanous perfume; that the Gale de
os Serras at Seville, has a rather loud |
aroma: and that the back streets of Venice
would be all the better for little diluted car
Jolc acid. have never noticed these triiteS.