The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-08-12

In Stocking Feet at Emperor's Table.
The dinner at the Court of Napoleon
III lasted about an hour CThe Emper-
or dislikes sitting long at table, 1t
seemed almost impossible that so
much eating and drinking and chang
ing of plates-in fact, such an elabor-
ate repast-could be got through with
ing such a short time. But it was!
When their Majesties had finished
they arose and every one rose at the
same time. All the chairs were drawn
from under you, tant pis if you were
in the act of eating a pear and had
not yet washed your fingers; but never
mind, you had to skip across the red
carpet in order to let their Majesties
pass.
A rather amusing incident occurred
at dinner. One of the foreign min
listers, who is very va in the small
ness Of his feet, had donned a pair of
patent leather shoes evidently much
too tight for him. During the dinner
he relieved his sufferings by slipping
his aching toes out of them All went
well until his chair was suddenly
drawn from underneath him as their
Majesties were about to pass. In ut
ter despair he made the most frantic
efforts to. recover the wandering shoes
from under the table, but alas! the
naughty things had made their escape
far beyond reach Ga little way shoes
have of doing when left to them
selves), consequently he was obliged
to trip across the red carpet as best
he could without them. The Empress.
VINO appreciates keenly a comical
situation, had noticed with great
amusement his manouevers and en-
barrassment and twas it just for a lit
tie tunO stopped in passing and spoke
to him, much to his confusion, for it
was impossible to prevent her from
seeing his little white shoeless Ieet.
Tipping the Servants of Napoleon.
Before we left Compiegne at the
conclusion of our visit, when we were
taking our morning tea, we were in
terrupted by the coming in of the ma
jor-domo, who handed us paper. We
were not unprepared for this visit, as
we had been told by one of the guests
who had been here before that every
one was expected to remain in their
rooms until this important parsonage
had made his rounds in order to col
lect the pourboire. | say the pour-
boire, because what one generally
gives separately is Jumped into one
sum- This Laper, which is handed to
us almost at the point of his halle
barde, proved to be a 'gia scritto" re-
ceipt for six hundred francs-our pour
boire!
We were rather a subdued party in
the train. The conversation mostly
turned on the subject of pourboires
The huissier decides the exact amount
that each ought to give. For instance
he knows an ambassador ought to
give two thousand francs. For a Min
lister of State one thousand francs suf-
fices-unofficial people like ourselves
cannot be expected to be out of pocket
more than six hundred francs. AS for
the poor nobility of France, they
escape with five hundred Some were
of opinion that it was rleasanter to
give en- masse in one big sum than to
give in driblets, others thought it
more satisfactory to hand ones Of
fering personally to the different SER
wants, but we all with one voice voted
the officious beadle an imposition.
Late for Breakfast at an Emperor's
Table.
One morning during my visit to the
Court of Napoleon III a very embar-
RAISING thing happened. We thought
we could manage an excursion to the
town, | wanted to see the cathedral,
and it did not seem far away. We saw
the cathedral, but l had not counted
on the time necessary for the change
of toilet which l had to make before
dejeuner.
! found on my table an envelope
containing some poetry from Theo-
phile Gautier, who had been cross with
me at dinner the night before. I sup
pose he considered it as a sort of
amende honorable.
l became absorbed in reading it,
and forgot to look at the clock, when
suddenly seeing how late it was,
rushed down into the gallery, and
what was my horror at finding myself
alone.
1t happened that just this morning
the Emperor had desired me to sit
next to him at the table, and the Mar
quis de Caux had been( and was stilD
waiting for me at the door to conduct
me to my place on the sOvereign's left