Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1878-09-20
PARIS LETTER.
From an Occasional Correspondent.

From an Occasional Correspondent.
haYe seen somewhere an article in an
American paper arguing that the observ-
ance Of the Sabbath, according to the
American. idea, was increasing in Paris.
and attributing the supposed increase to
the influence of Protestant missionaries.
This is an impression of superficial OBJ
servers who jump at the conclusion be-
cause less manual labor is done on Sunday
and many more shops and warehouses are
closed than was formerly the case. But
these appearance. have nothing, save in the
rareSt and most isolated cases, to do with
the religious sentiment of the people. I
am told that Protestant missionary work
is going on in sundry districts of Paris,
but the results Of these well meant at
tempts can only be as drop in the vast
ocean of the Partisan Sunday. The coif-
feur has in his shaving saloon neat little
placard with the information that his es-
tablshment viii be closed on Sundays and
fete days at one o'clock p. m. But his po-
lite assistant, when went to get shaved
this morning, was busy over his own am
brOsial locks with pair of curling tongs,
and his young and buxom consort had her
hair in papers, these were not, however,
preparations for church, or chapel, or Sun
day school. In France they are more sug-
gestive of the maddening winecup. or cof-
fee cup and the maddening dance later in
the afternoon. There are plenty of jew
elers and linen drapers and tailor shops
shops which it appears to me are quite
needlessly kept open-which do not close
their doors on Sunday here, but on the
other hand, especially on the Rue de Ia
Paix. the Rue Scribe, and the Avenue de
POpera, there are large numbers Of oom-
mereial establishments which are as her
metically sealed as the banks and public
offices. But he would be blockhead who
would assume, and hypocrite who should
maintain that an increase Of religious fer
Vor, as we understand it, is at the bottom
OF this partial abstinence from Sunday la
Dor. The smaller money changers shops
are all wide open, so are the toy shops and
the confectioners and pastry cooks, because
foreigners want to change money, and
French people are in the habit of buying
plaYthings and sugar plums, and twenty
five cent telephones for their children on
Sunday, hut in the majority of instances II is
not.on that day that the public require to
purchase Aubgsson carpets, carved oak
furniture, embossed paper hangings, med
apalam calicoes or the new Cestus of Aglae
corsets. For lack of custom many of the
magazines shut up, and those that continue
open do so more from habit than from tho
expectation Of selling anything. Does any
one suppose that the male and female en-
PloYees OF the closed establishments utilize
their holiday by going to church or sitting
at home reading good hooks? They will
rather pour on to the BouleYards, to the
gardens, and to the great exposition-to
fill the cabs, cafes, oircuses, and concert |
gardens, to chatter and laugh and gesticu-
late, to eat and drink, and be merry, to
dance and go to the play at night.
was not consulted when PARIS was built
or when the Frenohmsn, that combination
Of a monkey and a tiger, was formed and
fashioned. / describe only what see, and
this is Sunday in Paris as have found it.
No one need expect to see such Sunday
in New York or Philadelphia, or
my American town. But the difference,