Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-02-21
THE STREETS OF PARIS
Scenes and Incidents That
Appeal to an American.
PAULINE PRY'S VIEWS
THINGS SHE LIKES AND OTHERS
THAT SHE DOES NOT.
Home Life Of the French-Children in
Public-Fine Looking Women
Funerals and Weddings.
PAULINE PRY'S VIEWS
Special Correspondence of Thu Evening Star.


PARIS, France, February 10, 1903.
After having experienced nearly every
thing prescribed by popular guide books,
I am convinced that the greatest of Paris
monuments is-the streets. Not the aris-
tocracy Of France nor the Bal Boullier is
one-half SO expressive of the widely adver-
tised wickedness of Paris as are the streets,
encountered for the first time as one
energies from the maddening chaos at the
Care du Nord and drives to the American
quarter in the Etoile district.
You will arrive after dark. You are seat
ed in open carriage of the victoria pat
tern-a fiacre. On the box in front is an
evil-looking, red-faced. jabbering creature
in a glazed, white pot hat holding the reins
over lean but determined and ambitious
horse. Crack" goes the whip-"crack,'
crack" go countless whips as you dash
into the packed street. 1t is like Fourth of
July-such a swapping, cracking of whips
on all sides of you. Your driver shouts and
curses; eVerybodys else driver shouts and
curses, and everybody on foot whom all
the drivers are seeking to run down-they
too shout and curse (you do not under
stand the language but the excited, loud
calculations must be curses).
When you do reach your destination the
streets of Paris have left no doubt in your
mind concerning the rapidity with which
life proceeds here. And this is an every
day experience. you reflect. Shades of
Robespierre! How things must hum in a
revolution-or a carnival!
Very Disappointing.
After time. however, one has grown &C
customed to the ripping, cracking chaos Of
Paris streets and has learned that the stir,
like the morals of the people, is for the
most part as inoffensive and harmless as
French duel. In this and other respects
the streets Of Paris are immensely disap-
pointing to an American. There Is one
Champs Elysees-broad smooth. clean,
beautiful. gay theroughfare, and there are
countless narrow. rock-paved, dirty, ugly,
dismal thoroughfares, which, as one gets
out Of the trend Of the American quarter
and goes about town freely, become his
most characteristic Impression Of Paris
streets.
Generous In many things, Paris is ex-
ceedingly selfish with everything that per-
tains to it's domestic life. Whether this is
because of reverence for the family institu-
ton or because of distruSt of the populaee
I am not sure. Both doubtless operate to
cause the Frenchman to build his dwelling
with it's back to the street and surround his
domicile with fifteen-foot stone wall. =.
That the Frenchman-even the Partisan
has reverence for the family institution one
soon learns from the streets of Paris, in
spite Of our preconeeived notions to the
contrary, for which Partisan novelists are
to blame. If comparisons were not odious
l SnOulQ say THAT Tie ldH1ly Is uSiu III
higher esteem by the French than by the
American people, and 1 would demonstrate
my point by the contrasting spectacle of
American and Paris streets. The children
thronging the former are commonly under
convoy of paid servants. while mamma else
where pursues some higher" aim and papa
down town coins the price of both mammals
aim and the nurses and children's keep.
Children in Evidence.
But In Paris. the streets would seem to
indicate that French women have no higher
aim than their children and that French
men conceive the opportunity of the father
to lie in something besides earning a lot
of money for his children to squander.
On Thursday afternoon in particular-the
half holiday of all the schools-the broad
avenues and parks Of Paris are fairly alive
with children whose holiday from school is
made the occasion of a family jubilee.
often start out Thursday afternoon not
thinking what day of the week It Is. Ny
way lies across the broad ESpianade des
Invalides over the Pont Alexander III and
down the Champs Elysees, and I have not
proceeded far along this course before the
sight Of here. there and everywhere, proud
fathers and mothers going along gaiiy, hand
in hand with their red-cheeked, bright-eyed,
bare-legged, happy looking youngsters,
bears in upon my mind the fact that it
must be Thursday afternoon.
+ On Sundays the spectacle assumes still
greater proportions, and the truth conveyed
Is that child life and family life are held
by the Frenchman-yes, the Parisian-to be
something of vastly greater and more sa-
cred consequences than degenerate French
fiction would have the world believe.
But II the Frenchman on Thursday and
Sunday brightens the streets of Paris by
his regard for the family institution, his
manner of erecting his domicile is not so
happy for the passer-by. The majority OF
the streets have prisonlike aspect. The
ornate style OF French architecture does
little or nothing to enliven the street view
of domestic establishments, which rise
from the sidewalk, grim and forbidding,
not a spear of grass to be seen, and all
but the crowns of the tall trees of the
gardens within hidden by the great dull
walls that shut in the radiance of the
Frenchmans home. The revelation Of
American front door yards-the expose OF
family gatherings on front stoops in sum-
mer time-this in Paris would be held an
offense against decency and good breeding.
Eating Outdoors.
Oddly connected with the French reserve
Of home life, Is the perfect abandon with
which natural functions-in particular eat
ing-are performed on the street. Picture
books and picture papers have long made
the world familiar with the sight OF Paris
ians taking their meals at small tables
ranged along the sidewalks in front OF
cafes in every quarter OF the town-rich and
note of Partisan domestic sentiment is one
often seen in the parks and green spaces
edging the broad avenues and bouleyards
Here the workingman's family assemblies
over bottle of wine and meal brought
from the home kitchen In a basket or bum
die; the father and mother and the older
children sit side by side on wooden bench
eating and drinking in perfect repose and
with the most wonderful appearance of per-
feet conIentment, while the babies tumble
on the ground about their feet, maunchine
in their play petit pain or croissant
An Amepiear shudders to think of tha
economic waste represented by the ease
with which the Partisan takes his meals
In nothing else is the difference between
American and French ideals more clearly
indicated than in the difference between
the American and French conscience con
corning eating. Time to eat plentifuIly and
comfortably is the first principle of the par
isian's every sort of aim In life. TRY to
hire cab Fheure after II O'clock in the
morning and the cocher will invariably re-
specially inquire how long yoI are going
to be out, and il you intend to take him
past the hour for dejeuner he politely de-
clineS to serve you. At the hour of de-
jeuner-between II and o'ciock-the streets
of Paris look like Sunday in New Eng
land village. Before and after dejeuner Won
cross such spots as the Rond Point on the
Champs Elysees, the Place de la Concor1e
the Place de fOpera, at the risk of yeur
life alYp0Sf Rnf yEbeu n q ho,,r oopeao,at.l1.