The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-07-17

w. G. Ballantine in the Springfield lMass.)
 Republican,
 % ARIS is like Berlin in being able D to show "all the kingdoms of the
 world and the glory of them in moment of time." But 1t is utterly unlike Berlin in all details. For instance, one characteristic of Berlin is the big blue and gilt letter boxes so conveniently con- spicuous along the streets. In Paris one drops his letters into obscure and dirty looking slots in the fronts of tobacco shops. In Berlin one senses in the very air the unbroken and ever growing royal splendor of the Hohenzollern family for the last 300 years. France, little more than a century ago. got nauseated with royalty and swept out of existence king, queen princes, nobles and almost every thing associated with them. France is the land of defiant disobedience.. She has made all sorts of experiments. some sadly disastrous, in government and social life. But today she is a free and democratic country a century ahead of Germany in experience. She has all of Americas hateful traits that come from mistaking license for liberty and permitting the gen eral public to suffer from the unresulated wantonness of individuals. But she realizes this. There is in France today a large percentage of very thoughtful and sober people who have reflected long upon the lessons of French history and who have profited by the bitterness of Water loo, Sedan and the rest. These people have been completely disillusionized as to military glory They see the hollow ness of Hes idees Napoleoniennes." They never will go back to monarchy or inn perialism, and yet they suffer keen shame from the inefficency of the republic Ma tional vanity has given place to chas- tened spirit, but not to cowardly nor a reactionary one. They realize that a long and painful way lies before them which must be trodden patiently until France has solved her problems. Fearful has been the agony of breaking away from the union of church and state, for France is Catholic. She never will be Protestant. But at last the separation 1as been effected. No one can call Frdice a deoadent nation. Compared with her rightful place she Is now at a low eop. But during her weakness she has been clearing the way for grand advance in the near future.
 We stayed this time in Paris in the "Latin Quarter" You have been there and know what that is-the student quarter, the artist quarter. The univer- sity Is there and the College of France and the Institute and the School of Fine Arts and the Cluny and Luxembourg museums. The Pantheon stands on the highest ground in 1t.
 Tho population here includes many thousands of students of science. litera- ture and art. gathered out of every nation under Heaven. Here for centuries has been the principal center in Europe Of intellectual and esthetic life. Here Is Bo- hemia, One may dress and eat and live as he pleases. Eating is mostly at little tables near or on the sidewalk in front of any restaurant one chances to be pass ing at meal time. Liberty, equality and fraternity are here at home. Elsewhere fashion may reign, and quiet and at least the outward forms of conventionality.
 Here nothing of the kind. The streets of the Latin Quarter abound in types"
 that is. men and women who dress &C.,
 cording to their own sweet will. Artists
 20 in velveteen (the trousers very baggy).
 often with hair and beard long. and
 very broad-brimmed soft hats. There is a
 sort of free and general companionship,
 and everywhere the captivating French
 polfteness. In buying a penny newspa-
 per from a woman one gets smile and ..Merci, monsieur,' that makes him feel like knight-errant meeting aiprin- cess. Here Is the greatest place in all the world for the study of pictorial and plas- tto art. In the Salon-the annual exhibi- tion-there were last summer perhaps 5000 new works selected out of many times that number. The Ecole des Beaux Arts teaches four arts: Architecture, sculpture. painting and engraving Of course, there Is much sculpture and painting from the nude. These young men and women spend many hours daily in study of other men and women unclothed. In the even- ,nes the artists and their models go to- eether to balls and social amusemehts. Here is world of young people of the peculiarly emotional type, absolutely free from the ordinary rules of propriety. There is also large population of other people who are not artists nor artist | models nor models of any sort. who are | also free from all rules of propriety. Ar | tiutic renius and youthful audacity and moral reclxlessness here blend to make