The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-11-02

that directly they separate their relative
positions will once more become identical
not of course in the passing accident of
social rank, but in the universal bond of
common humanity.
Driving along the great boulevards,
marking the magnifcence of the street
architecture and the public monuments,
we tire of the massive display and ask
our cocher to show US the private resi-
dences.
He Points to the Upper Stories of the
Shops.
1t is said the French language has 40
word for home. Paris certainly has no
place for it. The greater part of the
two million inhabitants live in apart
ments, herded together with nothing OF
the privacy of domesticity. We believe
this to be the cause of so much domestic
infdelity-the i, philosophy of the whole
laasseS fare" of Paris-for it would be
libel to accuse all France of the vices of
Paris. In Paris the apartment system is
eminently suitable to the Partisan wo-
mans ideas of the marital estate. She
prefers to live abroad. She scouts at the
idea Of marriage as condition in which
two people are to be tied up by them
selves. She regards it as an association
for the purpose of larger liberty for both
parties. There are examples, she says
with shrug, of married people who live
at home qate V1Ue7at en- Soavages-but she
does not desire the honor Of so small
company. 1t is easy to see what peril
such a philosophy is to home peace, and
what opportunities for discomfort and
laxity are presented in the lives of the
crowds of Parisians who never stop at
home, and whose lives are almost exclu-
sively passed with others.
The apartment system not only under
mines domestic felicity, but it is ruinous
to servants. In the organization of apart
ments the servants rooms are always
placed together on the top floor of the
Paris houses, facilitating all sorts of Illicit
practices. The thirty serva- is, male and
female, of the different tenants of large
house, are all packed on the sixth story
IN thirty numbered rooms. Each has a
key and can receive or pay visits at pleas
ure. The liberty Is absolute after bed
time. No sight in Paris astonishes
stranger more than to he taken up to one
OF those huge attics and to be led along
the wandering corridors, past endless
yellow doors all exactly alike. 1t is
saddenlng spectacle, the place looks like
prison, but it is the very opposite
grooms and femmes de chambre, footmen
and kitchen maids, cooks and coachmen,
are turned loose there every night. 1t is
mournful and degrading, but habit seems
to make Parisians blind to it. at is
really very wrong, but it is the system,
and what can we do to change it?' That
is the only answer
Alighting from our carriage, we enter
news shop to purchase Partisan paper
The Newspapers of Paris are Poor
Affairs
taken up apparently with novelettes of
the $ blood and thunder" type, notices of
theatres, funny columns, but without
news. You look in vain for tidings of
the doings of the great world. The Amer
lean plan of great staff of correspon-
dents is unknown. Many of the Paris
papers bear the date of tomorrow but
they convey the intelligence of last week.
From the books in the shop we would re-
gard major part of the Literature of the
day OF the dime novel species. Indeed
young France apparently puts implicit
faith In the melo-dramatic fables of Mon
sieur Claude and the realistic revelations
of M. Emile Zola A most revolving state
OF manners is depicted in the novels of
Mana and those of similar character.
Yet these are the favorites. The Edition
de Luxe of Mana, illustrated by the first
draughtsmen of the day, is selling by
thousands, and in almost every fruit shop
may be seen Photographic reproductions
OF the disgusting picture lie Lignede
Mana. Printsellers in Paris have never
been very straight laced. French and
American ideas Of propriety in art and
in the drama run in parallel which we
trust will never converge, much less meet.
However, We venture unhesitatingly to
declare that at no time in her history
has Paris presented in her shop windows
such an astounding exhibition of down
right lndecency, pictorial and plastic, but
especially Photographic, as she does Sep
tember, 1881. Photographic nastiness
abounds in the boulevards frequented bv
English and Americans. Under the
arcades Of the Rue de Riyoli they swarm.
and are almost as numerous in the Boule
ward des Capucines. These unseemly
productions have nothing to do with real
art. They are simply and purely dis
gusting ibels, corrupting the tastes and