The times., 1898-10-17
THE SUMMER SIEsTA.
Advice to the French That We Might
Well Consider.

CFrom tie Paris Figaro)
In France nothing is unrealizable ex-
cept small reforms. and that is why
doubt whether this one in particular will
be accomplished before long time.
However. many honest men desire 1t.
and think that in the dog days the exotic
custom of the siesta should become
French usage.
1t seems also that We should be encour-
aged to it by the example Of a country
'ery much in the mode at present, and
whose geographical situation would ap
pear to separate 1t, much more than our
selves, from oriental ways; l speak of
Norway.
One of our collaborators who passed
some days at Christiania tells US of the
astonishment of two Parisians who, 60
ing to knock, about o'clock in the aft
ernoon at the door of Isben. were stupe-
fed by this response from the servant:
Monsieur is asleep"
Our amiabe compatriots believed that
they We're being made fun of, that this
was a polite fashion of getting rid of
them Not the least in the world-the
Norwegian in spirit is not given to this
sort of pleasantly. Isben was really TAX
ing his siesta. following the Oriental
custom praciAed at that epoch OF the
year by nearly all the inhabitants OF
towns in that country.
They dine in Scandinavia about 3
O'Clock. and In hot weather take a light
nap after dinner. II is not unusual when
dining in the house of a stranger. that a
reclining chair is offered to the guest at
the moment when he rises from the Ia
bic He reposes there half an hour. and
the coffee, meant to waken him, is not
brought till the end of the half hour
and the siesta.
iG held ny the
majority of persons among US that moth
ing is more contrary to the laws of hy-
giene than to take horizontal repose
after eating. And this prejudice is so
firmly rooted in French brains that even
in the Orient in the hottest hours of the
day, when the poorest people repose, one
sees our compatriots running about The
Orientals have proverb about it; they
say in speaking of the burning noon.
when all the houses are closed, when life
pauses that 1t is the moment when one
sees in the streets "onIy Frenchmen and
I dogs" And this association of terms is
not meant to wound. 1t is a simple state
ment OF fact.
BY dint of writing in our Biographies
and repeating to ourselves that We live
in a temperate climate" we have ended
by believing ourselves able TO dispense
with all the precautions used in countries
officially designated hot or cold And
as we have the advantage of enjoying
alternately each year temperatures ST.
berian or tropical, of which our meteor
ological tradition takes no account, the
result is that our good country of France
! is sometimes the least comfortable TO live
in of any on the globe
I Our hygienists are like Moliere's physi-
clan. who blamed his patient for dying
contrary TO the-rules of medicine. They
do not admit that in a climate officially
classed as temperate one can complain
of being frozen or broiled. Whereas it is
not uncommon to hear Russians say that
they have never been as cold as at Paris
in winter, or 10 sec Brazilians or Indians
in the month of August sitting about the
( rerandas of our restaurants and regret
ting Santos or Colombo.