The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-23
THE nm OF DEATH IN PARIS.
Having Fun Win Death the Latest
Amusement of the BOuIevards.

From the New York World.
The latest and most extraordinary ex-
hibition OF degeneration in Paris is the
Cabaret du Meant, which may be trans
lated in English as the Inn Of Death.
Its chief attraction lies in the associa-
ton Of death and its most repulsive at
tributes with drinking and with life and
feverish gaiety. Death. which all decent
men, OF whatever belief, have agreed TO
treat with some reserve, IS thus made
a jest and associated with the vulgarest
Of pleasures.
The cabaret is situated on the Boule-
ward de CliChy. the most riOtous and
notorious Of the exterior boulevards and
Of amusement. II is a haunt of every kind
OF vileness, and is invariably visited by
the foreigner who wishes to see Paris
properly.
a few steps beyond the picturesque and
vicious. but now commonplace Moulin
Rouge you come to the Cabaret du Meant
Two large and sickly green lights. max
ing everything and everybody in. the
neighborhood CHASTITY and death-like, no
tlfy YOU Of its presence. 1t is small
Through a door draped with dead-blacl
curtains edged with silver. such as are
placed on church doors at funerals in
France, you enter this unholy resort Here
is the latest and most satisfactory and
also the Vilest and most sacrilegious ef-
fort to pander to the craving for the
morbid and the unnatural.
The room you enter is Valut-like and
filed with collins. These are really the
tables from which you are TO drink
Walters dressed as undertakers' men, in
black clothes with long streamers of Grape
hanging from their big hats, fit about
the cafe. They are chosen for their cadav-
er0us aspect. The poor wretches are
working FOR a living, and have no respon-
sibility in the CHASTITY farce in which they
are concerned.
tones: Welcome to DEATH" and Choose
your coffin"
Having chosen your coffin and ordered
your poison probably beer), the waiter
brings it to you, repeating some such
formula as:
Here is something to finish you on
a drink made from microbes and grave
worms"
Then he sets down your glass and places
a cierce, a funeral taper, by the side of 1t.
1t is hardly necessary to say that you pay
very high for drink amid these sur
roundings
All around you hear the undertaken
walters repeating their dreadful phrases:
Welcome to death" Here is something
to poison you" The dead cannot laugh"
This will make you rot quickly"
On the walls are What appear to be
paintings representing the "Walpurgis
Night" from "Faust:'' "A Night Fete at
the Moulin Rouge" and other subjects
From time to time all the figures IN the
pictures change into skeletons. The eff
feet in the Moulin oRuge scene is es-
pecially wierd.
You are then invited to take your cierge
and, in company with other visitors are
led through long, vault-like corridors. At
last you arrived in large room, draped
IN black, with no relief whatever.
A man dressed as a monk, with a huge
cowl over his head, stands at the door
and calls for silence. At the end of a
long, narrow passage leading from the
room an upright coffin is seen.
A chorister in red robes comes forward
and invites some visitors to place him
self or herself ia the coffin. There is never
any difficulty in finding a volunteer This
IS, IN TACT, an important part Of the amuse-
ment for many of the visitors who have
seen the show before.
The volunteer. passes behind a curtain
and reappears in front of the coffin in
which he is placed by the chorister with
great care Then he is envelODed in a
huge winding sheet, This performance
Is gone through to the strains of dirge-
like music from the harmonium.
Presently signs of decomposition appear
IN the corpse: Under the winding sheet
| It becomes visible. The flesh gradually
| leaves the bones by the process Of decay
ana at last only skeleton is left An
@1lotDnal visitor may experience relief
| in the flesh
The visitors return through the vault
| IKE corridors, and on their returning to
the drtnking-rOom are greeted with
phrases even more blasphemous than the
nrst, such as Welcome to the resurrect-
edP The final greeting of the manager Of
- Sata HiItilt as you pass out into
the street is, May your life be sweet and
Tree from care! He can hardly claim to
| have contributed to its sweetness.
The cabaret is doing a roaring business
and is nightly thronged with hundreds of
customers. Among them, of course. are
| conspicuous the women who are conven-
tlonaIly supposed to make Paris a CAV
city. Probably they derive from the exhi-
blton a satisfaction like that of people
who hug their sorrows. Premature decay
and death are the fate Of most of them
At any rate, 1t is natural that they
should be attracted to the unnatural.