The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1878-07-06
From our regular Correspondent.

1t is very difficult to decide what not 10
write about here in Paris. 1t is not easy, at a
comparatively advanced age, to invent STAN
dards of taste and habits Of comparison, or if
you will, to divc,t oneself of prejudice and
cant In paroXysm OF Indignation allowed
myself to say that dctested the French peo
pie, that they were superficial, hypocrtical
vanity bloated race. | expressed this opinion
To ii young Miss from New York who had
been in Europe for eleven months She very
sagely told me that she thought me rather
sweeping in my Remuneration, that she had
thotthc same way, not only about the French,
but about the Italians when she first came to
Europe; and had 50 expressed herself 10 her
brother, a student at Yale, in one of her letters,
but that her brother had advised her not to
judge hastily or specifically of people whom
she had not known very well think on the
whole that the philosophic young lady and
her brotherare on the safe side But it is DIFF:
licuIt to avoid Indignation against much that
one sees here Shopkeepers more distingue in
appearance and manner than General Banks,
and dressed like millionalreS, will not hesitate
docs not like to be robbed on small scale.
We are quite accustomed to having a member
OF congress put railroad in his pocket and it
Is rather sublime to see a Bonanza King de
fraud an immense soulless corporation.
" There's millions in IT." An American I'm.
derStands tins grand way of doing things,
aud he would much rather be gulped bv an al
ligator than to be nibbcd to death bypi,mires.
But to have II grand duke, or his wife, who is
always in the shop with him, cheat YOU in
making the change tuy sewing button ON
your gailer is diScordant, unexpected You
enter the shoe salon of the elegant and refined
looking cobblcr, and make him understand
by dint of pantomimc and bad French that
YOU desire the favor of having Il button at
tachcd To your shoe. The cuhblcr under
stands your business, and he knows you are an
American. ltwould he money in your peck
ct YOU could pass for an Englishman. some |
Americans, who have been here two or three
years have acquired that dodge and il is use
full if not ornamental. You hesitate 10 take Off
your shoe in the presence of that ethereal wo.
man, the shoemaker's wife, who sits behind
the little desk; but what must bc Your SUNRISE
when he passes your big dusty shoe to the |
ethereal being To mend. She SAYS: "sst-ceI
2uj ic boVton Il pcrdu, NoHsisvrr Is it that
the button is gone TO perditon, sir: She
means TO ask if the button is lost You say.
''c'est perdV." That is you admit that it is gone
there. lppropos of buttons, there can be- no
doubt OF the beauty of French women. not. of |
course, that all of them are beautiful. far diff. .
icrent; but think the average number of
jeauti full women in France is larger than in
America, except, of course, that part in which
your paper circulates Then the French women
nave such an ineilablc grace of ,nanner. and
uch exquisite Taste in dress | think I
lnow the reason. IL is because the French
nave no home, rs the saving is; only l,tle
ooms lined all roung with mirrors which re-
iect their every motion, every attitude. The
french see themselves aS Others see them and
ears of self criticism has enabled them to
Eliminate much awkwanlncSs of action and
o supply, by artificial devices, many def.
iencicS of nature. Could some Edison but +,
invent a mirror that would reflect the soul by |
means OF which this conceitcd people might I
&c their inner life as Others see it. what NOR.
! revolution might in time be hoped for,
he CONFUSION of '93 would be peace IN com.
ariSon. and the suicides of the new era might
the homicides Of the old. But the I
'rench,are no less graceful in their department.
4 their address, than they are in Their dress
nd this | think is also to be accounted for by 5
ne fact that they are not homely people, but .
We on the street. in public parks, and cafes. +