The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-07-15
BECOMES
 "QU|TE FRENCH"
 THROUGH STRIFE
War Has Effect of Making Capital More Gallic Than
 In Many Years.

Paris, July 15.-"Paris has become quite French" declared a lately-arriv- ed American "I never heard so much French spoken in Paris before"
 In fact, as result of the continu- ance of war, Paris to the foreigner seems, if it is not so in reality. for the first time since 1870 to be truly and obviously Gallic, to have put off its harlequinade costume of commopoli- tanism, it's glittering tinsel and garish nightlight; and to have put on the more simple and sober dress of an earlier and less luxury-loving age.
 Paris has become, in a word, provin- cial, chiefly owing to two causes-the absence of the tourist and the decline in traffic. The city is far less crowd ed and bustling than usual. The dfapson of all the notes in the hum of great city's population busy about its daily occupations is lowered to what is almost a murmur; the hoot of the taxi-horn is heard less frequently, and, the "barkers" at the shows along the boulevards have ceased to bark; Want guide, sir?" is now never, or hardly ever heard. The newsboys yell is sternly repressed by the police,
 The tourist element of Paris is all but entirely wanting. Before the war especially at this season, tourists were to be met with in all quarters of the city, very considerable portion of them Germans; now the comparatively small number of strangers here are chiefly those on business in connection with war contracts, and, of course, mostly men.
 The almost total disappearance of the private automobile is another thing that cannot fail to strike the visitor of to-day. Dublin was described by Lady Mary Montague as the "car-dri- vingest city in the world" Paris. for some few years before the war, could with propriety be described as the au- tomobile- -drivingest city in Europe. Be- sides the vast variety of cars owned by Paris residents there was always a stream of more or less high-powered and luxurious tourist automobiles pass ing through on their way to Brittany with it's well known seaside summer resorts, to Normandy and to Tou- raine with their historic castles. or still further afield. right through the mid dle' of France. down to Biarritz'and the Riviera. This traffic has completely ceased. In its stead one sees hardly anything but slate colored motor wa gons. red-cross automobiles, or the ordinary taxicab. Taxicabs are now hardly numerous enough to meet the inhabitants ordinary wants. This dearth of taxicabs is intensified by the stoppage, ever since the war began, of the convenient and rapid system of motor busses plying to and from all parts of Paris. They were requisitioned immediately after war began and are reported to have done yeoman's service in trans ferring men and stores at and just be- hind the front. One means of transport, however, seems to be as popular as ever-the
 "bateau-mouches'' (boats-as-big-as-a- ny) which ply along the Seine from Charenton. by the Louvre, the Place de la Concorde, Passy and Auteuil, as far as Bellevue, St. Cloud, and Suresnes. With the summer weather they are
 more crowded than in time of peace nor is it surprising to- find it so as the voyage of some z or 8 miles, much
 of 1t through pretty scenery. costs lit tie more than 5 cents. tk