The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-10-11

N'Netii PtNplGt lIlCltpllllso PtpllI' AS"J N' timetable, for the routes arc constantly changing and increasing. In a few days you will have mastered thesystem. In the course of a week you will have saved enough money from hack hire to
 blow yourself off to bang up dinner at the Cafe Rougemont, just now the very
 best cafe in Paris.
 AS a philosopher, with his eyes ana ears wide open, stood against tree the other day in the Champs Elysee watch ing about half dozen regiments Of in- fantry march by, a great truth was re-
 vealed to him. The troops, though evi-
 dently not long away from their bar racks, marched as if they were already
 tired Instead of showing the swing and spring seen any day in Berlin, they
 labored with their legs and feet as 1T the feet were heavy and the legs were
 bound. Suddenly the truth was re-
 Vealed to the keen eye and the sound
 intellect of the standing philosopher.
 The trouble is in the cut of the trous-
 CTS. There may be other reasons for
 the inferiority of the French soldier to
 the German, but no troops inside or such trousers could be of any use on the
 march or on the field of battle. Since
 that day not soldier has marched any
 where near the. philosopher whose trousers have not been subjected to the
 strictest scrutiny. Were he not afraid
 of being arrested and shot as Prus-
 sian spy he would get pair of those
 trousers and expose their horrors to the
 nation. How can a soldier march in-
 side of trousers which are not forked
 to within six inches of his natural fork
 ing. Every step he takes must be ter
 rible labor At every movement those
 treacherous garments must pull and
 twist him, rack and tear him, till the
 wonder is that he doesn't sit down and
 cry. There were thousands of them in
 that march down the Champs Elysees,
 each undergoing the same agony of
 stride. Pin your trousers together
 about half way down to the knee. Then start out for Savin Rock. How
 lar do you suppose you will go? Every
 pair of infantry trousers in Paris so far
 seen is cut in the same abominable
 manner. The tailors must be disguised
 Prussian spies. Then there is still an-
 other thing. Each pair of trousers has
 two enormous pockets. The opening to
 the pockets, extends perpendicularly
 along the side of the leg and is at least
 ten inches long. The pockets them- selves extend almost to the knees. The
 French soldier has the habit of carry ing his pockets full of everything just like an American school-boy. What is in them nobody knows but the soldier and his one most intimate friend I When he is standing still his pockets look like huge anatomical extensions Perhaps that is a desired appearance and is supposed to convey to the enemy the idea of enormous muscular develop
 ment. When the soldier walks at once the pockets begin their deadly work Flop, flop, like two bags of meal; each | flop retarding the step and adding enor- mously to the effort required to produce l it! Can it be possible that French mill
 itary authorities are blind to this evil,
 or is there some sacred tradition con-
 nected with such trousers which must
 not be disturbed, like that other ridicu-
 lous French military tradition, that the
 largest men must be selected for the cavalry? Lightness and quckness are j the qualities now required for the cav
 airy. Heavy riders are a relic of the
 tines of the first Napoleon. Such dra- | SOOuo dS w Oll IllS NlCluIito WOulo Uc dt- stroyed by modern artillery before they could get within a mile of the enemy's
 lines. The Prussian war furnished all i the proof necessary. Yet the French continue to put their strongest and
 heaviest men on horseback and fill their infantry regiments with striplings and ] then handicap them with trousers and
 pockets sufficient to paralyze the strength of Hercules. You quite lose
 your patience with them. The philoso-
 pher aforesaid quite lost his patience
 over quite another matter the other day
 and hasn't yet fully recovered from the shock
 | The French boast that in their "Bibl-
 othique Nationale'' there are more
 books than in the British Museum. They claim to have at least one copy of every
 book ever published in Europe. Wheth- | CT that be true or not, it is true that it | requires more red tape and patience to get any particular book ten times over I than it does at the British Museum. In | the first place to get into the reading
 room, Salle de Travail, as they call it, | you must be personally introduced by some responsible party known to the authorities That entities you to a card, which you must show, every time | you enter the reading-room. When you | finally get in a very imperial looking parsonage at the door scans you with majestic look of seorn and suspicion. You may have passed him hundreds of times already. Always the same scorn, the same suspicion. He hands you a partially printed sheet, on which you are to write your name and your ad- dress, also the number of the desk | where you elect to sit. At the other end of the huge hall is a circular desk on a raised platform shutting off the reading-room from the rooms where the books are kept. At the center of the desk are generally seated two men. In front of each are two piles, one white,
 one colored, of partly printed slips. You approach one of the men, bow and request as many slips as you want l books, selecting white slips if your seat | is to his right, colored slips for the oth- CT side of the hall. You then write out on each slip your name and address, your desk number and an exact descrip- l tion of the book desired, name of au- thor in full, time and place of publica- l ton, size and style Of the book, and it's | library marks if you can get them. As l the catalogues of the library only run