The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1890-06-15
STOCKINGS IN PARIS
Sights In the Streets Of the Gay City on
Rainy Day.
How Women With Charming Feet
n Ankles Go Out Walking When
IL Storms-Those Who Ride and
Those Who Walk.

first mists, at once thick and transparent,
cnvelop the atmosphere, Paris is horrible
aud charming.
Upon the ground a black mud, as stag
nant and motionless as the water of an
internal lake. spreads out it's hideous
Hood, through which pierce he heavy
iramways and the flacres spotted like
tigers. and through which the red and
damp passersby, bundled up like pack
ages In their listers, wadc with the most
grotesquc attitudes. The whole popula-
ton is Int one immense caricature and
has the air of having been skctclcd by
Daumier, writes Theodore dc Banville i'm
the Denver Ne,rs.
rounded by a humid veil like Amsterdam
or Venice, takes the aspect Of an engrav-
ing by a master. in which wild shadows
and Jets OF pale light produce effects
which seem to have been devised by some
mysterious artist. The public build
ings, rendered unnatural, TRANSPORTED
and completely changed by the deform-
ing mist. offer fantasti tic ~silhouettes a Gu
polas, spires, ~turrets, fairy chateaux and
Gothic or Indian cities. Paris, mixed up
by the caprice Of the clouds, becomes a
vast, fabulous scene which charms the
eye; but what IL spreads out beneath our
feet is abominable. Paris in the state l
speak Of is the despair OF the soaked,
~foundered and bewildered pedestrians,
who roll up the bottoms OF their panta-
looms, or. abandoning all hope, plunge
r~esolutely into the mud, or, frozen. stop
before a shop window, in which they look
AT nothing. But Il is the triumph of wo
man, who goes along with her majestic
grace, and knows, like the swan, how to
avoid all rains.
On these sombre n rainy days the
half-rich woman, who has only 10000
francs, goes out in her carriage; the val
liant work girl, who must protect her poor
shawl. shoes n stockings for economy's
bourgeoise lady, for whom cant
is an ideal, would believe herself dis
graced IL she went out otherwise
than in a fiacre; but the Grand
Parisienne goes out on foot. The Grande
Parisienne!-that is to say, to whatever
circle of society she may belong, the
woman truly beautiful and elegant, the
woman literally supplied with physical
gifts she whose dress, hair, attitude, bold
and simple hat and tight fitting but not
small gloves are harmonized like the work
of a great artist. and who has fashioned
herself as the painter or sculptor fashions
the ideal creation of his brain.
This woman, who is all agility and
brightness. bids an audacious defiance to
the obscurity and the mud. b goes
along Will u SURE Tytnsnicais kioTipus,
adorable step. emerging pure from the
pavement or macadam which her foot has
touched. Her ir~reproachable boots and
stockings delight our eyes, and she shows,
not too much or impudently, but just
enough to affirm her blooded race, a SUI
perb, grandly-turned ankle. imprisoned
In a stocking fitted with genius, upon
which the trembling light proudly plays.
Yes. muddy Paris is the triumph of the
graceful woman with opulent charms,
but also. and for the same reason, il is the
paradise of the romantic dreamer who
follows the fair sex.
knew one of these followers of women
in rainy weather who lived and died by
reason of his innocent passion. This Boz
hemian, named Stora, had no means of
existence, for he knew how To do nothing
save compose lyric verses. Living OH the
proceeds of song words which he sold
here and there for five francs to sinister
publishers, this poor devil scrubbed in n
garnet, lighted, or rather obscured by n
small snutf-box of a window, and ate
there from time to time a sous worth OF
bread and two sous worth of something
else, devoted to solitude, sadness and
deer gloom, deprived of every luxury, of
all holidays, of all joys, and knowing love
and louis d'ors only by reputation. He
remained there ragged. silent and weak
as long as II froZc or was Hin weather,
hut as soon as II commenced Ia rain he
sailed forth. took possession of Paris.
which had become his domain aud his
city, aud then lac had "a harcm more di-
verse aud varied than that of King solo
mon.
He followed the women. With eye nxed
upon their boots and stockings and upon
their slIapely limbs, he followed them day,
evening and night, walking like the Wan
dering jew. seeing disappear beneath his
steps the b~oulevards, the squares and the
streets, plunging into the obscure quar-
.... ..,stt,.u N sfArLtnn Of him. silE for m
gray stocking and a boot of black kid for
a boot of brouzed leather; for lie gave
himself the pleasure of INCONSISTENCY, leav-
ing, changing his idols, resuming this one
or that one. as the greedy bee hies from
one Hover tn another, disdaining To llnger
upon the same rose.
Somctiu a. he passed ahead OF the
woman followed. anil. with n rapid
! glance. examined her eyes. her face and
her ha:r. Just bong "poIyn u complete his
rrycry ,,ni IL assure himself that the
ankle which WAS d~ci.ghtlng linn for the
was we'll accompanied. But on
the whole, he was only slightly ac-
quainted with the visages and cared
little about them; on the other
hand, he had c~atalogued n knew by
heart the ankles of all the grande Paris
iennes. From one rain To another lie rec
ognized them, found them again and re-
sImed following them like "a man who re.
covers his property. And thus he amassed
in~toxication and recollections for the
frightful days OF fine weather when he was
forced 10 remain shut up in his dark gar
ret, composing poetry Tor the piano.
BY this course Stora got every imagin-
able variety Of bronchitis and laryngitis,
for he followed the pretty shoes himself
shoelcss. or. rather, shod with torn and
gaping boots, fragments Of which he left
on every sidewalk. His lungs became af.
fectcd, he nearly lost his voice and could
scarcely speak in husky whisper. But
what difference did that make TO him ?
tine has no need Of speech TO follow plain
stockings. multicolored stockings with
spiral stripes and gray stockings I'M
broidered with a violet flower.
But one can count on nothing, not even