The record-union., 1894-06-30

ing-They Drink California Wine
and Leave the French Wines to
the Americans-French True Love
Long-Lived and Beautiful.
Regular Correspondence of REcoRD-UNIoN.I j
New YORK, June I6. One OF the efects
of the Senate Committee investigation Oh
the police department is the execution OF
the Sunday law and the increased exodus
of those who keep that day in continental
fashion" to the suburban resorts. Ihose
places, in consequence, have now all thelr
peculiarlties highly emphasized. They
show more plainly than ever what they
are and what are the people VINO go To
them. Some of the Oldest and best known
Sunday resorts have been degraded by
this popularity, which has made them
notorious for vice and crime. Coney
Island, for instance, is thoroughly un-
healthy place, so tar as morals go, and
South Beach on Staten Island, has de-
generated into a vulgar, money making
field for fakirs. But there are others, old
and new, which have as yet escaped the
touch of coarse enterprise" and hold
forth only the simple attractions OF ma
ture or opportunities Tor the satisfaction
of normal human wants.
These are pleasant places to visit. for
they show the city's workers at rest or
at play, and reveal in some measure char
acler, tastes and peeuliaritles. Especl-
ally is this so, if those places are chosen
to which only the poorer and the lower
middle classes go. People OF position"
conceal their real natures even on a pic
mic or in a bathing suit. On Glen Island,
on the north end OF Manhattan Island, at
Fort Lee, or in Williams bridge, every
body is out for the precious pleasure or
comfort Of one day IN seven, and they go
at it utterly unconscious and Needless of
observation aud criticism. They are as
they would be, ii freed from The neceS-
sity of striving to be.
williamsburg is the Sunday mecca
of the French people of the city. 1t is
about thirty-tlve minutes ride on the
New York and Harlem Railroad and is
scattered along the little stream called
the Bronx River just at the top of Bronx
Park. As village the place is utterly
unint teresting. To one who knows the
Partisan at home the little garden cafes
are charming. For it recalls the sim
plicity and the almost childish domestic
ity of a people whom everyone thinks of
French is so open, so Vaunted, even IN
the best that they do, In their art, litera-
ture and sidewalk living, that the inn
preston the most cautious observer gets
of them is almost unavoidably distaste-
ful one. Yet the German peasant in all
his boorish purity, is not soilnnocent as
trenchman of the lower middle class.
So one sees him in this his American
Sunday resort. Not the Metropolitan
Art Gallery, with its walls Of French
paintings, or New York's proudest
boulevard, or the most French of French
cafes in the city, can give such deep
glimpse into French character as an
afternoons visit to " ilIiamsbridge.
There are two places in the village the
people 60 to; one q cafe restaurant, the
other beer garden. In the latter found
the young people and the German infiu-
ence predomluating. In the other the
old people were for few hours just what
they were before they emigrated from
La Belle France.
The cafe was just such one as the
French student mot the tourist) finds on
the outskirts Of Paris. 1t is arranged for
isolation in groups Of love or the family.
There was a rambling old house, the inn,
open for guests only in the winter, sur
rounded by ample grounds extending
back to the Bronx, the creek. Arbors
covered with vines stood like stalks all
=
on one side OF partition that divided the
grounds in two parts. In each OF these
arDors was table for from four to six
persons. Under an awning at the back
of the house but facing the garden stood
the innkeeper, fat, red, furry man,
cross to his servants, but good-natured
and smiling To his guests. he directed
all that went on in the kitchen behind
flor he was a chef himself) and at the
tables in front lfor he loves to sit at a
table himself and knows how it should
be-. All depends upon him, even TO the
seasoning OF the food, and he feels the re-
sponsibility and is generously concerned.
What took place in the lovers arbor
could not know. l saw that the several
couples were French, however, for the
love they spoke was eloquent. 1t was
across the table, and the movements OF
hands were rapid and oratorical. II the
heaTt-beatS were as many as the gestures,
then was the love great and impassioned.
But it was expressed IN words, words
not TO be heard far away, but words as
the arms in motion indicated. The
couple were beautifully unconscious
foreign lovers always are. They were
utterly unaware of anything beyond the
vines Of their arbor. In these two char
acteristics were they continental and
truly French.
For the third, fourth and other ex-
one had 10 look to the family tables. One
group was man, his wife and their child,
only one. That is French to begin with.
All over Europe, and in America every
where, the people of small means have
many children. But it is not so in Paris
Therefor some reason you can get g
medal from the French Academic fol
disclosing-the poor and the rich alike
have few children. y man, wife and
one child is the typical family group; two
children sometimes occur; three are rare
more are pensioned by the Government
seven get for the parents a medal, civic
privilege, and a personal visit from the
President of the Republic. The family
/ chose to watch in Williamsbridge haC
one, and they loved it.
Like the lovers this family group wa:
utterly unconscious of what surrounded
it. Utterly is the word for the non-exist
ence of all else was complete. The mar
had his coat of, the wife had her skirt:
drawn up to leave her 1eet aud ankles
kicking free and cool, and the child was
half undressed. There was absolutely
nothing repulsive in all this, simply be-
cause these people were so entirely alone
They were intent upon their dinner anC
themselves. They enjoyed that meal, not
as most people would, as whole, but q:
French people do, by mouthfuls. 1t Is
one OF the fascinating features OF eating
French meal, that the diner. without
knowing it and without effort, catches
the spirit Of deliberation and enjoyment
and eats slowly and appreciatively al
that Is set before him. This French chile
had inherited the taste for food mot the
appetite to eat which the proud father
was seriously educating as 1 watched
him.
When the soup came on he tasted it
his wife tasted 1t, and they discussed
it. Then they watched :he child tast,
Ii and they aSI-al h. L. lnhr