The St. Louis Republic., 1904-12-11

life in London seems SO deadly Serious is for that
reason full of humor but it is hidden in the mists
and takes longer dig Then too it widely
different from ideas of fun that it requires an
educated point of view to perceive it.
What the unthinking American first calls stupidity
he learns later to acknowledge being the slow,
honest London way of arriving at conclusion without
a lump quckstep. But once on French soil
the delightful farcecomedy of things begins to dawn
on one, and from the boat-landng to the train and
then to the hotel it is all suggestive of the French
plays which know best in their translated form.
which they appear rather silvfor the fun OF France
is like its accent and will not translate well
Once we learn Paris life we know that French farce
is the purest realism strained in situation it always
appears its English form. 1t is not over
elaborated as musical comedy. The uncon-
scous humor OF the French people is as apparent as
that of the Irish but it is like their abyssmay
absurd but rather the over-serious and grandllo-
qucnt order.
When YOU appreciate the odd twist in the French
nature YOU learn that YOU can laugh your way
along with them much more easily than you can
it.
They are impressionsts in everything and once you
get that fact through your head you know how to
move.
But try solid American sound business
talk with Frenchman French woman and YOU
will get only shrug and a lift of the brows. You
to them abnormal and queer their eXcitabe
of taking life seems to you You must learn
to smile easily. to srirk. and you will get
but if you try rules of right and Justice and common
you apt to be left without your carriage,
without your dinner your bed
And this French bed is in itself a marvellous joke to
the unaccustorned American. 1t is high, heavy
curtained like throne and covered with brocade like
old-fashioned sofa. 1t is decorative to degree
that makes YOU long for the plain brass white
enamel of home 1t is a delightful feature of the
art OF America that beds so exquistely
simple. sanitary, uninpressivc and comfortable You
must climb else vault into high French bed,
and you at in the interior OF mountain of
ornate clumsnesS. The sheets, blankets and counter
panes wedgcd tightly and securely under and
around the mattress that athletic contortions
required to loosen them from their moorings And
when loosened YOU have them your hands. to
speak. for they heavy and inclined to slip and
they are knobby with rich brocade and fuzzy
with fringe and the feel of them makes you think
you living IN the comic supplement OF Sunday
newspaper.
OF course there are and rich hotels in Paris
to-day that entirely serious-tha is to saw they
have not such important and uncomfortable beds
but the older houses rich in the spirit of farce
the furniture and fittings fairly teeting with posi-
bites.
You begin to take off your hat in your room. and
are startled find the apartment apparently filled
with people But it is only the arrangement of the
mirrors that extend endless procession OF refcc-
tons. Looking about ODD little entrance CORRIDOR
that seems to be of necessity whatever you
upon a little plush panel door that suggests secret
passage similar to those of the palace at Versailles
All" YOU think, how pretty this quaint little
cupboard for shoes or a hand-satchcl Ierhaps-hov
different from frigftful American way Of putting
handles doorsi" Then you push it in, and find
to your amazenent that it looks in on your throne
bed
The electric light like the cakcwalk is something
that Paris has vet mastered II true that the
hotel rooms increase their importance by collection
of cords ending in bulbs covered with netted cord
hanging from the walls instead OF our simple button
the wall But these bulbs. which are supposed to
effect the lighting and extnguishng OF the eectrics