Amador ledger., 1900-09-14
FROM PARIS.
A Description of Excursions Made By
Cooks Vans.
From our regular correspondent

Cooks Vans.
From our regular correspondent
No one visiting Paris can have failed
to see the great vans of Cooks excur-
sionists which daily traverse the boule-
wards. Here is French Journalist s
description of his enemy the English
visitor.
l climb into the immense wagon
which is to carry me across Paris, in
company with Cooks English tourists.
1t is ten o'clock in the morning, the
loungers watch us with that half curl
Gus, half cynical manner that the Par
isian assumes when he looks at stran-
gers. A boy passing on bicycle calls
out in the only English he knows,
English, oh yes But the English
do not pay attention. They seem to
| ignore the presence of the people who
are looking at them. Next to me, on
a seat of the wagon, imperturaby
smoking a short wooden pipe, dry
and thin parsonage of some forty years,
with face as sharp as a razor, dressed
in golf pantaloons, a straw hat with
very narrow brim, woolen stockings
and shoes with quadruple soles. de-
lights in his splendid isolation. -
During the entire journey this man
does not speak word In watching
him the saying of a philosopher comes
to my mind, ''The Englisman himself
is an Island"
The spectacle of these impenetrable
citizens of free England, however,
causes US certain admiring surprise.
Their surprise of discipline and punc-
tuality is even more astonishing than
their impassibility. The departure of
Cooks wagons is set for ten O'Clock
at five minutes of ten, they are there
men, women, children, no one is lack =
ing. And there are thousand of
them that Thos. Cook and Son carry
daily around Paris this year OF the Ex-
position. They arrive without haste
and take their places without pushing,
in a precise and correct manner. 1t is
done without noise, without discussion,
without complaint. Imagine thous-
and French people of both sexes to
dispose of in this way. Hear the criti-
cisms, the disputes, the things to see
to the last moment, the showing! See
the women especially, their faces flush :
ing at being assigned a place they did
not expect: 81 told you so-it's always
the same way-how badly managed it
is-how can one travel in this way
how hot it is. -
The British tourists do not quarrel.
If they have an observation to make,
they address themselves quietly to the
manager, yielding at the first good
reason given, nodding the head and
saying, "Well, we'll" They do not
even complain of the heat. They en-
dure it stoically. as a companion whose
rights they respect.
But our wagon moves; drawn by five
bay horses, driven by French postil-
ion gaily along the boulevards. l ex-
anime my companions. They belong
to the commercial small shop class of
London, and all, men and women, are
ugly, of that English ugliness that
strikes us more than the French ugli-
ness because we are not so used to it.
From the big classic Britisher, with
the head of a bull and projecting eyes
with glances that seem like the clench-
ed fist of a boxer, to the thin, close
shaven Englishman with a face like a
fish, whose lower jaw seems to feel
such repugnance for the upper one
that it steadily retreats from it; pass
ing to the plump Englishman-all
shades of masculine ugliness are repre-
sented. On the other hand, only one
type of feminine ugliness, that thin
type, frame without hips, without
bosom, without sex, with mum mberless
sharp angles, the vegetarian English
woman.
The bearing of the men, the dresses
OF the women, suit the ugliness of the
types. The middle-class English,
travelling in parties, have evidently no
desire to please. They dress in prac-
tical manner, without trace of CO.
quetry. The flannel shirts of the men,
the cotton waists of the women, lack
elegance, chic, style. And on the
faces of these appears no desire to COR
rect by art the disgraces of nature.
The .Madeleine-the Elysee-the Arc
de Triomphe. At each stage the
wagon stops everybody rises. The
guide, standing on the step of the car
riage, rapidly repeats his lesson. They
listen with the same seriousness that
they give to a sermon on Sundays.
My neighbor imperturbably smokes
his pipe and remains ''splendidly iso-
lated" He recalls to me that globe
trotter who had been around the
world three times, and brought back
only the names and menus of the
hotels. A very old man, with vener-
able white beard. sits down at once and
resumes reading the Times; an angular
old lady studies her red backed guide
book. Below, a couple-bride and
groom on their wedding journey-hold
I, l.