Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-02-01

Louvre at last. I'm just dying to know the
Yale-Princeton score. will it be in the paper
tomorrow?'-they find no pressing need OF
Lucys French so far.
What chance has the young lady to learn
French? There are dances at the boarding
house Young men-and honest Americans
at that-sprins up on every side as unexpect-
eddy as SO many Jacks-in-the-boX. There
are excursions to the Bots, O'Clock teas,
visits to artists studios and matinees at the
Opera Comique-because 1t is music and
there Is no need to follow the dialogue.
Her only chance to practice French is IN
the shops and at the boarding house French
table. The French table is derision. 1t is
the best place in the world for a French
person to learn English. Three-fourths the
population of every high-class boarding
house in Paris Is English-speaking, and
the conversation always slides into the
easier language. 1t is better SO. Evil COM
municat lions corrupt good manners, and
nothing is more evil than our French
"Aimez-vous du lapin en- gibelotte, mad
emoiselle?" "Oui, tres beaucoup, mon
Sieuri''
.'Yes, Mr. Smith. je suis faim-why are
you looking into your plate, have l made
another mistake? If Monsieur Dupont
spoke English he would make as many.
l would like to hear them speak a little
English, these Frenchmen. who look SO
superior. Je dis. monsieur, que ie voudrafs
bien sentir ma langue dams Ia Douche dun
Francois, de temps en- temps! At one time
the French table sOlemnly agreed upon q
system of black marks for breaking into
English at meals. At the end Of the week
the doctor. having the greatest number of
marks to his discredit, presented the table
/ with a dozen individual butter dishes, as a
hint to emphasize the butter at lunch time.
But when the management persisted in us
ing them for ice cream SaucerS at the din
ner, it destroyed the forfeit system, and
they all returned to easy English, glad of
an excuse.
One of the reasons of the astonishing rise
| and glory of the new style cafe spectacle
| music hall''-in home words, variety
| show''-a blossoming which has transform
! ed this sort of thing in Paris, is this very
| difficulty of language. Americans are not
! the only ones who cannot follow a French
| play. German and English tourists are
| quite as badly off, and the great contingent
| from South America find it just as hard to
| untangle the words when they speak so
| quickly For all foreigners the bright and
] bangy music hall. with it's trained goats,
| its acrobats, its baliets. its English ''seros''
| and "comediennes," it's clowns, jugglers,
| balancers and lofty tumblers comes as re-
| lief. No strain or attention is needed. 1t
makes no difference If you have not un-
derstood the second scene of the first act.
| 1t is the tourists delight, because the tour
list is not a German or English clerk come to
Paris to acquire French for business pur-
poses.
Paris is no place to pick up" French. /
| fancy that one living, say, for two years,
| in Berlin, must almost, by the force of cir
| cumstances, speak the German nicely. 1t
| would be the same for French at Bordeaux.
| But Paris is a great cosmopolitan city
| There are Americans in Paris today, and
| plenty of them, who have known French
pretty well for years and years, and yet