The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-10-07
THE BOULEYARDS OF PARIS.
A Phase of Out-Of-DO0r Life of Which
Americans Know Nothing.

Americans Know Nothing.
Richard Harding Davis. in Harper's Maya
zine.
There Is nothing just like the boulevards.
If you should wish to sit at the exact CEN
ter Of the world and to watch it revolve
around you you ave only to take your
place at that corner table of the Cafe de
la Paix which juts the furthest out into
the Avenue de pOpera and the Boulevard
des Italiens. This table is the apex of
all the other tables. 1t turns the tides of
pedestrians on the broad OF both
the great th~oroughfares and it is geograph-
ically situated exactly under the de la"
of the "Cafe de la Paix." painted in red
letters on the awning over your head. From
this admirable position you can sweep the
boulevard itself and the three great streets
running into it from the river. People
move obligingly around you and up and
down and across these, and if you sit there
long enough you will see every one worth
seeing in the known world.
There is a large class of Parisians whose
knowledge of that city Is limited to the
boulevards. They neither know nor care to
know of any other part; we re@d about
them a great deal, of them and their witt
cisms, and cafe politics; and what the
boulevards'' think of this or that is as seri-
ously quoted as what "a gentleman very
near the President or "a diplomat whose
name I am requested not to give, but who
is in a position to know whereof he
speaks" cares to say Of public matters at
home. For my part I should think an ex-
istence limited to two sidewalks would be
somewhat sad, especially if it were con-
tinued into the middle age, which all boule-
vardiers seem to have already attained; Ii
does not strike one as a difflcult school to
enter. or as one for which there Is any long
apprenticeship. You have only 70 SIT Tor an
hour every evening under the de Ia, n
YOU will find that you know by sight half
the faces of the men who pass you, who
come I'D suddenly out OF the night ana dis-
appear again like slides in a stereopticon,
or whom you find next you when you take
your place, and whom you leave behind,
still slipping from the half-empty glasses
ordered three hours before you came.
The man who goes to Paris for a summer
must be a very ~misanthropic and churlish
Individual If he tires Of the boulevards in
that short period. There is no place SO
hours of 6 and Z and II and l as these
same boulevards; but to the Partisan what
a bore it must become! That is, what a
bore it would become to any one save a
Partisan. To have the same rat man with
the sombrero and the waxed mustache snap
patent match boxes in your face day after
0aX ana -nlSnt ~ l6hC oAA
"Carnot at Longchamps' taking off his hat
and putting 1t on again. held Out Tor your
inspection for weeks; and to see b the anne nmse
vet collars and stocks, which they believe
are worn by Englishmen, and the same
pompou gentlemen who cut their white
goatees as do the military men of the sec
Ond empire, and who hope that the ruddi-
ness Of their cheeks, which Is due to
the vines Bbbesund sg;ns wf of
Tunis and Algiers. And the same women,
the one with the mustache and the younger
one with the black curl, and the hundreds
of others Silent and pantherlike, and grow
grows later and the streets more deserted.
such as these his aspirations are easily
gratifed. He can have his hearts desire;
he need only walk the 6ouieyards for a
chased at the expense of the easy exercise
glasses of "bock," with a few cents to the
waiter. There is much excuse for the Wis
itor; he is really to be envied; IT is al
new and strange and absurd to him: but
what an old, old story it must be to the
The visitor, perhaps. has never sat out
of-doors before and taken his ease on the
sidewalk. Yet it seems a perfectly nat
ural thing to do, until he imagines himself
doing the same thing at home. There was
sitting in front Of the Cafe de la PAX one
night after the opera, and enjoying them
selves very much, until one OF them sug-
gested their doing the same thing the next
month at home. 1--WE will all take chairs"
he said, land sit at the corner of Twenty
sixth street and Broadway at IL O'Clock
at night and drink bock-bier," and the
idea was so impossible hat the party
promptly broke up and went back to their
hotels.
| great deal that the true boulevardier en-
| ioys through not knowing or understanding
| all that he sees. But, on the otner name
agine that he is surrounded by all the
famous journalists and poets and noted GU
elists: and every bank clerk with a port
| folio becomes a Deputy, and every pow
dered and auburn-haired woman who passe'
in an open facre is a celebrated actress o
the Coincide Franchise. He can distribute
titles as freely as the papal court. an'
transform long-haired students int
members of the Institute, an,
technic school, in their holiday cooked hat
and play swords, into lieutenants ana cap
tains of the regular army; be believe
that the Unlocking individual in rags wh'
shows such apparent fear Of the police
man on the corner really has forbidden
prints and books to sell, and that tn
ing for a fresh victim have IT. In tnei
power to show him things to which the.
only hold the key-things when any frencn
home If he has the taste for such sights.
The best Of the boulevards is that IN
people sitting on their sidewalks, and tn
heavy green trees, and the bare heads o
so many Of the women, make one fee
how much out of doors he is. as no othe
street or city does. and what a folly IL
to waste time within walls / do no
think We appreciate how much we owe {
the women OF Paris who go without bon
nets. They give the city so homelike an
friendly an air, as though every woma
knew every other woman so well that sh
did not mind running across the street I
gossip with her neighbor without tie fol-
malify OF a head covering And 1t reall
seems strange that the p~rettiest bonnet
should come from the city where the Won
en- of the poorer classes have shown ho'
very pretty a woman of any class can loo
without any bonnet at all
The enduring nature or the boulevard
impresses one who sees them at differer
hours as much as does their life and gay
ETY. at every hour. You sometimes thin
surely tomorrow they win rest. and IN
cafes will be closed, and the long passin
stream OF cabs and omniouses will stol
and the asphalt street will be permitted I
rest from its burden. You may think this
night. but when You turn UP akain RI 3 II