New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-12-01
TOPICS IN PARIS.
THE COLLAPSE OF THE GOLD sPECULA-
TION-A GREAT CHRYSANTHEMOM
sHOW-COUNT MUENSTER
Paris. November q.

Not since the great Union Generate Smash Oh
1882 which ruined half OF the most ''
families Of the French nobility, mas SUCH " ""'N
Of financial disaster swept over the RAJ '''a"
or,d nc what "a now known as "le krach des
,o,res dor" The Panama collapse affected the
small investors and "petits bourgeois through
ont the length and breadth Of the country the
Irnion-Generale failure was restricted 10 INC
Catholic aristocracy; but the collapse OF 'he u"
sane South African boom has caused waning anu
crashing of teeth among all classes OF the a'''-
ian world excepting the inanciers themselves
u-bo &C usual have profted by the recklessness
of the speculators The latter have. In the pres
emf instance. consisted largely of women, some
OF them duchesses. some actresses ana sonie
women lowering on the border-line between the
stage and the "Faubourg but one ana all Typ
teal parisennes. that is to say illogical reckless
and filled with illusions which in most cases nave
now been rudely dashed to the ground. IheS
were ca excited about their speculations whle
the boom lasted that they talked Of nothing else
and for the first time within memory or the pres
emf generation "chiffons" were relegated 10 the
background as the main topic OF conversation
Suddenly the collapse came. 1t was OF SO
serious a character that the ne" Minister VI
Finance summoned In hot haste TO MS Office tie
syndic of the agents de change OF Official
brokers: Baron Alfonso de Rothschild ana TWO
~ ,brae otbers NJ the leading members of the
financial world of Paris, to concert measures lor
restoring public confidence and averting compete
manic all along the line With the same read
mess to serve public interests that he has SHOWN
on several other occasions. Baron Rothschilo
took upon himself the entire work or acmeFlhs
this and spent four days in seeing the various
heads Of the great banking houses Of the French
hat no mari
dlately began to improve. and Government bonds
at any rate assumed much frmer tone Ihank'
TO his efforts no institution Of any national i'm
nortance has come to grief; but the city is strewn
with wrecks of dainty craft, and stories OF woe
ara IN he heard on every side. To make matters
worse II seems that many Of the ladies nave
sneculated without the knowledge Of their nus
hands and many are the homes that have been
broken I'D in consequence. Some of the fair
losers have become insane, and it was only three
DAYS ago that a Marquise bearing name among
the most famous in French history, and VINO mas
hitherto ranked as of the most hospitable
OF grandes DANES in the noble Fauoours' was
found demented begging in the streets at Neuiliy
asserting that her husband and children at nome
were starving 1t was not until several hours
after her arrest for vagrancy and mendicancy
that her identity was discovered
IT CHANGES THE STYLE OF BONBONs.
One Of the oldest effects Of the smash has been
the transformation that has taken place with al
most lightning rapidity in the shop windows OF
the great "confiseurs" and ''patissiers There
is no trade that follows the fad Of the hour so
closely or TO such extent as the "bonbon
business and for weeks the shop windows were
filled with odd-lookng bonbonnieres in the shape
Of pieces of graycolored quartz streaked here and
there with veins of gold. They were called
"pepites" the French word for nuggets, and were
invariably filled-ominou5y, to my mind-with
that particular kind of bonbon called "fondant,
which, being filled with lqueur, melts away the
moment it touches the tongue. There must have
been millions of these cardboard nuggets filled
with "bonbons" on the market ten days ago
since one saw nothing else in the 'patissiers
shop windows. and yet they vanished in single
night when the break came. and there is not one
to be seen exhibited for sale 1t will be interest
ing to learn where they will turn up next. Ger
tain IT is that they will be placed upon the mar
ket somewhere-but where?
Among the men who are reported to have been
badly hit King Milan of Servia, who was
recently set upon his financial legs more by
the Servian Government. yet who now finds him
self again in serious difficulties and in need Of
Belgrade. he is unlikely to receive from that
quarter King Leopold of Belgium is reported
to have dabbed in South African mining stocks
In the hope Of repairing his losses in the Congo
but with disastrous results; while 1t is also
serted that young Comte de Casteane is among
the heavy losers OF course the effect Of this wide
spread ruin has been TO engender a bitter feeling
particularly among the losers against the British
Nation, which, on the ground that the majority
of the South African companies were promoted
and engineered by London and South African
financiers. they hold responsible for the wreck
of their fortunes The name Of Mr.. Barnato, in
particular, is covered with eXecratiOn at the
present hour and naturally the Marquis de Mores
and NJ Drumont have taken advantage OF the
situation t. point out from the platform and in
print that Mr. Barnato and most of his fellow
fnanciers belong to the Hebrew and that
the entire affair is merely another scheme on the
part of the Jews for getting the best Of the guile
less Gaul.
Nowhere else in the world is it possible to see
such collection Of chrysanthemums as is shown
every year by the National Horticultural Society
whose show opened in the Rue de Grenelle
on Tuesday by President Faure who was accom-
panied by his daughter. Mile. Lucie. Each year
the exhibition is superior the last and there is
abundant evidence OF the rapid growth of the
cult of this flower throughout Europe The exhi-
biton IL supposed to be restricted exclusively to
French horticuturists but this year, for the first
time, foreign exhibitors have been admitted and
prizes have been carried off alike by Italian and
English chrysanthemum growers. The first prize
however, was presented by President Faure to NJ
Nonin the well-known florist Of the Avenue de
Paris
MINISTER'S STAY AT HOME
A good deal OF comment has been created by
the failure on the part OF most OF the newly
appointed Ministers to take up their residences In
the official apartments that are assigned TO
them at their respective ministeres Jules Clare
tie, Emile lola. Alphonse Daudet and many other
novelists OF note have portrayed the existence
OF Cabinet Minister and of his wife from the