The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1878-11-09
PARKS LETTER.
The Ghost of the Grisette.
From An Occasional Correspondent.

/
PARIS, Oct. IL, 1878.
The most unphilosophic of mankind have
still so much in common with Samuel Taylor
Colcridgc as not to believe in ghosts, for the
reason that have seen so many OF them. The
number of dead people, for example, that /
meet every time / visit the Exhibition is amaz-
ing | bow and raise my nat to them and am
mortified when they do not return my sauta-
ton ] meet them face to face, accost them
checrlully and essay even TO clasp the hand of
the dear old friend of days gone by, and am
bewIldered by the icy stare, the concmptuous
shrug Of the shoulders, or the supercilious
" N00Stc"r rams r0HS tr0mpe2" with which my
advances are met There is a reason less psy-
Geological than physiological for the delusion
under which have laborcd There is limit,
| apprehcnd to the number of facial types
fashioned by the great modcllcr, Nature. When
the series is exhausted she begins to strike a
new set of faces from the old dies. Have you
never met Gen. Grant in an omnibus, or IIor-
ace Greedy on board steamboat? Have you
never had Frederick the Grcat-in modern
evening dress not in cooked hat and pgtail-
for your ncighbor IN the stalls of theatre ,
Have you Gever--on the boulevard or on Broad
way in II passing cab, or ON the platform of a
railway station, past which an express train
has whirled you-mct with yourself and looked
with admiration at the distingue parsonage?
There are many more specires in Paris he
sides the spectres who fit across my path in
the Champ de Mars, or glide past me in the
Retrospective Museum at the Trocadero.
But there Is one ghost--an appariuon for
which have been seeking sedulously, but up
to the present time unsuccessiuly, What has
become of the Partisan Grisette? Paris, we all
know, is the city of ephemcra; but the Griscte
should not he considered as an cvancsCent per
sonage for La Fontalne, in some of the dan
ticst stanzas that French poet ever penned
sang her praise more than two hungred year,
ago; and il snr Partisan adolescence
was habitually and pleasantly aware of th,
Grisette The good-lempered, saucy, hard
working, harmless little body! How fond sh'
was of flowers; how she stintcd herself in he
| own SCallt fallOnS 10 1ceu ncr muCn- pTlIcu cat
how she went without sugar to her own COT
fee in order that the due lump might be thrus
through the bars of the cage Of her pet canary
Few sorrows had she of her own, that it'll,
Griscttc, when work was not slack and sh,
could get enough to eat. EHe &c coateatdH d
peR. Her coffee and plenty of milk-oh! she
Unjust have plenty of milk-in the morning; I
| hunk of bread, "A bunch of grapes, morsel o
fromage de BIfc-the cheese Of the poor-fo
breakfast; and for dinner the pot az .feu-no
,nuch more so than so much hot water Favored
with Il little fat and some vegetables and breat
with perhaps an apple or pear. She wa'
content with little. Two cents worth of irict
POTATOES from that well-remembered stall OF
the Pont Ncuf-lhere are no stalls on the Pom
| Nruf now-or six cents worth of ready-boileC
iDach, strained and pressed SO smooth tina
. .nked in the tiUitiers window like somucE
n paint, were quite feast to hers but on
days and holidays She RECALLED herself