The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-12-31
CHRIsraras EYE IN PARIS.
The Houses, Streets, Restaurants and
 Churches.

Churches.
 Letter to the St. Louis Globe Democrat The cafe. the brasserie and the res
 taurant play a special, part In Paris on Christmas eve. On that night all Paris
 like all GauI. is divided into three parts -the church, the restaurant, the street.
 Some time on Christmas morning eve | rybody goes to bed. But even the chil-
 dren do not hang their stockings up.
 Instead. they put their shoes beside the
 chimney. The child wakes up to find a
 big doll or a wolly lamb a-standing in
 them and the other presents ranged
 around. Among the novelties in toys
 this year-'creations" as they call
 them-s an Yvette Guilbert doll that
 sings (by phonograph) a chanson of the celebrated dwette. There Is a little
 model of the exposition of 1900, with all
 It's parts "demontable." And there Is
 also a great snake, darting by means of
 power within, lifting It's head and hiss ing at every obstacle upon it's route. Parisian children have three dates on
 which to get their presents-St. Nicho-
 las day. the 9th of December; Christ
 mas morning, the 18th of December, and Twelfth Night, on the 9th of Janu- ary. The latter here is much exalted, as 1t will appear. So that the chill
 dren's Christmas Is divided, like all Gaul, again, into three parts, not to speak of New Years, when their elders have their presents, and when candy is as plentiful as bread. The little nui- sances thus being literally disposed of. they are not permitted to dominate Christmas eve, but only bear their modest, natural part, according to their age and worth. 't.
 The reason of the cafe, brasserie and restaurant Is for convenience of the un- iversal custom of the French to take a supper after midnight on Christmas eve. In proper families. of conserva- tive ideas, this 'reveillon" is held as a strict family feast at home. The idea of going to a restaurant would scan- dalize them. The smaller children sit around the board. But they keep qui- ct. The place of honor Is for the big brothers home from school the elder sisters, the grandparents, uncles and the rest. It Is time for the whole family to be reunited. Sober talk pre- vails and even tears are mingled with the gayety and pious joy.
 Tn the religious families the "reveil- lon" follows naturally after the mid night mass of Christmas eve, when all have come home hungry and with cold feet. The old-fashioned dishes are ''boudin," or black blood sausage, and chocolate soup-two things easily and quickly cooked. There might be also fruit, cold chicken, galantine and so on.
 In richer and more worldly circles, the reveillon, is a more sumptuous Spread. Its special mark is lobster, truffied pheasant, meat ijellies, cham pagne, hot house fruits and candies.
 But in the great majority of little fin de siecle Paris families, it is "Baby, go to bed. When you wake up you will see what Pere Noel has brought for you" The single servant minds the child. Papa and mamma put on their coats and sally out into the streets to taste the joys of Christmas eve in Par is. Their ''reveillon" they will take at a restaurant or brasserie-without having gone to church beforehand.
 The boulevard is packed. It's lights make it as bright as any theater. Col ors of all kinds shoot from the shop windows. ALI the cafes blaze. But the special feature is line of wooden booths erected on the sidewalks, near the curbs, where novelties in strange profusion "sell themselves" as the word goes in French. The proprietors of the booths are small shop keepers, trying to make large Christmas sales of hand, folks out of work, poor widows, knowing youths, fair-fakirs--any one who can get credit for supplies of goods to stock the booth, and who can pay the first instalIment of hIs rent before hand. The city farms the privilege of putting up booths to as stock company. To saunter past the booths, make bar gains of things you can never need, smile at the, strange ideas of ts'useful gifts" candy, musical ,iugtrunents, brooms, lamps, antiquities and every other. object under heaven, not to speak of toys, which; dominate the whole, is one of the peculiar pleasiresSof Christ mas eve in Paris. " #
 The ''reveillons'' passed in the -res- taurants and brasseriesS have no reli- gious significance or sanction. It is an excuse to guzzle and eat fine cold dish es. I have the; souvenir of one Ameri- can who made 8 sad mistake in order ing. this supper, ,,,,e s,& < s~
 At that time he was paving atten- tion to a French girl, very nice Along the boulevard they were so gay! They had dined well. The girl had a new gown, a new coat, new hat and new gloves. They had picked up a number of small trifles at the booths, rickety violin two Japanese umbrellas, ga- zoo, shaped like a aoduck's head, which you could make to snap its beak as you sang through it, trick match box, first-c1ass satin bag, filled up with third-class, shop-worn candies, and a box of Pharaoh's serpents' eggs. They were the damseIs choice and she was beaming. @
 Entering Muller's brasserie a trife late-for they had been. to church, please mark it-they found a table 1 without too much waiting. The Amer lean desired to do, the proper thing. 1 He had been assured by an old-fash- loned Frenchmar that mulied wine and |