New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-01-08
NOTES FROM PARIS.
II I.
FRENCH RED TApE-LA TERRE-.rHE PARIS

e11ox rHK REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF The noch'
NV friend Mr. Godkin. whose lightest word Is
100 precious to be lightly forgotten
once eulogized the French bureaucracy
for the trouble IL took respecting fifty centlmes
What excited the admiration Of this great man
was the fact that three or four departments had
written each other thirty or forty letters aoou'
tho missing dime. That, cried he IN ms en-
thusiastio way, is how country ought 10 DC
governed. Well, no doubt 1t Is true that the
French administrative machine is very peaut-
full one, and can probably tie given quantity
Of red tape more tightly into more hafo
knots than any other, save perhaps the German
/ admire it almost as much Mr.. Godkin does
admire it the more every time come into contact
with IL. could think. fill column with my
experiences but fear I have not the power OF
interesting my readers about trifes whica Mr..
Godxin has or the same imaginative energy ID
dealing with facts So will tell you OF one only
or perhaps two.
Mr. Blaine's manifesto was, on account OF Its
length cabled to you in two parts when
handed in the second part, described IL 70 the
telegraph clerk as the continuation OF the former
message Do you wish it sent as part OF inc
same dispatch Pr be asked / replied that did'
He thereupon consulted another clerk and discover
I'd that q memorandum had been left by the Official
would be a suite,' or continuation. This men,
prandum. however omitted to state expressly
that the beginning and conclusion. were 70 DC
treated by the operator as one and the same as
patch He expressed therefore some douo'
whether it might not be necessary to repeat the
address. I pointed out to him respectfully that
IN order to avoid errors I had myself repeated
the address, whcreupon he Informed me thao i.
was not for the public to dictate to the ocers Oh
the Government and he was by no means certain
that the new address ought to have been inserted.
b was now half past ten took the hperoy Va
observing in a tone Of humility which l have
ACQUIRED by diligently reading Mr. Godkn that
time was precious, that the point he was dis
cussing involved nothing more important than
the question whether two or three words moro
or less should be paid for that he might settie
at in his own way, and charge for as many as
he liked but that wanted the message TO go W
once He yielded out Of cvility or good nature
but with a final protest that the point was I'M
portant and ought to be determined one way Vi
the other and that he might have 10 reier IL
ultimately to his superior officer dare say
departmental correspondence Of the kind SO dear
70 the heart Of Mr.. GOdkin has already pegun,
and that ultimately the Minister Of Posts and
Teleeraphs will be called to decide It, linen
4 hone somebody will send copies OF the CORES
r,ondence TO Mr. Godlxin and that he VIII once
more explain to his fit audience though lew, DO"
much better they manage these matters ID france
than in America or than in that stubborn niinueu
England which docs not accept with due ooclli9
the advice he so often proffers to his sometime
fellow-subjects.
The other example Of this spirit OF routine Is
from the theatre The Paris theatres are under
very strict control by the police and other au-
thorities. You may always see posted up III the
vestjbule a long list Of police regulations when
managers and public are alike bound to observe
Since the burning Of the Opera Comlque, 1rcsh
requlations have been made, and structural al
terations have been required. There IS ZOE OK
annie at the Theatre Francois, new IRON cur
tain dividing the stage from the AUDITORIUM
One of those awful fuDctionaries in plasS heine'
called apeur-pompier is In charge OF thls cur
tain. 1t his duty to see that the curtain is
lowered rightly at a fixed hour before the puoiic
are admitted. When he arrived the Quiet alVoi-
noon he was told that the hydraulic apparatus
was ont of order, and that the moving OF the
curtain would food the dressing rooms lhat'
said the austere official does not concern me-
NV orders are imperative. The curtain muso Ut
lowered and lowered it was, and the place was
inundated Could there be more beautiiul Illus
tration of the system which Mr. GodlSin so much
sdmires? am only sorry that do not kho" .ne
name of this model official. am sure MI. oookin
would like to print it, and to give MN pr"is'
and TO exalt him above the mere Anne rican, ana 10
nrovc that no State ever thrcve where common
senso was allowed tc interfere with the stringent
enforcement of an iron code. But IL he VIII
write to Paris / think cur gentle censor m,gn.
find out the name, and so be able 10 publish IL
,n both his papers; not both daily, like Forney's
Init one daily and both weakly, as they USED 10
say in Boston
OH ,pafi 0n
no seen ON every booly-stall and in every book
store There was some talk of suppreSsing II, Dul
the talk came to nothing, and the highly re-
spectable firm Of publishers, Messrs. Charpenter'
who issued NJ. Zolas former books issue this aiso
After all it is only question OF degree Wheh
man has undertaken to record in literary FORM inc
results of long continued study of nastiness he
plunges deeper year by year. There can De no
question OF NJ Zola's literary power 1t is literary
power of a very extraordinary and admirable lSlnd'
which he puts to the basest possible USE Ills
book is immoral but its grossness Is more lheA-
eusable than its immortality. Or perhaps IL may
be excused by saying that he makes lmmofaity
bideous by the unnamable crudities Of his nara
tive Unhappily the medical and veterinary hlth
with which NJ Zola's pages are splashed does not
revolt the French public; or that portion OF the
French public which has heretofore read his BOOKS
ia Terrev has been out but day or two, yet
the forty-eighth thousand is on sale. 1t is I'M
possible to 90 lower offer more impudent out
rage to public decency. There is still In France
q literary censorship; there are laws which make
offences against decency punishable They have
not been put in force against this book They
must remain henceforth dead letter.
By far the most remarkable Partisan novelty
next after La Terre" is the Paris edition of The
New.York Herald" now appearing daily in the
capital of France 1t is a sheet of four pages,
printed for the most part in large type, often
loaded. 1t has kilograms from London and teie-
grams from New-York. and much beside TO an
American abroad who wants to know this morning
that Mrs Brown had tea party last night ana