The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1902-1905, 1905-02-03
PAINFULLY SEDATE.
A Professors Evening Party In the
Paris Latin Quarter.

A Professors Evening Party In the
Paris Latin Quarter.
at was difficult to imagine that /
was in the heart of Paris, among people
bred and born in 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
l have visited many professors homes
and have found them all curiousy
alike. No matter whether the apart
ment be on second, third or fourth
floor, whether it be an expensive or
cheap one, the inmates are all alike,
seen one home, you have seen them all.
Follow me to fourth floor in the Rue
GayLussac. We are ushered into the
drawing room. The furniture is ma
hogany, always mahogany, and of a
bad period. There are no flowers, but
dusty fern in majolica pot; on
the mantelpiece clock and a Candida
bra, with framed photographs In the
spaces between over the cottage pi-
ano the portrait of NJ lie Professeur in
the green embroidered uniform of a
member of the Academy of Science,
with his dress sword over which he
generally stumbles. But do not think
that the professors families are blind
to beauty. They will admire and APP
preciate a work of art as well as you
or l, but in their homes they consider
beauty a negligible quantity. They
also give very little attention to their
bodies-to the inner or outer man. 1
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
worse-very much worse-than 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 with the style of their hair. Liv.
ing among themselves, they appear to
have no notion of what is occurring in
the worldly part of Paris. Their dress
makers are of the quarter and their
milliners make their hats with the odds
and ends brought to them. Such Il
thing as fashion paper never crosses
their path. am certain these ladies
are much more interested in the latest
microbe than in the latest hat. They
have little notion of comfort.
"An evening party at one of their
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
to what are called society games a
gaping trap to the butterfly from
across the Seine. have forgotten the
name of the fiendish game, but l re-
call that we were all seated III a ring
about thirty of us-old and young, and
we had to answer questions and find
out some antediluvian fact To them
it was child's play. but If it had not
been for the six-year-old child of the
house who prompted me should have
cut a poor figure. Imagine coming
from the electric lights of the boule-
wards to the oil lamps Of the profess
ors' salon and being suddenly called
upon to know that Dalmatis was con-
quered by Metellus in 11S B. CT De-
lightful EVENING"