New-York tribune., 1881-10-02

far back as the time of the First Empire. Areo
seems to have found Its way into the drawing
rooms, as the following anecdote sufficiently proyes
Nj. de Beaumont, who was then Chamberlain to Ma
po con announced one evening at reception at the
Tuileries, Nine. La Marechae Lefebyrew The
Emperor advanced conrteonsiy and said with
Dantsickp p On this tho Duchess turned round to
the too laconic official and said, Al ga k la coupe
Thh naS Be Raf Sse %
the courts of the BOnapartes for The most part
what Bazac calls gnognote, mot up TO much"
Popular cries, often arising from triing incident
contribute number of strange idioms to Partisan
slang. Some years back countIywoman was no.
ticed bustling about railway station in the capital
and crying Ton est Lambert ~ This tickIed the
fancy of the crowd the words flew like lightning
S over Pans, and formed for years a good,
As great a popularity, though shorter-liyed was
achieved by the admlring phrase of "Oh, cte-tetep
S'Oh. what a headr),, with which gdaia greeted
was protruded from the window of the railway car.
rage on its owners arrival in Paris. Among the
popular French slang words for !" head" We may no.
tice the term COCO" given-lke our own nut ~
account of the similarity in shape between a CO.
coanut and human skull.
Simple expressions are sometimes made to bear
much greater amplitude of construction In Argot
than in the common language; thus ds-tu mi an
abbrevatiOn OF dStu mi tes ndaees Is used as an
ironical hint that the nterlocuor is only wasting
his words in endeav0rng to convince the speaker as
"a XsseyezSous eyts % dessns This last dom, which
recalls our own expression "tO sit upon," means to
impose silence on any one:
Asseyez-vOus d'ssus
Et que ca tnisse.
AsseyeZ-yous d'ssus
Et men parlOns plus
1t is curious to note low the same slang expressions
occur in languages widely remote from each other;
6d sar kasi Rshgs!g ito sit on anyOnes head" is,
for instance an old Persian dom for repression or
punishment The vulgar English idIom, Do you
any green in my eye = has its exact counterpart
in French, though the two peoples appear to have
arrived at it independently. Monselet has the fol-
lowing passage: "Et quand tn m'auraS bien aimee
en- serai- plus avancee, je te pre! Regarle done
simply mon Git "Quand le demonstrators expose
Ia formation des hancs de charbOn de terre, mon
yOisin s'6crie agec un atticsme parfalt; Oai, mon
ei " This extract reminds us of the undergradu-
ate who being asked in Urd rOce examination on
the New Testament, "WhO were the sisters Of
Bethany ~ placed foretnger beside his nose, and
retOrted with knowing wink, who was the
father of Zebedee's childrenp Indeed there Is
scarcely lOcutiOn that does not suggest some Eng
lush parallel. MOnselcts words En- serai-ie plus
avanc6e y for example naturally call up an inimit
able picture in Punch of a tenants dinner ut which
one of the quality" addressing his neXt-do0r
neighbOr, remarks what delicious claret it is thas
they are drinking Yes" says the farmer, senten-
tiOusy, but don't seem 10 get no Jorrarder" As
ferior to the traditional ballad. Partisan slang
especia ly is very characteristic of the people who
make use of it; it is lively witty aud energetic
often something more than ah peu rsqIe, but always
amusing Apart from its pathological interest, and
the necessity for at least slight acquaintance
with 1t Misunderstanding popular French literature
Ia Iaague rerte will well repay investigation.