Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-11-21

his immortal characters And when Rob-
ert Louis Stevenson came to Paris, two
generations later. he found that he must
pretend lot of romance; that you cannot
get good wine for twenty cents litre, and
that the grisette was even then, an ex-
tinct mammal" The romance has very
much departed from it, its Bohemianism
has run to seed and the effects of such
life upon young France is fairly noticeable
to the obServant.
But the Latin quarter still exists. The
students, their brasseries, their ill-smelling
hotels, their cheap dinners, where the wat
cry soup is lukewarm enough to be swum
in by the suspicious pearl-white fish that
follows, and where the greasy be-sauced
boiled meat, stuffed through with Shiny
fat. comes in its due turn, with faded,
cheesy-smelling vegetables. There are the
sc hools, the museums, the monuments. The
Paris student still exploits his reputation
for all 1t is worth. The Latin quarter, in
which he lives and moves and has his bleat-
ing. has been cut through by great streets
and boulevards- The march of improve
ment has damaged the completeness of his
ist to give favor to the city and to bring
into being the great men Of France.
The Original Latin Quarter.
The original Latin quarter-Latin was
then the synonym of learningls one
Of the Oldest of all Paris. 1t grew up where
the Roman city had first spread over to the
left bank of the Seine from the primitive
lSidnu. Is the DTOaQ, straight boulevard
Salnt-Michel, run through the midst of
narrow, grimy streets by Baron Haussmann
under Napoleon III, that properly marks
off the Latin quarter, SO far as it has any
boundary. There are plenty of schools and
scholars yet further on to the west. But
they are an intrusion toward the noble
quarter of the Faubourg Saint-Germain.
This is the quarter of the old church tower
Of Saint-Germain-des-Pres or "of the
meadows"
The tower Is all that is left of the great
abbey and its church. built shortly after
the year 1000; and the meadows were for
the monks and all clerks or scholars to
walk and wrangle in. The twenty thousand
students of Dantes time were further east
and nearer to the river, where there Is still
the little crooked Rue du Fouarre of which
the poet speaks. 1t was then the College
of the Sorbonne began taking the lead of
the old abbey of Saint-Victor, the College
of Navarro. and all the other forty-two
colleges Of the medieval university And
1T has ever since remained the center of
French university life The immense new
building, just off the Boulevard Saint
Michel. is also the chief center Of the en-
tire University Of France. which is ma
tional institution, with teaching faculties
In many different cities.
Naturally the Paris schools draw to them
selves as many students as are able to
leave the provinces, so that the little world
of the Latin quarter really represents
young France. With them are Joined the
several thousand students of the art
schools, among whom American girls pro
Tossing to study art have lately made ir-
ruption without yet being recognized or un-
derstood by the French students The lat
ter. in this old Latin quarter, which is their
own, pig along together. leading life half
new. half old. amid scenes half new, half
cid. where human nature plays curious
pranks. tricked out in its old garments with
new patches.
OF all the schools clustering here together,