Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-07-19
EUROPEAN CAUSERIE.
Max 0'Rell Writes About Interesting
Matters in France and England,
THE REAL FRENCH MONARCH
The Modern Partisan Language-Juries
and Love- CHRISTIAN knowledge -
Prince Bismarck Does Nos Know How
% Eall-P0or Cooking I'm England.
special Correspondence Of Tn, EVENING STA,

II biology at the Sorbonne say that if Racine
0llved today he would not be able to un-
-" derstand French as it il now pronounced.
Not to 60 so far as Racine, 1 Am quite sure that
II Voltaire, who was alive little over q hun
dred years ago, could return to earth he would
be soreiy puzzled to understand French as
she is spoke and wrote in the Paris Of this
century end. Horse races and bull fights have
introduced 50 many English and Spanish words
that the poor native article is hardly recogniz-
able any longer. Our dudes prattle Of turf,
cocktails, steeplechases, handicaps, walk-overs
mail coaches, dead heats, bookmakers,
pickpockets, &c. The favorite lunch is
roast beef and pale ale" All the
| Parisians now 80 o'clock" as they call
1t Generally at 4, by the way). Go where you
| Will, you hear such words as toros, caballeros,
picadores. alcades, combreros. partagas, naran-
Jas del tempo, chulos 1t is not the thing to
| say lat what time is it over?" but lat what
| time Is Fentrada, and what time la salida?''
| such glbberish as it makes! l talk of Vol
taires coming back, but it is enough to make
MIN turn In his grave, il he knows of the
| changes gong on in his old beloved mother
tongue. How he would have satirized the
| offenders had he been alive! What a laugh he
would have had at the dude who walks into a
cafe and spurning the Figaro calls for the
Times or Ia Epocd!
| THE REAL RoYALIsT.
Most people in France and outside it are
under the impression that the chic. of the
French royalist party is the Comte de Paris
and that all the French monarchists are ready
10 rally round his flag. This is mistake.
Inc true, the pure royalists do not recognize
MIN. In their eyes the only possible king is
| Don Carlos, whom the White party in Spain
call Charles VII, and whom these French
| ight horse call. without smile, Charles XII
Alta banquet organized by the party this
| week speeches were delivered which would
| make one believe one lived in the seventeenth
century instead of the end of the nineteenth
The Prince de Valori took the chair. Five
| hundred men, in whose minds the revolution
I and Napoleon l are myths, sat solemnly while
the prince spoke. Gentlemen" said he, Il
| have the honor to bring you the salutations of
| the august chief Of the Bourbon line. He
blesses your efforts and he is proud of you"
After this little preamble the prince gave his
listeners page OF history to prove to them
indisputably that Don Carlos is the king of
France. HE OWNS the throne as master of
| this kingdom. the sovereignty of which be-
longs to him by birthright. God alone can
| abolish this fundamental law, he continued
| THE PURE WHITE PARTY.
admire these worthy folk They are honest,
irreconcilable. Their ancestors walked gayly
to the guillotine, throwing their caps in the
air and shouting: give lie roi.' They of today
do not seek by lies, tricks and subterfuges to
| attract the mob to persuade-it They are
consistent. If their king came to the throne
| they would look upon any menace of revolution
as mere theory and would forget that their an
cestors had as Carlyle puts it, treated the
'.Contrat Social of Jean jacques Rousseau al
| theoretical, but that nevertheless their skins
went to bind the second edition of that book.
These good people are the most respectable OF
| Frenchmen. They are two hundred years old.
that Is all that is the matter with them. 1t Just
seems a trifie odd that they can listen to such
| speeches without a smile and without seeing
that they cover themselves with ridicule. 1t is
| said that ridicule kills in France This canno,
be true, or else the pure White party would
| long ago have been dead and buried The
| little scene around that dinner table proves
something which have always been convinced
/ of. l have ever admired the mordant wit OF
my countrymen and also their gay philosophy;
| but feel that, as q nation, they are wholly
| destitute Of humor.
PARTISAN JURIEs
are incorrigible where love is concerned.
Within the past week there have been two new
cases tried by them with the usual result-ac.
quittal of the love-blinded criminal The first
| was that of an old man who sold his stock in
| trade and some jewelry in order to give a good
| time to certain woman of his acquaintance
for q week or two. 1t was his intention when
his supply OF cash ran out, to take his own life
but when the time came he could not make up
his mind to leave Clorinde behind, and seeing
| no other way out Of the difficulty shot at his
mistress first.
Love pangs! temporary insanity! gun pow
der! acquitted, says the Jury of the Seine
In the other case they had to deal with q
mere boy, not yet twenty. jeweler in working
| hours, poet at odd moments. This iniammsble
youth had, as boys will, fixed his affections
upon portly matron of about forty. They
were encouraged and returned But not con-
tent with the ardor Of her fiery young lover
Madame Dupuis must needs listen to the lisp
| ings OF two other adorerG. One of these she
succeeded in passing off as a platonic fame
but when her youthful Adonis was ask ed
| TO believe In q second honorary" rival his
| credulity was not equal to the strain. He drew
| revolver from his pocket, lodged two balls in
| the nape OF his inamorata's neck and then in
troduced couple more into his own Uranium.
jealous! Madness! Attempted murder! "Ac-
quit the prisoner" says the jury of the Seine.
FELLOW FEELING.
These two Offenders would in all probability
have got transportation for life from an Eng
lish jury. II he ever had a fiery youth John
Bull has forgotten all about it by the time he ia
of an age to serve on juries. No one believes
more in letting youthful bygones be bygones.
Not SO the Frenchman. He may be staid and
waywise. the father Of a family, alderman.
member Of Q municipal council; but when
there comes before him q victim Of the grand
passion he becomes as wax. Memory takes him
stralght Dack 10 the days when he was mo bet
ter than he should be-" and it is of no use
expecting him to mote out stern Justice to the
prisoner. A fellow feeling makes him won
drous kind and he lets the poor things of easy.
THE PEOPLES PALACE
in the Mile End road is a splendid monument,
not only to the princey munifcence Of q rich
man, but to Walter Besant's knightly inter-
ference on behalf Of the work-weary men and
women who we're leading joyless lives in the
east end Of London. He welded his pen like
a sword, and with it carved ont happier lives
for them and their children when he wrote
his "All Sorts and Conditions Of Men" May
his latest effort in behalf of the oppressed be
as successful as that memorable one. He has
found some more victims Of the sweater, he
says but this time they are brethren of the
pen, white-handed slaves giving the fruit Of
their brain for a starvation wage. Mr.. Besant
in u pamphlet entitled "The Literary Hand
maid of the Church." boards the mon
ster who il many headed and rejoices in
the name of "Society for the Promo
ton Of Christian knowledge" If all
that Mr.. Besant says in his pamphlet be true,
S.P. OK. should stand for Society for the
Practice Of Cool Knavery," though no one can
deny that the society promotes knowledge"
of q certain kind The poor authors Qadies
Mostly who work for the SP.C.K. get great
quantity of that commodity, but it can scarcely
be said to be Of Christian nature. With all
due Difference to Shakespeare, there ID great
deal in . name. When needy men and women
of letters enter into dealings with . society
professedly engaged in Christian work they do
SO in all confidence, expecting that they are