The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1888-03-30
THE CITY OF NANTES.
a PEOPLE WHOSE COSTUMES ARE
or ECCENTRIC DESCRIPTION.

Nantes takes a certain character from
the sea, from the fishermen and from all
the queer types of humanity who dwell
along the coast Of this department and OF
Morbihan well On up toward Brest. The
costumes OF these people are of the most
eccentric description, so much so that Il is
said that nowhere else In France can there
be seen such q variety. Some are strik-
ingly picturesque. There is the peasant
woman, for instance, whose business it is
to cultivate early potatoes In the sand
near Noirmoutier and bring them to mar
ket. She wears q skirt coming just below
the knees, a small cap, some sort OF apron,
checked or otherwise, and has the
foot, ankle and calf entirely exposed, or
shoes or sabots neatly polished and stock
ings closely fitting and often OF intricate
pattern. The shoes and hosiery are their
special weakness, and 1t is not rare TO see
among them a well made foot and ankle.
The entire costume is commonly in sober
colors and neatly kept. On the contrary,
You see little girls with long skirts COM
ing to the soles Of the shoe, who look az IL
they had just stepped from one Of Van
dykes portraits.
AS a specimen of the male costume OF
Morbihan, we have the low crowned,
round topped hat Of velvet, or Of straw or
felt bound with velvet, very jaunty, or,
as the French would say, chic. The
jacket is something like the voluminous
exterior garment OF our sncestors Of the
Seventeenth century, but q jacket all the
same, and gay with rows Of buttons SO
thickly set that they overlap one an
other. The collar Of the shirt is as broad
as a ships mainsaiI. 1t is open IN front
and rises stifiy UP behind the head, serv-
ing as a background TO q face that Is the
picture of innocence and as quaint as the
costume itself.
1t Is d pleasant relief to get away from
the highly artificial life and the highly ar
tifcial articles Of food and drink at Paris
even to a stupid and not over clearly place
like Nantes. The country offers it's treas
ures more generously thar the city. It Is
pleasant to know that the wines, IL they
are not Clos yougeot, Pomard, Chateau
Leflte or Chateau Yquen, are at least all
they pretend to be; that You are near the
place where people produce their own but
ter and lay their own eggs; where they
even put the butter on the table and sell
their milk at four cents a quart from the
wagons In the street and at the corner
groceries, 1T is really with a homelike
feeling that You sit down to breakfast or
uiHileF III u 1Obti III u DNH III AljOuj Ok
at the hotel at Nantes IN which / be-
slowed a:syy humble patronage. The still
ness that peryades the dining room is sol
emn. You hear two or three dies buzzing
behind the lace curtains that draDe the
windows. You look up to the ceiling not
painted by Michael Angelo, but by some
unimmortalized local fresco painter, ia
imitation of the sky. You don't remeIa-
ber ever to have seen exactly such shades
of blue In the armament before. But no
matter. Thechandeliers are attached to
the ceiling with blue ribbons painted fat
thereon, the ends drawn out sideways and
held IN the beaks of doves, the species
and the school Of art being alike unfa-
miliar.
Into the room steal furtively from time
to time Representatives Of the Nantals
bOurgeoise-solid, solemn, funereal-who
TRANQUILITY partake Of the several courses
and then steal away as steaithily as they
entered. Perhaps there enters a whole
Breton family - father, mother, SONS,
daughters and bonne-all of whom make
the sign Of the cross before taking their
places. Their dress Is quiet and their
manners almost as reverential as II they
were In church. The repast Is served by
the mature garcons-one gray haired
whom you seem family TO recoilect as
having seen in the opera Of 1.-THE Hugue-
nots.n Their duty is performed decorously
and entirely In keeping with the sur
roundings. There Is none Of bewardage
so often seen al French tables. The
cuisine Is rather remarkable for its pro-
fusion than its fine quality, thus reversing
the Parisian rule. Some dishes are even
lefto the table where persons can help
themselves 49, Nothing could be more
I'M Partisan. The butter u Of a char
acter, to attract attention. There are
perhaps twenty persons at table com
paratively few persons come to Nantesl
and there are four rolls Of golden
butter distributed along the table,
each weighing at least q pound, and, like
everything else offered You, 1t is 80 discre-
| lson.', Then you drink, IL you are dis
posed, a whole bottle OF white or red wine.
The hotel Is, I believe, the best In Nantes,
and your breakfast and dinner cost you
together only five frames q day, while q
good room costs only three francs more.
In coming from Cholet to Nantes / made
the acquaintance Of a young lawyer Of
P0ltlerS, q rOyails5 ~ 5ifsfs sss political
preference and q most charming and in
telligent travelling companion. He said to
me, NANTES is a vile de luxe AsI
have already remarked, this is not init
mated to the stranger. There is nothing
In the houses or shops that would indicate
it Then as ] met him IN the evening he
conducted me through what lie said was
the principal business street.-The only
business street in fact-a thoroughfare
narrow and crooked like the rest, half a
mile in length and having on either side
commonplace shops, badly lighted and
with poor displays Of goods In the win
dows There were no carriages, but 1T
was nlied with 4 crowd Of promenaders
walking purposely to and fro and look
ing hstlessly into the embarrassing
windows, as ! have seen them in
the smaller towns Of Italy Or else
where in Europe. There was nowhere
else to 60, theatres being closed and sum
ner amusements conspicuous by their
absence. The rich were at the watering
Places the poor were amusing themselves
IN low drinking houses, such as are seen
in the pictures Of Temers and Steen, Of
types that are universal and have been for
800 years.
There are, however, at Nantes things
that are solid, substantial and elegant IN