The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-12
From letter by Henry watterson in tb


 Louisville courier-Journal
 ESN AVANT. as the lecturer says in the moving picture show am just -A-A back from cruire in the Bois de Boulogne. It came lii L love call from the long ago that I should pass my last Sunday in the joyous old Common. There Is none like it in the world, uniting the urban to the rural with such suspassing. grace as perpetually tn convey a double sensation of pleasure; primal in it's sim plicity, superb in its setting; in the va rety and brilliancy of the life which, upon sunny afternoons takes possession of it and makes it at once a parade and paradise, incomparable.
 There was a time when, too far away for foot travel, it might be considered a driving park for the rich. It fairly blazed with the ostentatious splendor of the second empire; the shoddy duke with his queer retinue, in coach and-four; the word-famous courtesan, bedzened with costly jewels and quite as well known as the empress; the favorites of the Tuil- eries. the Comedie Francaise, the opera. the Jardin Mabille. forming an unceasng and dazzling line of many-sided frivolity from the Port de Vile to the Port St. Cloud, circling around La Bagatelle and ranging about the Cafe Carcade, a human tiara of diamonds, moving bouquet of laces and rubies, of silk and satins and emerals and saphires. Those were the days when the Due de Morny ruled as king of the bourse and Cora Pearl reigned as queen of demi-monde.
 All this is changed Electricity has ob- liberated distinctions of rank and wealth. It has annihilated distances. The repub- lie has busted the bogus nobility. The subways and the tram cars connect the Bois de Boulogne and the Boise de Vim cennes so closely that the poorest at his own sweet will may make himself at home in either or both
 The automobile, too, curiously enough, is proving very leveer. The crowd now recognizes nobody amid the hurl-burly of coupes, pony carts and taxicabs, each trying to pass the other The conglomer- ation of personalities effaces the identity alike of the statesman and the artist. the savant and the Syprian. No six-inch rules hedge the shade of the trees and limit the glory of the grass to the eye. The ouvrier can bring his brood and his basket and have his picnic where he pleases. The pastry cook and his chere annie, the coiffeur and his grisette-the grisettes in cap and apron are beginning to come to life again-can spoon by the lake side as long as the moonlight lasts, and longer if they list, with never a gen. darme to say them nay, or a rude voice out of the depths hoarsely to declaim, Move on." The Bois de Boulogne is lit- erally and absolutely playground, the playground of the people, and this blessed Sunday not fewer than 1,O00,OO0 Parisians were making it their own.
 Half million encircled the Longchamp ! race course. The other half were shared by the boats upon the lagoons and the bosky dells under the summer sky and the cages and the restaurants with which the Bois abounds. Our party, having ex- hausted the humors of the drive, repaired to Pre- Catalan. Aside from the two old brides" who are always in evidence | on such occasions, there was a veritable young couple" exceedingly pretty to look at, and delightfully."- in love! That sort of thing is not so uncommon in Paris as cynics think. If 1t be true, as the witty Frenchman observes, that "gambling Is the recreation of gentlemen and the pas- sion of fools,' it is equally true that love is game where every player wins if he sticks to it, and is loyal to it. Just as credit is the foundation of business Is love both the asset and the trade mark of happiness. To see it is to believe 1t, and--though little cash in hand Is very needful to both--where either is wanting. look out for sheriffs and scandals. .(Excuse my French. haste and bad pen, but I think-and l don't care who knows it.-that the young fellow who puts s1O on the horses and s10 more on the market, and only g on the girl Is blankety blank, blank sinpetonD Pre- Catalan, once a pacture for cows with a pretty kiosk for the sale of milk, has now tea room big enough to seat
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