The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-04-14
AMERICAN STUDENTS IN PARIS.
VERY DIFFERENT FROM THE Bo-
HERMAN EXISTENCE OF TRIL-
BY'S TINE.

Some of the Very New Arrivals Try
TO Emulate the Queer COstumed
Freaks of the Latin Quarter, but
Their Fellows soon Guy Them
Back Into RespectabiIity-The Club
of the Art students on the DUAL
Conti-Because of Their HOspitali-
~ and Good Fellowship the Amer
leans Are Popular with the
French students, Though at Pres
ent the Pro-BOer Feeling Has
Reused a Sentiment Against All
English Speaking visitOrs-Hard
Lives of some of the Unfortunate
Girl Students-HOw the Trans
AtIantics" Raise Prices.
Copyright. 1901. by V. Gribayedof)
Paris, April 1-Times have changed
since Murger wrote his Science of Be-
hemian Life" with its pictures of wild
revel and debauch, in the Latin Quarter
The student in Paris, with all his natural
gaiety and love Of a frolic, is every year
becoming more and more serious being
with a saner outlook on life. In the case
of the American student colony, especial
~
To-day the trans-Atla ntic freshman"
has the advantage of foreign experience
and Of the unrivaled educational faculties
of this city without necessarily abating
one jot of his native Americanism. either
in his moral view or in his daily habit of
life.
Sometimes. indeed, the newcomer is a
little disappointed with Paris on that
very account. He arrives, full to the top
of his head with ideas of picturesque
Bohemianism, and is scarcely in abe city
a week before he has made a tour of all
the cafes of the quarter in search of
types clad in weird artistic costumes,
whose baggy corduroy or velvet suits and
tremendous SLOUGH hats and wildly float
ing black ties Ga yard long and a foot
Wide) he hastens 40 initiate on his own
person. But he very soon learns sense
from the compatriotS whom he begins to
meet at his cafe or at the university or
art schools. They guy him unmerci-
fully until he has discarded his eccen-
trio raiment and appears on the street
clothed like them and in his right mind.
An art student who came over a while
ago from a Northern city, which had
granted him a "bourse, enjoys to this
day the title of "Mossoo, in memory of
the wildly Bohemian attire which he
donned in the first weeks of his arrival
He is now a sane and soberly dressed
student, like all the rest, not distinguish
able in costume from fifty young men of
his age on the streets of any American
city, but he will probably carry to his
grave the name which commentaries his
brief period of Murgeresque insanity in
Paris.
One institution which has a very dis
tinct tendency to keep Americans in
touch with their country in the strange
land is the American Art Association of
Paris" situate on the Quai Cont, just
opposite the Louvre, next door, almost,
to the Institute de France, the classic
home of the Immortal" Academicians.
Considerable historic interest attaches to
the house, in that Napoleon Bonaparte.
when a young lieutenant of artillery, was
a constant visitor there at the salon of
brilliant Madame Permon. The old house
retains evident signs of its ancient gran
deur in the spacious. low-ceilinged rooms
with carved wood paneling and large, old
fashioned windows. But its fittings are
very modern and complete; with its read
ing and smoking rooms. its library and its
restaurant. it makes an excellent club.
very American, a bit of home In the heart
of Paris to the Enthusiastically Ameri-
can young manhood that frequents 1t.
There is, in fact, very little pretense
and posing among the members of the
American student colony. AS rule, they
are much liked among the swarm of stu
dents OF all countries who make up the
population of the quarters Curiously
enough, however, their popularity has suf-
fered somewhat of late on account of the
English war in the Transvaal. The aver
age European finds it very hard to get rid
of the absurd notion that an American is
in most of his ideas only an English
man. who happens to live 5000 miles from
London; besides. the american accent in
speaking French is not very different
from that of a Briton. Occasionally a
band Of young Americans at a cafe has
been the subject of insult from some des-
perate Beers, who have taken the
strangers for fellow-citzens of Mr.. Cham
berlain. Then there has been trouble.
Sometimes the Americans have had to
give hstic demonstration of the PROPOSE
ton that a man with an English accent
TO his French is a good person to leave
alone.
But in the normal times. and especially
when the native students get TO know
their American confreres intimately. the
youthful citizens of the two republics get
on admirably together The Americans
for one thing. prove themselves a distinct
gain to the social life of the circle OF
comrades they fall among bV their free