Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-02
60 80 ANhe 90 \ III AZ
System of Black Marks.

AT one moment the French table was all
but swamped by the natives; SO we agreed
on q system of black marks for breaking
into English. At the end of the month the
doctor, having the most marks to his credit
presented the table with two dozen 'indi-
viduaf' butter dishes; a hint to emphasize
the butter at lunch.
Well, the doctor was an innocent, and. to
show how we are all innocents in the hands
of these atavistic sou-chasers. see what
happened. The Individual butter dishes
appeared that same day at dinner. But not
as butter dishes! Brought on triumphantly
at dessert time, each held small dab of
vanilla ice! Thenceforth they served as ice
cream. dishes! And our French conversa-
ton slipped back into old ruts:
"Aimez-vous lie lapin en- gibelotte, made
moiselle?"
"Aoh, yes! tray bo-coo, monsieur! Je
suis faim! Why are you staring into your
plates? Have l made another mistaken"
(She said Il am a woman!" when she
meant to say that she was hungry.
1t was the doctor who brought in the
conversation school. Its typewriter les
sons started you at once with material for
self-expression, like: Good morning, man,
ma, madame, monsieur, sweetheart make
the changes). Have you slept well, man,
ma, madame, monsieur. dearest?" NAM
ma, madame monsieur or dear baby, pass
the marmaladev' And so on. If you ask
now IT came papa was not IN the changes,
the authors of Conversational French in
Twenty Days had doubtless observed papa
seldom comes to Paris.
Never Have Time to Complete Them.
By the time you have worked through
twenty of those sheets you speak French
T fuently. The reason no one ever accom-
plishes it is that no one finds the time. It's
Hurry, now, we shall be late at the tea
room!' "Cut it out mademoiselle; you're
due at the ice palace!' or Come. there's
a woman in my room with gorgeous hand
embroidered batiste.'
There is never a morning when you cam
not join a party to the Louvre or Luxem-
bourg. Gothic or renaissance? But by
Colbert" window from which Charles
TX shot down his subtects!"
1t is all new and delightful.
"Oh, Mr.. links. look at those little goats
and the man driving them in a blue Mother
Hubbard! Listen! he is playing on his
fageolet Girls. it's just like the shepherd
in 'Tannhauser!' Mamma. Mr.. Watts
says that he milks them from house to
house in a lineup! Mr.. Watts, you're de-
ceiving U.S. Those goats belong to some
theatrical company"
In spring and summer, when the hus-
bands. fathers and brothers come over from
America. the mothers and daughters man
learned In foreign residence. 1.-THE men
will never find 1t out" is safe principle;
and one dose of the Theatre Francois is
usually sufficient for them.
DO you understand, Mary?"
What is the young fellow saying to the
pretty servant?'
Hush, I can't tell you now!''
Nor can she: not now nor later, for the
reason that she has not caught a word.
After few such experiences it will be the
music halls, Bos:ock's, the crcuses, the ice
palace. the Moulin and the "boites' Of
w. rx6ar how 10 70 no6n
ton: In Paris there is life" where one Is
not obliged to listen to French.
Germans and Russians as Bad Of.
Americans and English are not alone in
not being able to follow French play.
German and even Russian tourists are as
badly off, This is the secret Of the bright
Paris music hall, with it's third-class at
fractions. The same people would not sit
out such programs at home.
No, Paris is not the place to "pick up"
French. Two years of Berlin will give one
German, and I fancy the same time at
Bordeaux or Lyons would give one French.
But Paris is the cosmopolitan city.
The colony speaks French after the airy
manner of Madame Frisbey. Young PEN
dennis own "sincerement fache d'avoir use
une expression qui await pu besser mon
sieur, ct quill donnoit sa parole CONNIE
un gentilhomme gull no ravait jamais,
janis intende' would pass all right among
US.
There is, indeed. type of Anglo-Saxon
in Paris that approaches a monumental in
tellectual freak. / know four such indi-
viduals-an English lady. two American
men and Scotchnan. Each has jargon
he supposes to be French--and he speaks
it with such fluency that Frenchmen think
1t Is another language.
These phenonemons each make the same
invariable mistakes; no others. In reality
each has made language for himself, and
all because of fatal fiuency. One says:
Jay wee dawn lie ree,'' which soundi
vaguely like II live in the rice" when he
means to say, "Jai WI dams la rue"-"I
saw in the street.
At the French table, of our Paris board
ing house we are acquiring something of
this fiuency. Miss Lucy and her mamma