The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-02-07
BEAUTIFUL PARIS.
THE SEINE CRITICISED FOR ITS UN-
COMMERCIAL CHAR CTER.
Unlike Many other Rivers-A Stream
for Pleasure and Not for Heavy
Trafic-Paris Not az Bad as 1t Is
Painted-The Nude in Art


American tourists abroad are sending
back learned dissertations on the beauties
and vices of Paris. One writer criticises
the Seine unfavorably because, insteau of
teeming with life, like other important
rivers it seems to float only "a few can
al boats and barges." This recalls the
familiar anecdote of the Scotch their
horses and oats. Canal boats and barges,"
| but such canal boats and such barges!
The same writer suggests that France
construct a first-class canal from Paris
to the sea, as Manchester has done, and
that then. like Manchester, "she will have
her exceeding great reward by becoming
a busting port" May the gods of Sc
renity forbid The delight and pride of
Paris is that she is not a seaport. The
subject has several times been officially
discussed. but always with the same re-
suit. The French boast that they are
such able financers that there is no neces-
sity to sacrifice art to commerce. They
always prove themselves equal to finan-
cial emergency, as in the paying of the
| German war indemnity in 1870. In that
| instance peasants and servants came to
the aid of the government The humblest
domestic in France respects the rainy day,
and when the crisis comes surprising
sums are drawn forth by these frugal peo-
pie.
The Seine spreads benevolently between
clear quays. where fishermen sit idly rev.
! cling in the clearness of the water, I'M
fecked by so much as a scrap of paper,
| or gazing contentedly at the picturesque
| wash houses where the queens of the tub
| perform their tasks To them the tub
| is a misnomer, for such articles as are
! not. pounded between stones are spread
on tables and scrubbed with brushes. The
latest Partisan method of drying is unique.
| The linen is sent up in bamboo frames.
| like kites, to q distance of 800 feet above
the housetops. The air at that altitude,
| being rarfied, acts at once as drying agent
| and antiseptic.
The fisherman is undisturbed by the rush
and roar of wheels, the rasp of anchor
chains, the flush and flow caused by huge
ships. he is unannoyed by the CRIME of
| shooting coal, the dust of fertilizer, lime,
flour, cement. When these necessities are
unloaded il is done deliberately. The air
| is free from the malOdors of petroleum,
phosphate and glue factories The noises
are the minor ones of pleasure yachts,
| the rhythmic plash of oars, or the whis
| tie and hand-belI of gay little steamers,
| la petite mouche and le petite oiseau, n
| they glide in and out from the floating
stations. At night there is no flare of fur
| naces, seething iron and molten glass; In
stead, the fantastic lights of cafes, the
steady, starlike beam of moored barge
or raft, the floating signals of pleasure
| parties or the watch-lamps of the little
steamers lying like children sleeping aft
er a day of activity. Notre Dame sits
majestically apart in the dark of adult
slnnber. Hotel de Vile blinks ftfully as
! if revealing in forbidden wakefulness,
while in the distance Eiffel tower stands
like stately sentinel ever alert.
The Odors of the Seine, the summer
Seine, are those of clean suds suppressed
by the permeating breath of roses, violets
ferns and fresh, green leaves, boatloads
of which drift in to the markets. Leaves
| and ferns are essential to the French
! idea of the fitness of things, and if the
/ purchase be only one tomato, or a demi-
kilo of berries or figs. the leaf is a nee
1 essary northumberland turks the
1 favor The love of decoration does how
ever, seem a trife overweight when at
1 The meat shops one beholds green leaf
and red blossom decorating the stump of
/ the neck or the hind quarter of sheep or
! pig.
! Yes if the Seine ,were broadened TO the
/ sea, Paris would have her exceeding
/ great reward in CRIME foul odors and
mel We Cklng dscOrd. Cannot the world
| aford one city that does not worship the
! blatant goa of commerce? Why this daily
cry for turning the alabaster vase into
! the kitchen pot? If France can afford the
naura, Seine, the unpolluted Seine, AMI
| shows reference to the god of nature let
her guests, if they fail 10 appreciate an
/ least grant her the courtesy of silence
| That they do appreciate however. is
shown by their constant desire to be with
her.
A fair writer explains this desire: Gamer
leans she says, love Paris because II is
so much like New York and Chicago"
The truth is, one of the chief attractions
of the City of Light is her dissimilarltv
to either But she is being forced into
| a resemblance. American guests have
j cried out against the slow methods of
/ transit until the beautiful boulevards be-
gin to groan beneath the mad rush of the
eleva led road
There are many exaggerated reports of
| the wickedness of Paris. Yes she is wick
ed, but strangers anticipating evil, misin-
terpret much that they see and hear; and
/ then-but comparisons are odious A well
known clergyman in "a lecture recently de-
| livered In one of our cities, said: IF
! Paris with Il excessive wine bibbing, its
love of luxury and laziness, its predomi-
! nance of nude art, its utter disregard Of
| the Sabbath, its sensuality and suicides
is not on the highway to the hell of
doomed cities, then there are no ethics in
history and no connection between cause
and effect" A letter from the same gen
tleman to a resident of Paris states that
of an the places he visited in his recent
tour abroad-and he describes some of
them as affording him keen enjoyment
he liked best end would revisit Paris The
inference Is plain; either the gentleman
has allowed stereotyped phrases to render
him lncons.s tCnt or he confesses 10 a de-
cided appetite for the hshpots Of Egypt
Much of the abuse of Paris IS cant.
The leading cutlery OF these hasty OBJ
servers is against the nude in arr. 1t OBJ
trudes itself into every paper ana maya
zine With the French this grave offense
is due to a love of art rather than a love
of the nude. To them. as 20 all conno,s-
seurs nature Is the mistress of art and
they initiate and worship her. Being skill
ful critics as to drapery and adornment.
they have proverb: DO not dress me, do
not dress bv statue" With che majority