Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-03-28

and to hang them around your necks. They
| are more non-committal than engagement
rings, but cause great pleasure while they
| last.
This takes place at the gingerbread fair.
which opens it's delightful revelry on Easter
Sunday and runs through the month. In
the east end OF Paris, where three great
streets-the Boulevard Voltaire, the Rue
du Faubourg Saint-Antoine and the Boule-
ward Diderot-meet like tripod. the great
round Place de Ia Nation gives on a park
like avenue that leads out to Vincennes, be-
ycnd the city limits. The Place de la Ma
ton is better known in history as the an
| cient Place du Trone OF bloody memory,
where the guillotine once worked. But long
tefore that time it had a brighter reputa-
ton with Pa-isians, and the reputation
rests, well-founded, to the present day.
For full 500 years its wondrous fair Of
gingerbread has drawn all Easter-celebrat-
| Ing Paris annually to the round place and
park-Hke avenue. Once, doubtless it was
country, or, at least, suburban: now the
city is built up beyond the BARRIERS out to
ElncenneS itself The country has changed
into city: but the country fair remains.
1t Is country fair on a gigantic scale,
and yet all Paris runs to frolic in it, Its
vogue Is SO great that each spring season
sees the booths and tents encroaching fur
Their toward the center of the capital down
the Boulevard Voltaire and Faubourg Saint
antoine. These avenues and streets and
squares of busy commerce are given up in
the most extraordinary way to merry-go-
rounds, menaSerleS, eide shows, tents and
barracks. swings and Ferris wheels-and
they call them 'hygienic swIngs!'-with
clrcuSeS and moving tneaterS and Punch
and-Judys. The folks who live along these
streets see and hear from their windows
and balconies, night ami day. an arena Of
diabolical confusion. But instead of COM
planning to the beard of health they think
that they are lucky to be near such a de-
lightful racket And they are envied by
their friends who come to visit them with
enthusiasm.
Forms of Amusement.
In the broad and open Place de la Nation
the confusion is ten times worse confound-
ed Wild shrieks of melody from the brass
tEroats of calliopes played without ceasing
mingle with the thin but penetrating walls
Of lost children; and they are answered by
the roars of performing lions and the ap-
peals Of travelling showmen on their plat
forms.
The proprietors and performers form a
separate old-fashioned Bohemian class
Most of them live in their travelling wa
Sohs and are en- the move constantly from
ole part of France to another. One lion
tanner, Bidel, with three splendid full
giown animals. could get fattering Eu-
rorean engagements il he would quit his
rowing life. There is another, with trained
monkeys, who has been familiar to Pari-
10y cad fair. No one has such monkeys. All
the great French wrestlers have graduated
from the fair booths, and there are swords
men in these troupes who could. give points
to swell 'maSterS-of-armS" Therefore the
shows are respected, for there is deal of
merit mingled with their ludicrous trash
The Paris papers give them individual no.
tees and criticisms. And the fact that
they are rude, old-fashioned and country
fed is in their favor rather than against
them.
To have a just idea of what the ginger
bread fair is like. imagine a very wide and
dusty street. 1t is so dusty that the tender
green of the freshly opened horse chestnut
leaves is already powdered an ugly white
There are two roadwayS in this street for
vehicles; bat its center is a long bare
park-like promenade fringed by two rows
of trees. Beyond the trees on either side
is the roadway: beyond the roadway the
sidewalk; and then tall rows of apartment
fCuSes. Along both sides of the central
promenade, which answers to the middle
OF the street, are arranged the show things
of the fair
Between Them for almost two miles
there jostles half of Paris, stopping, talk
ing. pushing, screaming. laughing, flirting,
guying and being guyed. hustling and be-
ing hustled. Ladies who come in their
vanished carriages with powerful horses
shaking silver chains rub elbows with
hloused workingmen; they buy and bite into
the traditional gingerbread pigs; they at
tempt TO throw iron rings over knives
stuck into board; they throw tennis balls
at the wooden figures of the 'massacre:"
they ride from the flying horses; they buy
balloon, gamble for dabs of ice cream,
shoot at targets for the drinks, and have
their fortunes told. You can get rid of a
deal of money at the gingerbread fair.
Ten dollars gone already
Some of the Attractions.
Although 1t is called the gingerbread fair.
that is only a name. Other fairs sell as
much gingerbread. and the gingerbread
fair deals in the specialties of all the 9TH
ers. In this loud avenue there are booths
for the sale Of sausages left over from the
ham fair of March, sausages of Lorraine,
of Aries, Of Strasbourg, of the Moselle,
from Savoy and the Jura. There are trad
ers in the country produce of the depart
ment of the Meuse. from Alsace and all the
east of France. There Is cider from the
Norman orchards, and there are Breton wo-
men baking batter cakes. You may buy
and eat hot, fried potatoes, and you may
drink and pay for Ecorice and water or
cheap absinthe.
The peep shows and other shows are
Eumberless and terrifying in the grotesque-
ness of their imaginations The Funeral
of Pasteur,' THE Assassination of Presi-
dent Carnot'-good; but English Generals
in He'll and THE Rain of Frogs'-what
do you think OF them? One of the theaters
WHAT OUR POET CrHE NEWLY-MARR