Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1878-10-01

taCtered blouse is arraigned before tn
Cour d'Assizes or the Police Correc
Nonneile, the Public Prosecutor rarel,
omlts 10 mention in the act of accusa
lion tnat the prisoner was an habitua
naunter OF estdn,inets and br0sseries.-
why, 1t was the Public Prosecutor
Twin brother, or at least his cousin-ger-
man, that L saw at eleven in the fore
noon drinking hot rum and water, an(
blocking his adversary at dominies will
d0uble five at the Cafe des Mile Con
stellatlons. The only solution that [ car
possibly find for the problem is. tba
the cafe frequenters are all proa1ietnire
damnaeubtes; that their grandfathers
purchased large slices of the Nationa
domains at peppercorn prices in the veal
I792, or thereabout, and that thew and
all their families have been living pros
perously and hilariouslys on the divi-
dends ever since. They, if there be in.
deed such class of Parisians deriving
their incomes from such source. do moi
seem to be much given to patronizine
the poor old Palais Royal 1t is toe
slow for them. The passing show is
not exciting enough to interest the
ttdneur class. In the day time, sitting
on your rush. .bottomed chair outside the
Rotonde, you see few people beyond a
succession of youthful nurserymaids and
elderly bonnes of the most fearful ugli-
ness: We really do not know whether
the juniors or the seniors could most
easily carry off the prize for ill-favored.
ness-and troops of sickly, monkey
faced children. The French are a gal
liant, chivalrous, ingenious, and witty
people, but they are certainly not d
go0d-l0ok1ng race, and, as rule, the
dolls, though faeially idiotic, are much
prettier than the little girls who nurse
Inem. Children, moreover, of the up
per classes have ceased to resort to the
Palals Royal to hold skipping competi-
tltlons, or to form daylight quadrilles.
The perambulators are few and shabby.
Scarcely any soldiers are to be seen. A
"Mondaine" rarely shows iher painted
oountenance and elaborate toilette in
the garden.
smoking cigarettes of bad tobacco. or
sucking pipes of blackened briar root.
slatternly work-girls in dresses of cheap
printed calico from Roubaix or St. En-
ienne and "coiffees en- cheveuxn (the
pretty and becoming white caps of the
Partisan grisette has, like the qrisette
herself, almost entirely disappeared) are
"trapezing" up and down iD couples,
staring in all the shops, and apparently
In no hurry to go back to their work,
while now and again, in corner be-
hind some angle of stonework, there
broods. huddled up on a chair, an old,
Old man, with parchment face furrowed
into a thousand wrinkles, lacklrstre
eyes, weather-beaten hat, with the
nap all gone and the brim dropping, a
patched prown surtout buttoned up to
his throat, and with the place of but
ton supplied here and there by a pin,
deplorable trousers, indescribbale shoes.
and one glove-gentility's shadowy
ghost. Who is he? Balzac must have
known him forty years ago. Charles
Dickens must have known him more
recently. George Cruikshank knew
him last and best of all. Was he pre-
feet under the Restoration, banker in
the days of the Orleans dynasty, po-
lice spy under the second Empire, a com
munist in 1872, a croupier at one of the
gaming houses? To me he looks like
an incarnation of the poor old Palais
Royal, itself, run to seed. Old Palace,
thou art like
Some banquet-hall deserted,
Who lights are fled, "a.
Who garlands dead"
PARIS, 1878. C. A. R.