The daily gazette., 1878-06-29

MIRRORS AND CAFES ON A
HOMELESS PEOPLE-A DIS
TINGUE CoBBLER AND HIS
ETHEREAL DAME-sEw-
ING ON A BUTTON
THE BEAUTY OF
FRENCH WOMEN
AND THE IN
GALL ANTRY
OF FRENCH
MEN, &c.
(From our regular Correspondent
1t is very difficult to decide what not
TO write about here in Paris. 1t is not
easy at comparatively advanced age, to
invert ones standards of taste and habits
of comparison for, if you will, to divert
oneself of prejudice and cant. In a
paroxysm of indignation, allowed my
self to say that l detested the French
people, that they were superficial, hypo
critical, vanity bloated race. l expressed
this opinion to a young Miss from New
York who had been in Europe for eleven
months. She very eagerly told me that
she thought me rather sweeping in my
denunciation, that she had thought the
same way, not only about the French, but
about the Italians, when she first came to
Europe; and had so expressed herself to
her brother, student at Yale, in one of
her letters, but that her brother had ad-
vised her not to judge hastily or superb
cially of people, whom she had not known
and could not know very well. | think
on the whole that the philosophic young
lady and her brother are on the safe side,
But it is difficult to avoid indignation
against much that one sees here shop
keepers more djstinque in appearance and
manner than General Banks, and dressed
like millionaires,will not hesitate to cheat
you out of a sou. Now an American does
not like to be robbed on a 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 defraud an immense soul
less corporation. ''There's millions in it,"
An American understands this grand way
of doing things, and he would much
rather be gulped by an alligator, than to
be nibbled to death by pismires. But to
have a grand duke or his wife, who is
always in the shop with him, cheat you
in making change for sewing a button on
your gaiter, is dscordant, unexpected
You enter the shoe salon of the elegant
and refined looking cobbler, and make
him understand by dint of pantomime and
bad French, that you desire the favor of
having button attached to your shoe.-
The cobbler understands your business,
and he knows you are an American. 1t
would be money in your pocket if you
could pass for an Englishman. Some
Americans, who have been here two or
three years. have acquired that dodge and
it is useful if not ornamental. You hesi-
tate to take off your shoe in the presence
of that ETHEREAL woman, the shoemaker's
wife, who sits behind the little desk, but
what must be your surprise when he passes
your big dusty shoe to that ETHEREAL being
to mend. She says: .'est ce qui le bdut0n
est perdu MonsieW?" Is it that the but
ton is gone to perdition, sir? She means
to ask if the button is lost. You say
"c'est perdu." That is you admit that it
is gone there.
ZprOp0s, of buttons. there can be no
doubt of the beauty of French women,
not, of course that all of them are beau
tiful, far different, but / think the aver
age number of beautiful women in
France is larger than in America, ex-
cept, of course, that part in which your
paper circulates. Then the French wo-
men have such an inimitable grace of
manner, and such exquisite taste in
dress. | think l know the reason. 1t is
because the French have no home, as
the saying is; only little rooms, lined all
around with mirrors, which reflect their
every motion, every attitude. The
French see themselves literally as others
see them, and years of self criticism has
enabled them to eliminate much awk-
wardnesS of action, and to supply, by ar
titicial devices, many deficiencies of ma
ture. Could some Edison but invent a
mirror that would reflect the soul, by
means of which this conceited people
might see their inner life, as others see
it, what moral revolution might in time
be hoped for The convulsion of '93
would be peace in comparison, and the
suicides OF the new era might outnum-
ber the homicides OF the Old. But the
French are no less graceful in their de-
pertinent, in their address, than they are
IN their dress and this think is also
to be accounted for by the fact that they
are not a homeiy people, but live on
the street, in public parks, and cafes.
What the school of the Portico was to
the polite and accomplished Athenian,
the Boulevard, the cafe and the garden
are to the Frenchman, and none the less
to the French women, and this social at
triton, continued for generations, has
produced an ease and gracefulness in
conversation, a happiness of manner,
and an amiability and gayety of facial
expression, in short, a superficial polish
which the superficial observer will mis-
take for real refinement. But no people
so selfish, vain, and cruel as the French
are, can be called refined by any stand
ard accepted in Christendom, outside of
France. The French abuse horses with
more inhumanity than Southern negro
treats a mule. They will take off their
hats to you with a grace that has never
been imported to our shores, and pass the
compliments of the day in language and
style that is the very poetry of polite in
tercourse but they will allow woman
to faint before they will offer her a seat
in the car, or in the slightest degree in
commode themselves. As an instance of /
their want of gallantry: 1 saw lady
drop her paraso1 from a cab while driv- |
ing on the Boulevard between the NADIA |
laine and the Champs Elysee. The |,
Boulevard was crowded and muddy from
recent rains. Not a Frenchman pretend |
-. Il l..l