The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-06-21

For the American professional seeker
after the night romance of Paris the
French have phrase which be II So
ever inelegant, retains still brilliant
verify. The phrase is "une belle polre."
And its Yankee equivalent is sucker"
The French, as the world knows are
| kindly, forgiving people, and though
they cast the epithet they do so in
manner tolerant and with light arpeggio
of Yankee sneer and bitterness con.
tanning not a trace. They cast II as one
casts a coin into the hand Of some
Numbering beggar. with commingled
oh, wells and philosophical pity. For
| in the Frenchman of the Paris Of to-
day, though there runs not the blood Of
lafayette and though he detests Amerl-
(Rns. as he detests the Germans he yet,
detesting, sorrows for them.
1t is night in Paris 1t is night in
the Paris of a thousand memories And
| the Place de la Concorde lies silver blue
under springtime skies. And up the
Champs Elysees the elfn lamps SHIN
mer in the moist leaves like a million
topaz tears. And the boulevard, are
a-thrill with the melody of living Are
you, now far away and deep IN the
in memory over the seas in this warm
and wonderful and fugitive world? And
do YOU hear with me again the twang
of guitars come out the hedges If the
| Avenue Marigny? And do YOU smell
with me the rare perfume of the wet
asphalt and feel with mo the wander.
lust in the spirit soul of the Seine?
Through the frost on the window can
you look out across the world and soc
| with me once again the trysting tables
In the Boulevard Raspail. a-whisper
with soft and wondrous noSyl.ahles,
and can you hear little Ninon laughing
and Fleurette signing and little Helene
just passed 1917 weeping because life
Is so short and death so long? Are you
young again and do memories sing in
your brain? And does the snow melt
from the landscape Of your life and in
place bloom again the wild peoples N
the Saint Cloud roadways. telegraph
ing their drowsy content through the
evening air to Paris?
or Is the only rosemary of Paris thar
You have carried back with Won tn
memory Of a twostep danced with
some painted bawd at the Ahhly' N"
memory of the night when You drank
SIX quarts of champagne without once
stopping to prove to the onlook,rs in
the Rat Mort that an American can
drink more than damned FrcnChman.
Paris has changed II ISM
the Paris of other days and
Paquerette. little Easter daisy In whose
lips new worlds were born 10 You lu
mower OF France the music and per
rune OF whose youth are yours still e.
remember through the guerr.lh war
rare or the mounting ycars-'.,.I" IA.
querette Is dead. And you arr old now
and married, and there are thu children
To look out for-they're at the Schoo.
age-and LIES quondam melody is fuii
or rests and skies are not always a.
blue as once they were And Paris
four thousand miles beyond IN, seas
Paris isn't what II used to be-
But Paris Is. For Paris is NJ 4 CIR
1t Is Youth. And Youth n, ,.r de-,
To Youth, while youth Is in tn arteries
faris Is ever Paris. a-thrOb with iredmS'
a-dream with love, Above with 'rImph'
to be triumphed DER. The Paris o.
Nillon and Murger and Du Mduri'r Is
still there by the Seine ii Is uH'v VIZ
lon and Murger and Du Maur.'r wa
are not. And if your Paqueretto is gone
forever, there Is Zlnette-sOmr oth',
fellows Paquerette-in her plac' An"
to him new worlds are born in her Ip'
even as new worlds We're born 'ol ~
the kisses of another's yesterdaN
and the music and the per- me o..
Zinette's youth shall, too, b. rosemary
some day to this other.
The only thing that changes IN PaF,
IL the Paris of the American. tN',
foul swelling at the Carrara t.r1a' 4"
Youths fairyland. 1t Is thu I'F,'
cankered with the erosions Of ! .r'S.
gold and foreign itch, that ha5 pas ~,
souvenirs" on sale at the T"ro -, :"
Napoleon. that vends obscenit.e IL Wv,
boulevards that has raised the w.'r ~
bouillabaisse to one franc fifty, '.' no.
installed Ice cream at the li''-7'''