The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-09-03
IN GAY PARIS.
North Carolina Boys Baked at Eating
Mule Meat.

North Carolina Boys Baked at Eating
Mule Meat.
To the Editor:-zI reached Paris just
in time to see the Frenchman'S Fourth
of July which comes on July 18th,
is called the Fete Rationale and com
memorates l was told the stormin" of
the Bastille in 1889 and also the
founding of the present French Re-
public. At this time the people are
always glOriousy happy, ont only on
the day itself, but during the two or
three days before and the two or
three days after their great Fete Ma
tionale.
In many parts of Paris the center
of some of the wider streets, which is
kind of a long narrow part, was
completely covered with shooting gal
leries. merry go-rounds. museums
and all sorts of money-making shows
fitted to the pockets of the people.
At night carriages were hardly tOler-
ated in these streets where men and
women surged to and fro laughing
and singing and having good time.
The government of France some one
told me was run for what he called
the good of the people and does every
thing in its power to contribute not
only comfort and safety, but also
amusement and pleasure, and so at
on the night of July 14th / found most
excellent bands paid for out of the
public purse, and all of them making
Inerry music for these pleaSure-lOVing
French people who simply took pos
Session of the streets and whirled
around and around keeping time
beautifully and gracefully with the
enlivening strains of the waltz. | saw
the celebrations with young Scotch
man from the University of Glasgow,
Mr.. Max Gardner of the A. & M. Col
lcge, and MesSrS. Helms Theodore
Cheshire, and w. S. OBJ. Robinson,
Jr., all three of them University men.
Well, we had come to see the sights
and enjoy them too, and l must tell
you that some Tarheels Waltzed that
night in the crowded streets of Paris
with UNPRECEDENTED daughters of
France much to the amusement of
their chaperoning fathers and moth
erS. / have never before seen so many
people having a good time as L have
seen here in Paris during the season
of this national celebration. For miles
and miles on some of the streets, out
in front of the restaurants, we saw
crowds of men and women eating and
drinking but never getting drunk or
growing bOiStrOuS. And by the way,
while / am speaking of drinking, L re-
member that late issue of the Paris
edition of the New York Herald says
that on recent Saturday mo fewer
than 100000 books (beers) were
drunk in Paris than enough
to treat every man, woman and child
in North Carolina.
l enjoyed my stay among the
French people though [ can
not say | studied them even #
some people do have the ability to
run into foreign city, spend few
days. and then become learned as to
the social conditions of the life of that
city. However, l did see enough of
the people to make me belive that. if
having a good time is what we
ought to strive after here in this life,
then the Frenchman is far ahead of
US. SO far as Sunday is concerned, L
was unable to detect any very great
difference between it and any other
day in the week. l must say, how
ever, that although many of the small
er stores are opened on Sunday and
people sit out in front of the bar
rooms eating and drinking on Sunday,
and the merry go-rOundS are in full
blast on Sunday nights, and the wo-
men push their vegetable carts about
the streets crying their wares on Sun
day Just as on any other day, yet in
one particular the French Sunday is
absolutely like the typical Sunday in
any orthodox American city, village or
country district, | mean that the
French Sunday, like our American
Sunday, still remains between Satur-
day and Monday. The people, how
ever, are, many of them very devout,
services are held in all of the churches
and | am sure that | saw more people
in the churches worshipping during
week days than | ever saw before, and
| saw as large crowds at church on
Sunday as | would have seen in the
same kind of church in America. But,
by the way, before | forget it, let me
say something of the children here
in France. In America, boys sell news
papers and black shoeS-here in Paris
l saw women selling newspapers and
saw men backing shoes. In
America boys work in offices
and girls work in stores
here in Paris / have seen no boys
in the Offices and no girls at work In
the stores. OF course they may be in
some offices and some of the stores,
but | merely mean to say that l have
not seen them there. The grown peo-
| pie, it seems to me, are doing the
work while the children are growing
| up to manhood and womanhood
The one great drawback to my
pleasure in Paris was my inability TO
speak the French language. Many
| time did | regret that | had not
put" some of the time l spent on Lat
| in years ago on the study of French.
| Two or three years ago | visited the
Raleigh Public Schools where | founi
! the children learning French by the
| conversational method. My trip over
here has taught me that so far as