Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-07-22
GAYETIES OF PARIS.
sRAcgeREgNwooD ON SUMNER AxusE.
MENrs AT THE FRENCH CAPITAL.
Summer Days that Have No Nigh,s-scene,
Along the Backwards
OF Paris


will not find there many Psrisians of the
nobility or h0m ton, but they will not
miss them from its matChless boulevards
parks. promcnados, and drives. Tho
Town will still be full of hustle snd
brightness, the sounds Of gay talk and
laughter. the chatter OF hoofs, the roll OF
carriagc-wheols. They viii find trans
and Omn,buscs, excursion trains and
,multtudes Of risky little excursion
steamers still doing lively business
The Grand prH winds up the season
for fashionable Parisians, but The full
unwashng current OF the peoples care
less. pleasure seeking life says with a
laugh and flash
"Swons may come. and .weils may 70,
But few on forever +"
This is the great season OF outdoor
living among the French. Every ismily
possessing garden the size OF table
cloth tekcs Its meas al .frcsco. At the
countless little tables in front OF n
Partisan cOfo men sit for hours and
hours, enjoying big cigars and small
beer, pruncs and politics, and women
towing with ices and can SUcrc, slipping
and gossipping. Through the long eve
nings these seats are filled, and as late as
you may happen To be out you will see
no vacancies before the choice boulevard
cafes. Indeed, there seems TO he no
longer in Paris that old-iashioned insti-
tuition. electricity has witched
It into dav. But in those late hours
there are fewer women at the tables
and gayer and louder-and they SIP not
cgU sucrC but CHU nc Uie. and the men
IRE many Of them drinking GSsinthc,
That deadly liquor of a sIckly green
which always reminded me Of tho venom
Of scpents The French are queer
people as regards Gods sun and mir.
They cOnspire, arc ever on the alert. TO
keep them out of their houses, vet never
get enough of them on the blessed bOule-
wards. They have a mortal fear Of
draughts To protect themselves on the
tram and IN tram and OmDibuses
they are accustomed 10 stuff their ears
with wool or cotton So many do this
that Won are inclined to believe them IA
distinct car-tufted race.
French fashion has it's apogee in the
Grand Prix day. st Long Champs and
all along the great drive thither through
the Champs Elysees there is display Of
ravi@hing summer toilets which no other
CITY in the world can rival, and of splen-
did cQuipages only to he cQualled in royal
London. The horcys world and the
demi-monde have here their innings,
hut patriotism has its grand clOry-bursts
at tho July fcfcs. in the gorgeous decora-
tuus OF the streets and public build
ines. and in the magnificent illumlna-
tons and marvellous pyrotochnics The
widest Imagination can hardly picture
the splcndor and prodigal beauty Of the
srcne-thc endless succession of scenes
II mighty carnival Of light and color, in
which all the ranbows since the flood
might be represented. The stars of the
Milky Way. indistinguishable in their in
fiIity, seem 10 have swarmed and settled
down on Paris
POPULAR FETEs
Those popular fcfcs are for Us grander
O. look back upon than even the Queens
Jubilee we witnessed last year, for they
were uobly imporsoual tina boom of
10 monarch. the gorgeous dress parade
Of no royalties nor royal flunkles, they
constituted tho Peoples Jubilee. We
mingled freely with that people, and
found q French crowd, even OF the poor
ar classes, less rude and rough than the
ordinary English and cleaner and less
malodorous than an Italian crowd.
Immediately after these fcfcs we fed
away to Houlgate, a pleasant bathing
place on the coast of Normandy, near the
market town of Dives, from whose OBJ
srurc port William tho COnquerOr set
forth some $40 years ago on the little
autumnal expedition which changed the
course Of history for Eastern Europe
aud probably affected the political des-
tiny Of then unknown continent, away
toward tho lumping-off place Of the
world.
1t William had not been ambitious,
but had STAYED at homo in Caen with
'1lda aud the children, We would hardly
have been IN the throes of President
making i'm this year of our Lord.
al along that delightful coast are
popular summer resorts, the favorite OF
fashion being TrOuvillc. We visited
most of them. but We preferred Houl-
gate rs beng the most unpretendlng
and rural. Doubtless it has since been
improved ont of its old charm of SIM
plcity and easy-going seaside life. Its
beach IS "a very fine one, and the day S
doings on its silver sands doubtless
closely resembled the busy idleness Of
other French seaside places. All
through the pleasant morning, before
and after the bathing hours, aud during
that time if the tide WAS not too
high. that beach was throBged with
motley but neutrality-suspicious.
crowd children, with their eternal
spades and buckets and wheelbarrows,
gossipping nurses ana maids, gentlemen
smoking, reading or teasing dogs
Indies embrOidenngor knitting. and chat
ting pleasantly with their neighbors,
whether friends or merely chance ac-
auaintances. In this social freedom and
polite. though entirely surla.y and so
safe. intercourse with strangers of re-
spectacle appearance, French ladies and
gentlemen are singularly unlike certain
people across the channel and more I'M
hkecertain other people across the ocean,
afflicted with Anglo-mania.
We spent a good part of one summer
very pleasantly. though in great retire
ment, ia u small country house, 10y cour'
tcsy villa, belonging to a family with
whom we had been boarding IN Paris.
CHARMING AVENUES.
The house WAS just out of the quaint
old village of Celle ST. Cloud, and on
land which had once been part Of the
vast old lIunting-grounds of the sport
LOVING Bourbon kings. There were still
about the neiehborhood some small
tracts Of forest with charming avenues
aud shady ilowery paths, most delightful
for our morning and evening FAMILIES.
Alout a mile away from Celle
81 Cloud. deeply enclosed in silent
forest. stands yet the old hunting-lodge
Of Louis XIV. and his successors, sur /
rounded by a weedy. unclippcd lawn
the old Meet Of the hunting parties.
Both lodge and lawn have On unspeak- |
able dreary aspect something strangely
lonesome and "pokerish "a haunted
air. when You think Of the feasting and /
laughter and loye-making. the gay /