Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-01-03
PAULINE PRY IN PARIS
She Finds the City a Para
81
disc fof Climbers.
THE SOCIAL LADDER
HOW AMERICAN WOMEN MAN
AGE TO GET A START.
Sewing Society an Easy Way-Fash-
ionable Afternoon Tea-How
the French Skate.
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.


PARIS, December II, 1902.
There is no doubt that Paris is paradise
for climbers. Without half trying, 1 have
mixed more with good society during the
short time 1 have been in Paris than did
during many years in America. I can't say
that I really enjoy good society myself
am too used to the best, I suppose Still,
for anybody having taste that way there
are no easier means Of realizing his am
biton than by coming to Paris to reside.
Americans somehow make a speciality Of
themselves here, and the mere fact Of being
an American gives one certain standing
rendering him eligible to a lot of distinc-
lions. First and foremost, it entities him
to proprietary rights in the American
Church. On the steamer coming over l
was advised by an old American resident OF
Paris that to get into good society here l
must Immediately join the American
Church 1 find it is taken quite as mat
less with a regard for the future establish
ment of the soul than for present develop
ment of ones visiting list.
1t is not considered polite to leave cards
at the church when calling-I mean when
going to meeting, but after the service, it
Is expected that one will introduce himself
or to adopt the common gender of Amer
leans in Paris-herself, to the pastor, who
d
ton to the retiring congregation and cor
daily inviting everybody to his wife's day
at home. One will then, the following
week, present herself at the pastors resi-
dence and the next week will probably join
the American Ladies' Sewing Society, which
meets at the homes of the very best Amer
leans in Paris, and numbers among its
members everybody worth knowing, from
the wife of the United States ambassador
down.
One Easy Way.
AS neat device by which the lower
classes may break into the homes Of the
socially elect, this American Ladies' Sewing
Society of Paris strikes me as excelling
even the opportunity offered by senatorial
and congressional receptions at Washington.
American women stopping at my pension do
now and then skip the tomb of Napoleon
and some other things which Badeker pre-
scribes, but they would as soon think Of
missing the Bon Marche or any Of the shop
windows along the Rue de la Paix as of
not going to at least one meeting OF the
sewing society. -.v~
have never seen anywhere-not even in
Chicago, anything quite so gorgeous as the
American woman's home on the Avenue du
Bots de 'Boulogne, where the society met
last week. The woman is enormously
wealthy, and 1t Is very characteristic of
how domestic enterprise goes in Paris that
she occupies not a house of her own, but
above the other. One mounts to the fourth
etage of the house to reach her first floor,
and here, from the sumptuous hall which
one enters, ascends "a graceful stairway
communicating with her second apartment
above. The first embraces truly mag
nificent spread Of reception rooms, and the
whole establishment is furnished in a man.
ner which naively conveys to all beholders
how mighty Is the American dollar the
world over. 70
At the sewing society meetings introduce
lions are profuse and the score, one COM
monty makes at a single meeting is never
less than two or three invitations to tea
and the finding of an old friend or two.
s.r ''a Afternoon Tea.
Pending the time one is working up
visiting list, there are many public func-
lions in which one may engage and enjoy
most of the sensations of being in good
society There is always tea in the after
hotels, which affords the opportunity of
being al least a figure in the tableau of the
fashionable world. Also there is tea at
Colombin's. This is a place just off the
Rue de Rivoli. where, from 80 to o clock,
three large rooms are packed close with
people you know if you are at all worth
knowing, with great many 1t would be a
pleasure to know. and with just enough Of
a sprinkling of those you would not dare
know to make the whole affair very nice
and quite spicy. The womens gowns are
just right, whatever the morals of a few
and altogether the spectacle is enchanting.
Americans flock here in great numbers and
here 1 am always especially struck with
seeing how successfully American women
beat French women at the latters own
game of being "chc."
1 dreaded awfully coming to Paris be-
cause l had heard so much of the Chic Of
French women. Middle age is sad enough,
[ thought, without having to take it to
Paris and place it In dismal contrast with
the dazzling charm of all women there.
But now I find that the women one meets
in Paris who actually realize the dream we
have of Paris women, turn out to be Amer
leans nine times out of ten. 1 must freely
admit that French women as a rule wear
better looking lingerie than we do and are
more successful in displaying it under all
and the beauty of their
faces, when they are beautiful, is more
haunting, perhaps, because 1t is so vividly
painted. But for style, shape-for good
clothes and good looks-the American wo-
man seems to me much the superior Of he
French.
All is Vanity.
The American woman who would paint
red and white, as the French women do
would be arrested in the United States, and
one who would give herself over publicly to
the pursuits Of vanity as do French women
would be looked upon as a proper charge
for a lunatic asylum. I actually saw a
French woman at funeral one day take
-IrNGI