New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-02-17
NOTES FROM PARIS.
THE QUM voLTAIRE-BooKS AND BOOK
SHOPS STREETS NEW AND oLD-THE
DEcaDFNCE OF THE THEATRES.


Other Partisan glories, perhaps more important
are departed. The decadence OF that sun lncom-
oarable city is in some directions depioraDic YET
exoIicahle But will anybody tell me why the
bool, shops on the left bank of the Seine should
have closed their doors? Some of them are sui
oneu: so open that the contents of their shelves
and windows are coated with the street duse
THOSE that were tho best exist no lohger' or
,,erhars have reopened elsewhere. Others nave
eone down in the bookseIng scale; grown dlngy,
and arc filed with rubbish. one OF Owo sun
,rv TO put on a good face. but on the who'e
fear IL must be said that the aual FoiCa'ie M "
to-day has little to tempt the colecoor me rno
best was always TO be found eise"h'ie -
second best in Paris il. however, 80 Hoo1 III
ono ,nisscs Il. and misses the lounge amid Well
ell shslves with unlimited liberty to brouse
amonr the books and no Fostering clerk 10 'eil
20, what Won want, and an intelligent DOCK
s.ller IN chat with, and abundance OF gooo, use
f,,I boo,s 10 choose from in good conoltion
Where are they all gone?
Not certainly TO the shelves of M Morgaho'
crowded with costly treasures wmch ohN eie
millionaire can afford to look at. M Fontalne
Is dead years since-peacc TO his ashes --his shop,
once the headquarters Of the collector mas yieiueu
It's intimacy to NJ Morgand, once Fontaines clerk
but is still open, and still good SHOP. M nSOe-
ouette lives and thrives-a bookseller III rariS
who does not thrive simply does not know nus
business And there are others. Inc change Va
which 1 speak is none the less great one "a
big cheap dealer, who used never 10 pe he'ru
of beyond the arcades of the odeon, mas hounI
ing etalage on the Boulevard des Itanens' WIN
n cheap competitor on either side Of him. The
discount system is that on which he has fattened.
He was one OF those who discovered in time tnae
more profit can be made by selling book 1or
So cents than by selling it for 7O-the publishers
price. He has forced NJ Calmann Levy himself
the great publisher, to retail his own publications
AT 20 per cent discount in the shop smoso
opposite this impairment intruder; his own ana
others too. Cheapness is the order OF the day
or the appearance of cheappess. But why snouia
the taste for what is best have declined
Ii is two or three years. it may be more, since
tho book collecting taste OF the frencu
began TO show signs of morbid decay
The passion for original editions. tue
purest of all passions. suddenly fell Nobody
knows why except possibly that 1t had been Kep5
for some years at fever heat. An arctic tem-
pcrnture has succeeded to the tropical Prices had
reached level difficult, perhaps impossible 10
maintain " 1t is not our FAULT SAID NJ. MOI
gand some time ago; " it is the 1auit Oh une
prvate buyer: all the book collectors are turned
yivc, but there is as yet no sign of revival. IL
Illustrated books of the Eighteenth Century are still
SOUGHT for and still DEAR and the very best things
OF almost any period have still a market. But
NJ Roquet,c showed me yesterday an early ana
wcll-known Moliere, the six volumes IN their
original binding Of dark morocco, for which 1000
francs would not have been thought extravagano
five years ago. and for which he would be glad to
take 500 now Such the vicissitudes oil the
book trade Modern books. books of this century,
original editions Of the Romantiques; OF Gautier,
of Stendhal, of Merimee. of Alfred de Musset ana
many more are still the collectors caprice Tor tne
time being.
Bindings arc still priced; whether for their
beauty or TOR having belonged TO certain famous
people, and for bearing certain arms and en-
bIazonments. The modern binder, even in Paris,
has undergone the influence of his time. Machinery
wire-scwing imitation feathers, and other abomna-
lions are not unknown, even IN the workshops OF
binders of some repute. Strasburg morocco is the
most successful Of recent impostures. Time was
when. if you ordered book bound in morocco, it
was bound in morocco Every one understood
morocco to mean Levant morocco. There were
limitations, but they were admitted to be imita-
TONS and bore no likeness to the genuine, or none
that could deceive the least practised eye Stras-
burg morocco is simply chagrin with large grain;
MADE 10 deceive anu CdpdoiS VI 0CSSiNiu5s "hA
was told by bookseller, who knew what be was
talking about, that it is used by binders, with
name which they sign for full morocco bindings so
called and so charged for. Not by the best, not
by Cuzin OF Lortic or Jolly, but by the good
second-ratc men.
When heard this ceased to wonder that
Boulangism had become the political gospel OF
Paris. There is Bouangism in half the shop
windows OF the best streets in Paris, and in more
than half of those not the best. IL is not merely
the good book shops that have vanished from the
.ouai yoltaire The good bric-a-brac, the lovely
Oriental porcelain, the blue and white OF Naniln,
the polychromatic ware OF Japan-what has De
come of them, too? There are plenty of shops On
the other side Of the river where the products OF
China and Japan may be bought, but the cheap and
nasty prevail. The fashion for japanese and
Chinese treasures has a little gone out, perhaps
more than o little You cannot glut the European
market without spelling it. Still, the Avenue de
irOpera the Boulevard DIES Italiens boast, ii they
are inclined to boast of sundry stores wherein the
porcelain and lacquer and stuffs OF Japan may be
.bought in quantities and not a good thing to be
seen in any ono of them. The Avenue dc pOpera
once expected to eclipse the Boulevards and the
Rue de Ia Paix itself, has had thus far singular
fate. With some exceptions, IL is given up TO
second and third rate concerns The two best
stores are American, 1iffany's and Howards. 1he
Boulevards and the Rue de la Paix have more than
held their own The jewellers of the latter street
perhaps never made more dazzling show than
now was reminded as walked along, of the
answer one OF the great men gave me in 1873
4 asked him why he had sent nothing to the great
Exhibition OF that year He pointed TO bis
windows, all radiant with the glories Of Golconda
and the Orient, and said: . There is my Elk
hibition, all Paris passes daily Why should l
send them all the way to the Champ de Mars =
There is Boulangism in the very theatres.
r can remember no period when the Partisan stage
had sunk so low as to-day. II an e5b tide is
tIoyvnr there, where can you look for high water
The Francois is not merely weaker in its conf
,nnv: it is reduced TO such straits for pieces