The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-05-28

sun.
There are, as 1t were, ever so many
cities united in Paris, the cities of pleas
ure, work, art and beauty, but taken as
a whole it is above ALL the city of the
living. City of the living, because there
people have the joie de vivre, and Live
and let live is the golden rule
Paris is overlooking with life; there
does not seem to be a spot one might
call dead" The boulevards, of course,
are always crowded; the continuous
chain of pedestrians is there both day
and night In the morning it is the
throng of wage-earners, the schoolboys
in black aprons and leather belts, the
ouvrieres without hats the plodding
worl1ingman in his blue blouse hnrryng
past. But it is not the worried, pushing
crowd of New York; it is a bright and
happy crowd. full of the joy of living,
and bent on doing its work in the most
cheerful manner possible.
Later on in the day 1t is the people of
leasure who sit down in a cafe for some
time and the evening it is the theatre
goers, the seekers of amusement who
fill the lighted boulevards and the Rue
Royale.
III AOu CdH Qu any lIlnB, IL II is
not done in an offensive way II you
are in the Bots, and you feel like lying
down on the grass, you may do so, pro-
vdcd you do it nicely. 1t has often been
said that Paris is disagreeable place
for ladies to go about in alone. | do not
think so. A lady may so anywhere alone
in Paris, and a woman, If respectable,
will be served in any cafe, whether with
or without male protection. 1t could
mo- hafA in, Dor tc . I,s. 4,
here, that a lady arriving late because
her train had been delayed should find
that the hotels had no room" So, in
many small ways, women's rights are
much more advanced in France than they
are here, but that is largely due to Eng
lish and American women, who often
travel alone, and nearly always behave
themselves.
Women Work Hard.
In France women WORK IA great deal.
and married women in particular are
much more occupied outside the home
than is the case over here Almost all
the saleswomen in the big stores are
married. and so are the majority of
chambermaids in the hotels. And women
do a great many things over there which
men and boys do here; women sell tick
cts in the box offices, are postmasters,
station masters and on some railway
lines they are flagmen; they sell news
papers, and have pushcarts. Inc ouvrie-
res sometimes have a husband with them,
but he seems to be considered more as a
precious thing than as a sensible being.
The woman always entertains him and
protects him as she would her child.
So much has been written about the
Latin Quarter that it seems pure folly
to mention it again, but nevertheless it
must be said that it is one o. the most
interesting parts of Paris There is such
a pot pourri of all ADMINISTRATIONS
and atheistie-idleness and pleasure and
hard work There are ever. so many
churches in the Quarter; it seems to
swarm with them. The prettiest, with
out doubt is the st. Etienne du Mont,
but one of the most interesting is prob
ably the Eglse de la Sorbonne. 1t is
closely connected with the university and
may be regarded as the students church.
The walls are almost entirely covered
with slabs expressing thanks to the Yir-
gin for having granted good examina-
tions. The Latin Quarter has its share
of converts also; there is one in almost
every street. On the other hand it is
| full of atheists. nihlists and anarchists.
They have their meeting places all over
it, too, although one does not discern
them very easily. And certainly the nu-
merous schools. libraries and museums
prove it to be one Of work, while the
numberless cafes prove that it is also
one of pleasure.
Amusements of the Quarter.
The most amusing thing about the
Quarter, perhaps, is to watch all the
odd characters. Last summer was an
unusually hot one, and people turned out
in the evening even more than they
habitually do, and so from the terrasse
Of fo l,oI ori,, ~.
opportunity to study the types. There
was one man who went about in a white
corduroy suit, without stockings wear
ing only very low sandals. He had big,
souching hat and long. corkscrew eurls
The latter did not seem to be natural
but looked rather like the result of sew
eral hours of hard work with a curling
iron or some other instrument He al
ways had a couple of dogs VIZ. him.
Another man had gray hair falling over
his shoulders and a long, white beard
He wore a funny stovepipe hat, and a
Kate Greenaway suit, and he had a big
alarm clock fastened to his vest Some
times he would sell postal cards, but
very often he would walk up and down
the Bour Mich for the sake of showing
off and incidentally to gain a few sous
by begging. | do not know whether he
was rich or poor; one can never tell
| saw "Bibi-la-Puree who was some
what like this man. sell matches and
newspapers, but never thought anything
about him. until read about him in the
papers He had once been well off, but
at last he was found in the streets dy-
ing from starvation.
Sorbonne Is Free.
The Sorbonne is the center of the stu
dents life, and, of course, great many
anecdotes could be told about it. Being
very old Northumberland by Richie
lieu in 1629-t has kept up a good many
of the ancient customs. When a person
passed an examination at the Sorbonre
long ago the examiners were supposed
to wear robes, and to repay them 70,
their trouble and expense. each candi-
date had to pay two francs "comme
drots de robe" The Sorbonne has now
been modernlzed, and the professors no