Evening star., 1918-08-04
lOC|A[FUNCT|0NS
MARK AIR RAIDS
Cellar Parties in France Pop.
:. uIar When Boches Fly
e.. Over City.
By EUNICE TIETJENs.

By EUNICE TIETJENS.
Special Correspondence Of The Even
ing Star and Chicago Daily News0
PARIS, France. July 1.-The anti
r raid cellar parties Of France are
! way of becoming social functions.
ne fortunate possessor of large
galted cellar invites his friends.
.:ery one has his or her regular
2stume for the occasion. One plays
IDS. One takes down eatables. One
ndulges in long metaphysical discus
,;ons. The technique of the occasion
already highly developed.
During the last five clear moonlit
; shts Paris has had six alarms, six
ettings-up in the dark to the accom-
t:niment of wailing sirens. six process
ms downward, six interminable occu-
lions Of had chairs brought down for
.e purpose and six sleepy returns
bed, while the church bells ring.
.e Parisians, I think, really enjoy
-,em. The one thing a denizen of
aris cannot stand is dullness. and
@tainly life is not dull now.
The most amusing of these cellar
rites are the Latin quarter gather
IS. Bohemia under the bombs"
might be entitled. and IL Murger
re only alive today Manon would
we scene in the cellar. / live now
a little studio, one of a row of
,enty similar inches, whose roof Is
,-ce-quarters skylight AS a pro-
ton against bombs 1t is a minus
Iantity. So our cellar parties are
Ell attended
Medieval Monastery Cellar.
ne cave" where we foregather
IN the middle ages the cellar of
monastery, though now an apart
"nt house stands above it. and it
$ vaulted passageways and damp
re the ghost of a cowled monk sits
seen at the party. counting his
ads and mumbling in Latin of the
ansitoriness of human life. Once 1
ought 1 saw him. but when I looked
re closely in the Pickering light
Iiptor next door wrapped in a piece
bronze-colored tapestry which he
pulled over his head to keep out
dampness.
We are a motley lot. There are two
'ptors-one in a velveteen Rem
! one in the uniform of a French
III. He is Prix de Rome man and
=; he works as stretcher bearer at
. hospital near by. On nights when
guard duty he isn't with us, for
he is carrying down the stretch
of wounded to the hospital cellar,
ere they lie suffering in patient
-. We miss him then. for he is
-ry amusing.
Has Locomotor Ataxia. .
There is a painter who has loco
tor ataxia and drags his legs by
ans of two canes. one of which
outs at the bottom into a rubber
d tripod He has to sit down and
e when he comes to the stairs. but
is irrepressibly gay and full Of
ms.
There is a pale young musician with
''e little woman" who shares his
tunes with him. Her lips are very
! and her hair very bushy and she
ianon to the life, even to the cough,
hich she says is due to the dampness
the cellar.
There is young. light-colored
gro from Morocco, who, In spite of
IS color. gives an impression Of pale
e:s and who brings down Beaudelaire
m him and sits reading FLOWERS
! Evil" by the tiny night light or
e candle Of Manon.
Janitor's Wife There.
There is the 3anitors wife, who al
Us wears a white shawl, mystic
r head and Is very loquacious and
.reeable.
There is mother with a baby who
ieepS, wrapped in innumerable swad-
ing things, or walls disconsolateIy.
There are two women with dogs and
arious other non-descript persons,
no make dark spots against the
s;ssive masonry.
And there is this American news
Der woman whom they can't quite
ace yet
When the barrage fire is only srum-
ing IN the distance and there is no
.neoiate danger: we talk. The
inter with the dragging legs is a
hom he calls Edgar Po-ay, and he
egrets regularly that Poe is not alive
day to write a tale of horror about
The little Manon talks about N.
'rrible price OF things to eat now.
&c bombs fell last night and Of the
an who stopped in the street to
sht- cigarette and of the pieca Of
iti-aircraft shell that fell and cut
hand clean on. and of how
Hear Boche Motor Humming.
But when the barrage IRE grows
ry LOUD and we can hear. even from
cellar. the boche motor humminr
q great wasp. and the nat crack
bombs falling close by, then we fall
lent It is then that the ghost Of
. monk mumbles in Latin and tells
..s beads. u 'eiiS
50 Tar we have been spared, though
ere is hardly a studio of the iot
hose skylight has not been pierced
it'll falling shell splfnters. And on
parties.