Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-02-02

Il
woke up to appreciate their use? Is
1t, therefore, not possible to take life
easily and still achieve?
The logic of these arguments, set
forth in LIE Soir in an article on the
New York World, appealed strongly to
Jefferson Ryder as he sat in front of
the Cafe de la Paix. slipping a sugared
Yarmouth. 1t was five o'clock, the
magic hour of the aperitif when the
glutton taxes his wits to deceive his
stomach and work up an appetite for
renewed gorging. The little tables
We're all occupied with the usual be-
fore-dinner crowd. There were many
foreigners, mostly English and Ameri-
cans, and few Frenchmen, obviously
from the provinces, with only sprink-
ling of real Parisians.
Jefferson's acquaintance with the
French language was none too pro-
found and he had to guess at half the
words in the article but he understood
enough to follow the writer's argu-
ments. Yes, it was quite true, he
thought, the American idea Of life was
all wrong. What was the sense of
Shaving all ones life, ptling up mass
of money one cannot possible spend,
when there is only one live to live?
How much saner the man who is con-
tent with enough and enjoys life while
he is able to. These Frenchmen, and
indeed all the Continental nations, had
solved the problem. The gaiety of their
cities, and this exuberant joy of life
they communicated to all about them,
were sufficient proofs Of it.
Fascinated by the gay scene around
him Jefferson laid the newspaper aside.
To the young American, fresh from
prosaic money-mad New York the City
of Pleasure presented indeed novel
and beautiful spectacle. How differ
ent. he mused, from his own city, with
its one fashionable thoroughfare-
Fifth e-monotonously lined for
miles with hideous brownstone resi-
dences, and showing little real ANNA
ton except during the Saturday after.
noon parade when the activities of the
smart set, male and remale, centered
chiefly in such exciting diversions as
going to Huylers for soda, taking tea
at the Waldorf, and trying to Guido
each other in dress and show New
York certainly was dull place with
all its boosted cosmopolitanism. There
was no denying that. Destitute of any
natural beauty, handicapped by its
cramped geological position between
two rivers, made unsightly by
noisy monstrosity, the Elevated
interests. no art interests, no
interest in anything not Immediately
connected with dollars, it was city
to dwell in and make money in, but
hardly a city to live in. The million
aires were building white-marble pal
aces, taxing the ingenuity and origin
atty of the native architects, and thus
to some extent relieving the general
ugliness and drab commonplaceness
while merchant princes had begun to
invade the lower end of the avenue with
handsome shops. But in spite Of all
this, in spite of it's pretty girls-and
Jefferson insisted that in this one par
ticular New York had no peer--in spite
of its comfortable theaters and its
wicked Tenderloin, and it's Rialto made
so brilliant at night by thousands of
elaborate electric signs, New York still
had the subdued air of provincial
town, compared with the exuberant
gaiety, the multiple attractions, the
beauties, natural and artificial, of cos
mopolitan Paris.
The boulevards were crowded, as
usual at that hour, and the crush Of
both vehicles and pedestrians was so
great as to permit of only snail-like
progress. The clumsy three-horse ON.
nibuses - Madeleine-B astile- crowded
inside and out with passengers and
with their neatly uniformed drivers
and conductors, SO different in appear
ance and manner from our own sloven-
ly street-car rowdies, were endeavoring
to breast perfect sea of faces which,
like a swarm of mosquitoes, appeared
to be trying to go in every direction
at once, their drivers vociferating tor
rents of vituperous abuse on every
man. woman or beast unfortunate
enough to get in their way. AS dis
penser of unspeakable profanity, the
Paris cocner has no equal. He is
unique. no one can approach him. He
also enjoys the reputation Of being the
worst driver in the world. If there
is any possible way i'll which he can
run down a pedestrian or crash into
another vehicle he will do it, probably
for the only reason that it gives him
another opportunity to display his
choice stock of picturesque expletives.
CONTINUED in Next Issue.)