Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1900-05-26
Paris Club and Cafe.

Richard whiteing writes OF "The
Life of the Boulevards" In the June in
staiment OF his Century paper on the
Paris OF today:
The club, II must be owned is the
enemy OF the boulevard, in being the
enemy OF its cafes and OF its restaur-
ants. At the beginning of things it
was these institutions or nothing with
your shopmates in the work of life, or
to take bite and sup in their company.
This has passed. The club cuisine
gives points to the cuisine of the res
taurant. The club company is neces
sarily more select than any cafe of ar
fists. cafe iof poets. or what not, sub
jeCt to the intrusion of the outsider.
The club. too, has It's own town talk;
and since this is but the gossip of the
boulevard! with some improvements in
the infections, it gives members all
they want. But what the boulevard
loses in this way it gains in many an
other, and its masses of mere human
beings make society of their own.
Yet the Partisan dejoiner au rest
aurant is still an institution. know
ot nothing better in the world. In
the general competition among ma
tions in the arts of life. France has
fixed the form for this repast, if we
call it by its proper name of lunch.
There are, indeed, midday meals Of ev-
cry, variety, all over the planet, for
those who are able to get them; but
the Partisan dejeuner is the only real
lied ideal. The breakfasts of the Au-
tocrat were but the ideal; he probably
lived on a cracker in the interest of his
splendid conversational dreams. The
luncheons of the mighty in London So
ciety are the nearest English approach
to the realization. What there is of
light and grace about them is French
by origin or by suggestion. The deli
cate courses succeed one another with
even richer promise to the eye than to
the palate, and the petit verre seems to
close the vista with flowers.
In the Champs-Elysees you may
breakfast under the trees, with manu-
factured surroundings of nature which
for this purpose. are an improvement
on the real article. The tame spar
rows are probably on the staff of the
establishment, but they please. Yet
for profit and pleasure, as for scenery
of another kind the rendezvous may
still be the boulevard. The main
things are even the same-lightness
and brightness, the former extending
from the mode of service to the thing
served. There is nothing out Of the
way in the quality of the viands. the
Paris market is i'll supplied with fish
from the great deep, and the roats of
the Paris kitchen sometimes produce
longing for home that is not purely
patriotic. Yet the French cook rarely
fails to hold you with the magic of his
kickshaws; and if you choose your
restaurant with judgment you will find
the fare quite good enough for human
natures daily food The one thing
needful is to approach the table in the
right spirit, or all the magis goes for
naught. That spirit is the spirit of ex-
pectation, of longing, of desire for the
good things of the body and for the
good humor which is its natural express
sion. The doctors say that this licker-
ishness is an important part of the
business of eating, as the mouth that
honestly waters for its morsel lightens
the labor of the digestive juices.
The Frenchman makes no apology
for enjoying his. victual, and he knows
nothing of the rather artificial humil-
ity of our forms of grace before meat
He does not pray that the food may be
sanctified to his use and to the most
exalted service. 1t is enough for him
to have 1t agreeable to his palate