The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-08-01
FOREIGN GOSSIP.

On the South Australian railway
engineers who run their trains for two
years without accident receive a pres
ent of fifty dollars.
The efforts made to introduce Eu,
ropean vegetables and fruits in the
Congo States have been rewarded with
very great success.
Kangaroo leather has become so
important an article of commerce that
the Australians have set about protect
ing the animals by forbidding the
slaughter of it from the 1st of January
to the 1st of May.
Such a thing as bringing libel
suit against a newspaper has not been
known in Italy for fifty years. The
belief is that a newspaper seeks to tell
the truth. If it is mistaken, frank
statement to that effect satisfies the
Italian.
The Paris Figaro describes King
Alphonso XIII. as the happiest and
bestowed of all the rulers OF the
earth. He is said to be very beauti-
full child, with laughing face and tair
hair falling down over his shoulders.
eve are all socialists at heart "
the Prince of Wales is reported to have
said to a statesman of the old school
the other day. The court dress re-
form is said to emanate from the
PYsiT1 hn ~
much struck with the dignity and pro-
priety of the dresses of the ladies"
To the Queen of Italy belongs the
credit of re-establishing the manufact-
ure of Burano lace. The Queen
found an old woman who knew the
stitch and had her teach a number of
younger women. The result is that
Burano lace has again become a
source of large revenue to the people
Of Burano.
-"Chefs du claque" are Partisan
institution. The most famous of them
is M. Fourier, cultured, clever man
in middle life. He is a millionaire,
keeps his carriage, has a fine country
house, and yields wide influence in
various directions. He is commander
in-chief of the hired applauders at the
opera, at the Opera Comique, the
Chatelet, the Folies Dramatique, the
Nouveautes, the Ambigu, the Cluny
and the Dejazet
"A famous portrait of Voltaire,
which has been missing for half a
century, has been discovered by the
French Ambassador at Rome 1t was
painted by Largiliere in 1718, when
the witty skeptic was only twenty-four
years old. The picture was sent to
the Marquise de Villette as a present
in Voltaire's old age, and she be-
queathed it to her nephew, Baron
Varicourt, from whom the Ambassador
acquired it.
1t is said that an artist has per.
suaded the German Emperor to make
reaction against the black dress coat.
This has moved the remembrance that
the somber black dress uniform is due
to the French revolution, which abol-
ished the picturesque and variegated
which used to be worn by
men as well as women in the ages be-
fore that food, on account of the out
ward emphasis which it gave to social
and distinction of rank,
Paris remained Paris, the undisputed
capital of dress, although it had be-
come republican. The most conserv-
alive and select circles all over Eu-
rope soon followed the example of the
hated French democrats Mobiles and
handles in all the courts put away
their scarlet, blue and other brilliant
-y-hued silks, and clothed themselves
IN republican black and white, to the
regret of artists, and, as the late Will
lam Dyce used to say, to their loss.