The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-06-16
The GILMAN OF THE GRAND PRIV
License of the After-Dinner Hour ut
the Jardin de Paris.
Richard Harding Davis in Harper's Mag
aZine.

ANaNAeAAA AAeAAtiiis7 AfttfAN 49, 49, - "
| aZine.
The spirit of adventure and excitement
| that has been growing and feeding upon
itself throughout the day of the Grand
Prix reaches its climax after the dinner
hour. and finding an outlet among the
trees and Chinese lanterns Of the Jardin
de Paris. There You, will see all Paris.
1t is the crest Of The highest wave of
pleasure that rears itself and breaks
there. T.
that night, all OF the most celebrated
women of Paris racing with linked arms
about the asphalt pavement which cir
cles around the band stand. 1t is for
them their one night of freedom in pub
lie. when they are permitted to conduct
themselves as do their less prosperous
sisters. when instead Of reclining in a
Victoria in the Bots with eyes demurely
fixed ahead of them, they can threw
off restraint and mix with all the men Of
Paris. and show their diamonds and romp
and dance and chat and laugh
as they did when they were
not so famous. The French
sWefis who Dire their escorts have cut
down Chinese lanterns with their sticks,
and stuck fhe candies inside of them. on
the top of their high hats with the burn
ing tallow, and made living torches Of
themselves So on they go racing by
first q youth in evening dress, dripping
with candle grease, ana then a beautiful
girls in dinner gown, with her silk and
velvet opera cloak slipping from her
sh0uiderR-all singing to the music of
the band. sweeping the people before
them, or closing in a circle around some
stately dignitary, and waltzing furiously
past him 70 prevent his escape Some
times one party will storm the band stand
and seize the musicians instruments,
while another invades the stage of the
little theater, or overpowers the women
in charge of the shooting gallery, or in
sttutes a hurdle race over the iron tables
and the wicker chairs.
or you will see ambassadors and men of
title from the Jockey Club jostling cock
ney bookmakers and English lords to look
at little girl in a linen blouse and fiat
straw hat, who is dancing in the same
circle of shining shirt fronts vis-a-vas to
the most-talked-of young person in Paris,
who wears diamonds in ropes, and who
rode herself into notorety by winning a
steeplechase against a field of French
officers. The first is a hired dancer, who
will kick off some gentleman's hat when
she wants It, and pass it round for money,
and the other is the companion of the prin-
cess. and has probably never been per-
mitted to enter the Jardin de Paris before;
but they are both of the same class and
when the music stops for moment
they approach each other smil-
ing, each on her guard against
possible condescension or familiarity; and
the hired dancer. who is as famous in her
way as the young girl with the ropes of
diamonds is In hers, compliments madame
on her dancing and madame calls the other
'mademoiselle, and says, How very
warm it ISL and the circle of men around
them, who are leaning on each others
shoulders, and standing on benches and
tables to look, smile delightedly at the
spectacle. They consider it very chic, this
| combination. It is like meeting between
Madame Bernhard and Yvette Guilbert.
| But the climax of the night was reached
| last year when the band of a hundred
| pieces struck buoyantly into that most
| reckless and impudent of marches and
| comic songs, 1.-The man that broke the
bank at Monte Carlo" The cymbals clash
ed and the big guns emphasized the high
notes, and the brass blared out boastfully
/ with a conffdepce and swagger that show
| ed how sure the musicians were of pleas
| ing that particular audience with that par
| ticular tune. And they were not disap-
! pointed. The three thousand men and wo-
men hailed the first bars of the song with
a yell of recognition, and then dancing and
strutting to the rhythm of the tune, and
singing shouting it in French and English
! they raised their voices in such a chorus
that they could be heard defantly pro
| claiming who they were and what they
had done as far as the boulevards. AnC
when they reached the high note in the
! chorus the musicians, carried away by tht
fever of the crowd. jumped upon the chairs
and held their instruments as high above
their heads as they could without losing
! control of that high note, and every one
stood on tiptoe, and many on one foot, al
holding on to that highest note as lonl
as their breath lasted. 1t was a Triumphant
reckless yen of defiance and delight; il
was the war cry of that class of Parisians
of which one always reads and which one
sees so seldom, which comes to the surfac,
only at unusual intervals and which, wheI
it does appear. lives up to its reputation
and does not disappoint you.