The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1884-03-29
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE.
PARIS, February %.

PARIS, February %.
Lent has someway dropped suddenly on
this year; occupied with Egypt and Tonquin,
industrial crises and ch zap boarding for the
poor time flew As swiftly by as if we all had
promissory notes 10 meet. However, people
find the opportunity To take their fill of re-
creation.
with tiddling ,feasting dancing drinking,
masking Formerly Carnival-which in
tsrpreted implies farewell to flesh, extend
ed from Christmas to Shrove Tuesday now
it IS limited to three days-like a revolution.
An enterprisinS proprietor of a restaurant,
man Of the period, and of ultra-cOnservative
notions, has aimed to maintain the Olden
Time as he has advertised ''rosbif and the
plum pouding" since the 25th December and
now signifies change in the bill By super
seding the pudding by pancakes.
The Gather has been wet, dirty and disa-
greeable, so tho crowd, like the English of
Froissarts time, had to take its pleasure
sadly. Nothing is sad diluted popu-
lar pleasure. Not a few think such fetes dis
agreeable because the streets are overcrowd-
ed and ones habits and customs are crossed.
But since the professions of the fat beeves
are as dead as the Second Empire under
which they fourished like a bay tree, the
streets are simply taken possession of by
gaping crowd in search of masqueraders, and
instead, find but advertising vans of ink, and
babies feeding bottle manufac cturers, and
go-ahead- sentry horses on wheels, by outfit
ting establishments. ShrOve Tuesday is be-
coming fete for children: they have every
whsre their matinee masked balls, while
their elders, if no longer possessed of Fras-
cati and Valentine, have Tivoh, Yauxhall,
Butler, Eden and the =, era fali ia Ok up
on. To amuse the olive branches under
shelter is justifable, but to promenade the
saplings along the street in their tinsel and
fiimsy costumes is worse than cruelty, and
raises tie question, are the parents interest
ed in burial socie ties; or, are they playing
into the hands of Bismark to keep down the
population of France?
There was a noted philosopher once who
passed the day in his attic balcony contem-
plating the moving, heaving crOwG below
and he found in his Buddhist contemplation
the reward of thinking that in the course of
fifty years they would all be under the sod,
save those endowed with supernatural vital
force, say like de Lesseps, who has just be-
come double immortal. In Paris, the Car
nival only exists really in the Almanac. 1t
is the appanage of butchers, laundresses and
puffsts. The climate has driven away trOub-
adour, as, instead of catching an heiress, lie
catches a cold. The Savage, however, Occa-
sionalIv blows crockery horn, and his blue
red LaplaEd nose is quite in harmony with
the frozen Juno and the shivering Galatea
at his side
\ Turk who was in Paris on Shrove
Tuesday pending the Carnival informed the
Sultan on this return, that the Parisians
went mad on Jhat day, but that little ashes
put on their heads the next morning. made
them all right again. We don't know the ori-
gin of the Carnival, save that it descends in
right line from human folly. No people has
been exempt from the absurdity of disguises,
masks, and licenses. 1t is i remnant Of pa
gauism of bacchanals, and saturnalias, be
oueathed by Bacchus, Saturn and Pau.
Theologians and clergy have denounced the
Carnival. and at Rome, Clement II, helpless
10 suppress it. shut himself ever up in the
castle of st. Angelo pending its duration.
The Court of Charles VI. made masked
balls fashionable, and II was a one of these
His Majesty nearly lost his life while dis
guised as I bear. Italy gave impulse TO
masquerades in France, and Henri III. rang
along the streets disguised, whacking his
loving subjects and exchanging most unrOyal
epithets with the traders and artizans.
Louis NH was TOO hypochrondical for such
fun: but with his son, Louis XIV. the gods
and goddess of olympus, the heroes Of fables,
shepherds and sheperdesses had their way,
though the King rarely laughed. The Re
gencv was naturally the friend of carnivals,
and a decree in 1915 authorized masked
balls. Indeed from this period might be
dated the taste Of the French for mockery,
intrigue, and easv pleasure. The revolution
swept the institution away, but it returned
in 1893 only more fortified.
The Carnival Of Venice had reputation
as being amusing by its dances and songs.
But Goethe gave the palm TO Rome. Roger