Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-08-02
EUROPEAN CAUSERIE.
Max O'Rell Chats About the Humors
of London Streets.
QUEER TYPES AND SCENES.
The Pleasures Of ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
tiles Of the observation-disclosures Dans-
ages-COunt T0IstOi ON LOve-Oscar
Wilde Again-Conmsents.
special Correspondence of THE EVENING STAR

NSKstroll idly in the streets, exchanging
civilities with the passer-by and picking
up the latest bit of news gossip; but in the
great cities every wel-dressed man one meets
is going from one point to another. and that
generally at high speed. whether he have bust
ness In hand or be merely on pleasure bent.
Inc English are no strollers: to stroll in the
London streets is to get oneself remarked as
strange, If not suspicious, person. I have
otten heard Londoners say that it docs mo;
look respectable. The explanation of the mat
ter is this, fancy: The ordinary .Engfishman
is not keen enough observer of human
nature to enjoy the humors of the
street as the Frenchman does.
Almost every Frenchman is q born faneur.
CHE verb faner is all but untranslatable
saunter is the nearest equivalent to be found
Tor 1t In the English vocabulary Artist AZ he
Is, 1t is no wonder that he has brought even
sauntering to fine art. What rich studies OF
human nature are unfolded for him in the
streets. what little comedies are played for his
entertainment! ay, and drama too. and even a
tragedy occasionally. For him all the little
world of Paris is stage indeed, and vas, il the
amusement he gets out of its ever-shifting
scenes. The slightest trifies have their interest
for him. Who but n Partisan could have writ
ten the ''Peripotics dun moroccan de papior?
VINO but an Emile Souvestre could have told
the adventures Of that scrap Of paper and in
vested iis course along the gutter with an al
most human INTEREST,""
STREET sCENRs IN LONDON.
London is nearly rs rich in entertainment for
the faneur as is Paris, aud at the risk of not
being thought respectable still indulge an old
taste for sauntering. which, being bred in the
bone. suppose, ia difficult to eradicate In nv
DcreErlnQtlOn1 nhOnt IQpInn / haya
more than could have gathered from a score
OF volumes. Think what large section of the
population have to live in the streets and you
VIII see how easy 1t liz to read the character OF
these people. See that by-strcet where the
Italian 10 grinding his piano organ. Look at
the group OF women dancing on the pavement
Not girls and children only are capering to the
strains OF the Jig or polka. but there are four
or hve matrons OF middle age who have
dropped their several employments and
have come out with aprons on and
hair disheveled 70 dance with as much
abandon as If they had no husbands supper to
cook and no scrnbbing or sewing at home wait
ing to be done. You will want no sage to tell
you that these people do not put by penny
for the proverbial rainy day, and that their
homes are comfort!ess novels which the mon
forsake for the public house. But they have
their virtues. Wait and see; we are only
saunterlng. Let a case of distress come under
their notice and their sympathy is quick and
generous. More than once have seen be-
friended by such people Il poor wretch who
might have dropped and died in Mayfair be-
Tore Dives wonld have stopped to inquire what
he or she lacked.
on THg EMBANKMENT.
Then there is the Embankment What char
acters may be seen on the benches of that
great promenade any fine day. There is the
shabby philosopher smoking his pipe of peace
and contentment; there is the discontented
mechanic sitting with hands in pockets and
looking heartily discusted with the way in
which fortune distributes her favors. He looks
as the freshman might have looked when. on
landlng IN foreign country, nc said to q
native: Have you u government? Then I'm
agln IL" The children instinctively feel that
they must not ask him tho time; no wayfarer
turns to him to inquire the way to such
street. Hero is another type This ono is
habitually out OF work; spends his win
tiers in gaol and in summer picks up
living in the streets. 1t is such us
he who are in the forefront when there
Is any rioting going on. His hand is against
every man, except when he is drunk then he
becomes philosopher. l have seen him filled
with an evanoscent milk of human kindness
drawn from the gin palace tap and looking as
II he were consoling himself for the existence
OF the Duke of Westmnster's broad acres with
the thought that if his grace ever took it into
his head to get drunk, he could not, with all
at that moment. Then, again, there are the
happy lovers who sit close together and the
other kind that don't; both are entertaining.
am never tired Of observing them all.
BUTCHER-sHoP FIGHT.
Whilst am in the street let me confess that
the eater OF burning fusees has real fascina-
ton for me, that love Punch and Judy show
and can get up quito an acute interest in a
street row. Only tho other day saw a most
engaging one. The usual knot of people and
the sound of elevated voices from it's midst an
nounced that a lively contest was in progress
l approached. just opposite butchers shop
q PAIR or excited females were abusing each
other Justify, and soon from words they pro-
cecded to blows. The butcher and his bow an
pearod to take the Eveliest interest in the fray
which they stood watching from q safe posi-
ton IN the background OF the shop. My at
tention was fixed upon that butcher Whether
he was butcherly enough to rejoice in antici-
patton of blood to flow / do not know:
but the glee Oh his face was plain. If it was
so he had his reward. His mirth was presently
turned into mourning, for the tide OF battle
having flowed close to his shop front the in
furiated combatants began to seize the pieces
OF meat that lay handy aud to hurl them at
each other. Chops, steaks, kidneys, all the
smaller portions of an OK or sleeps anatomy
that usually adOrn the butchers window ledge.
flew through the air in hit or miss fashion. while
the butcher lengthen at the Disappearance of
his outlets and rognOns sautes.
THE NUDE IN ART.
] was very sorry to hear, rs n piece of news
from Detroit, that the influential people of
that city have desired the custodians of the
museum to drape all the nude statues, and have
intimated their'intenton of boycotting the in
stitntion if the Venuses and Apollos are not
forthwith provided with fuckers and togas. II
Ii u well known fact in the history OF the world
that young communities have not q taste for
fine art. The reason ID obvious: They have
no time to cultivate it. II had gone to Okla
homa should not have expected to find any
art feeling at all; but that in a city like De-
troit where l was struck with the Intellectual
life and evident cultivation of the inhabitants
party should be found numerous and strong
enough to issue such heather dictate a. this
seelDs scarcely credible. l am inclined TO
think 1t must be joke. OF course one knows
that there are Anthony Comstocks in America,
and IN England too, as has been lately llus-
trated by the fuss over the Zoo posterS but i
am unwilling to believe that they exist in any
quantity In Detroit It is very curious that
there should DO people who, when confronted
with some glorious masterpiece of sculpture,
should see, not tho poetry, the beauty of tho
human form divine, but Just person without
any clothes on. These people OF the
earth earthly are generally Anglo-Ssx-
ons. When / was last in America 1
heard that an English author, of some re-
pute, talking one day with Richard Watson
Glider about the Venus Of Milo, had remarked
that, as he looked at her beautiful form. he
iionged to put his arms around her and kiss
her Mr.. Glider, who, like the rest OF u.s. has
felt only respect mingled with his admiration
OF tho matchless divinity, replied: II hope she