Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-04-06
A TEXAS GIRL ABROAD.
The English and French Soldiers and
Cabmens' Peculiarities Discussed.
Paris described as Not Thing OF Necessity
but Simply as Work of Art-"Frenchy
Through and Through"

Special Correspondence of the Gazette.
PARIS, March 1.-Although in. con-
vent, my connections with Paris and the
world are not altogether severed, for L
go into the city Sightseeing or to attend
the theatre, and continue to make OBJ
servations on Paris.
Coming from London to Paris. it is
natural to contrast the one with the
other. For instance, the soldiers. There
are great many more than in England,
of course, military service being COM
pulsory, and W hereas the English soldier
has red coat and blue legs, the French
man has a blue coat and red legs. The
English soldier is a creature-a great,
stOlid, good-natured
BEEF-FED CREATURE.
The ordinary French soldier is not such
great, strapping fellow, and is apt to
look lost in his clothes. but there is apt
to be more intelligence and sentiment in
his face. You feel that patriotism is
passion with him, and that he will fight
like tiger for his own.
There are also marked distinctions
between the cab drivers of the
two countries. The London cab
man grabs his fare and
growls, but he always descends to open
the door for you; the French cabman
never descends from his box if you can
possibly get out without his aid. but he
says sfMerci" when you give him his
fare. The English cabby is asleep or
drinking ale when off duty; the Partisan
is always reading newspaper, some
times half a one, sometimes less. The
whole of Partisan newspaper is not half
the size of the Fort Worth GAZETTE, and
the most of them are wretchedly printed
on wretched paper. 1 wave my Sunday
issue OF THE GAZETTE around trium-
phantly before these French people to
show them what we can do. The Eng
lishman snaps his whip in the air, the
Frenchman lashes his horse; the former
goes cautiously and is held in check by
the almighty English policeman; the lat
rushes about like roaring lion, seeking
whom he may devour. In fact, to the
foot passengers in Paris the cabman is an
UNADULTERATED FIEND.
He pays an insurance of four cents a
day, to cover all the damage to life or
property that he has it in his mind to
perpetrate; then he feels free; he sees
you getting ready to cross q street, he
whips his horse he drives for you and if he
doesn't catch you then, he viii come
around the next cOrDer on two WHEELS after
you. All the corners Of the Sidewalks are
rounded off in order to allow him greater
facility; the policeman-the whole
French government is in league with
him. The sole duty of the policeman is
to pick you up and send you to the mOrgue
after YOU are run over, and there is
a rumor afloat that if you survive the
government will fine you for your care
lessness. Long years of conflict with
the cabman enables the Partisan to
dodge him under his very horse's nose,
but as for me and my ma, we have
stood for half an hour here on the
avenue du BoIs de Boulogue, trying to
get across.
The Paris omnibus has a dignity that
the American and English omnibus
lacks. The Partisan omnibus draws up
grandly at small depots every half or
three quarters of mile, and is met by
an Official with great paper full OF
numbers with whom the conductor con-
fers mysteriously on what suppose to be
the log of the voyage. The Paris omni-
bus is not such tractable, docIle vehicle
as the London omnibus. Sometimes it
will stop for you, but oftener you will
have to
WALK TO A STATION.
The conductor does not look upon you
as benefactor for patronizing the ON
nibus. You are always an unmitigated
to him, especially in cold
weather, for he wants a place to sit
down himself. The stations are great in
situations in the cold weather; generally
they are hardly more than little boxes
built on the sidewalk, but they are well
heated, and there are benches where one
can rest. If there are others going your
way, you had best ask the man behind |
the counter for a number, and he will |
give you little numbered ticket; then |
when the omnibus arrives you are al |
lowed to take a place when the cOuduc-
tor calls your number, and II you have |
no number you must wait till all the |
mum bered people have place. He be-
gins to call from where the last couduc-
tor of his line left off. The fare Is always
the same for any distance-six cents
within and three cents on the top. By
L
heard addressed to French horses is the
prolonged sound of the French letter
i'u,' which means; ''Get up"
STOP 'sgo along" and "behave
generally.
The newsboys have an arrangement by
which they fix their stock Of papers on
he end of long stick, SO that they can
bass them on a level with the eyes Of the
men on the top of the omnibuses. The
nen help themselves and throw down the |
,hange.
1t is difficult to imagine London as be-
ng torn up or revolutionized in any way;
seems the
FOUNDATION STONE
N which London is built. In Paris,
lowever, the very air seems full of dy-
lamio particles, emanating from the
'ombestic bodies of these excitable Celts,
which particles might unite and blow up