The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1904-12-28
PAINFULLY SEDATE..
a Professors Evening Party In the
Paris Latin Quarter.


sit was difficult to imagine that
was in the heart of Paris. among people
bred and born III the capital" says a
writer telling OF the section of the Lat
in quarter in which the professors of
|, the University of Paris have their
homes These men, these luminaries
of science. how different they looked
among their womankind! Since then
have visited many professors homes
and have found them all curiously
alike. No matter whether. the apart
ment be Oh second, third or fourth
door. whether it be an expensive or
cheap one, the inmates are all alike,
talk alike, dress alike. II you have
seen one home, you haze seen them I'll.
Follow me to q fourth floor i'll the Rue
drawing room. The furniture is ma
hogany, always mahogany, and of a
bad period, There are no flowers, but
dusty fern i'll a maiolica pot on
the mantelpiece Il clock and q Candida
Ora, with framed photographs ia the
epaces between; over the cottage pi-
a4o the porlrait Of NJ le Irofesseur in
The green embroidered uniform of a
member Of the Academy OF Science,
with his dress sword, over Which he
generally stumbles But 90 not think
chat The professors families are blind
co beauty They will admire and APP
preciate a work of art us well as you
or l, but in their homes they consider
beauty a negligible quantity. They
also give very ittle attention 10 their
bodies-to the inner or outer man
have often wondered whether the same
tailor supplies them all with their old
fashioned coats.
Nor does the inner man fare much
better. The cooks in their establish
ments seem. to be altogether different
creatures from those we meet else
where. They eschew slang, their gram
mar is better, but their cooking is
woTse-very much worse-taan in the
homes of the less intellectual members
Of society. The women form distinct
type. They seem to belong to a past
generation, and their dress is in keep
ing among themselves, they appear to
have no notion of what is occurring in
+ the worldly part of Paris. Their dress
I makers are of the quarter and their
milliners make their hats With the odds
and ends brought to them. Such a
thing as a fashion paper never crosses
their path. | am certain these ladies
4 are much more interested in the latest
microbe than in the latest hat. They
have little notion of comfort
IAN evening party at one of theil
houses is a never to be forgotten en-
tertainment for the outsider They
! still dance the schottish, but the
greater part of the evening is devoted
70 what are called society games,' 6
gaping trap to the butterfly from
across the Seine. l have forgotten the
name of the fendish game, but l re
call that we were all seated in ring
about thirty of us-old and young, ant
we had to answer questions and fine
out some antediluvian fact. To then
it was child's play, but if it had no
1 been for the six-year-old child of til,
house who prompted me | should have
cut poor figure. Imagine COMING
from the electric lights of the boule
yards to the oil lamps of the profess
ors' salon and being suddenly called
upon to know that Dalmatia was con
quered by Metellus in 11S 3. c.! De
nghtful EVENING""