Putnam patriot., 1921-04-22

4 writer in one of the regent rnaga- zines has remarked that the life of us all of today Is. like "alI Gaul," di- yided into three parts 3 before the war, during the war, and after the war, a statement that on reflection none of us can deny. There has been revolution in the most tranquil of existenees since August lst, 1914.
 It is to be doubted if there is any city in the world today where these three periods of the twenty-one years of the century are SO wildly and so poignantly demonstrated 10 the most casual observer as they are in Paris. city whose whole personality and self expression has undergone tragic metamorphosis since the onrush of the international typhoon.
 You may remember the Paris of pre-war days where every turn of the sun made a mole sxhiieT atts.isE ho....s1.ay- than the day that preceded. where he laughter of the Boulevards and the subtle music of the Bois pervaded your senses with a willing intoxica- tion. Then again, you may recall the second Paris. the Paris of 1914-l9i8, the Paris that throbbed alternately with hope and despair, the Paris that reflected the suffering and the sacri- fee of France. Then came the wild thrill of the Armistice and victory and another Paris that shone with all the brilliancy of the world as the haggling called peace began, and Paris laughed and danced hysterically, confident in regaining that happy spirit which had been her inviolable right for forty years. Finally we come to the last-the after-the-peace Paris, the Paris one may see today, Paris as different in temperament and in spirit as health is different from illness.
 To an American, more used to the constant rebuilding of New York. where the whole face of the local landscape may change within the passing of month, all Continental cities reserve charm in their lack of change, the ability of the visitor to find familiar place quite the same in appearance as when he left 1t one, two, ten or twenty years ago. So 1t Is that in entering Paris in 1921 1t is with the feeling of only having left 1t briefly. To him who knew Paris best in time of war the single great change in the city's appearance is the restor- ation of those myriad lights which have given the French capital it's fa- vorite name of La Vile Lumiere. Otherwise to the first outward glance, Paris is unchanged, and if you love Paris, your happiness is unbounded.
 It took us several hours, in fact some days, to acknowledge the fact that Paris was not the same as when we had left it. First, We dined on the evening of our arrival at famous little restaurant in the rue St. Hon ore. It was hardly a war time meal There was sugar and butter aplenty- two commodities which Paris scarcely knew during the war The food was all that the house warranted, the wines delicious. But something was lacking. When we were almost at the end of our meal, it suddenly came to us that there was not a French man or a French woman in the restaurant aside from the service. There were Americans, English, be-jewelled South American family and some Scandanavians. Then came the bill. In francs it was a sum twice what one might have paid for like dinner in this same restaurant prior to the war. With the advantage of our American
 xchange rate-the franc having drop ped from it's pre-war value of $.195 to less than seven cents, we paid about one-half of what a similar meal would have cost us in a New York restaurant of the same type-if there should happen to exist such a restaurant. The truth dawned on us A franc to d Frenchman is still franc. Its val ue to him is the same in 1921 as 1t was in 1914 and unless he is one of those who profited by the war-and the United States is not the sole hunting ground of the war prolteer he cannot afford to dine, as was his old custom, in the chic restaurants near the Boulevards
 In fact. this first dinner in Paris was indicative of much that we saw frequently to indicate that the "vrai Francais" has disappeared from the public life of Paris The old rich of France have suddenly become the new poor What extravagance one sees displayed in public is almost invari- ably the extravaganee of the sojourn- ing foreigner.
 We were walking down the rue de la PaiN near noon. IL is very difficult to walk down the rue de la Paix with out physical danger You, as well as the man coming in the opposite di- rection, are more than likely to walk ahead but look at right angles into the most fascinating shop windows in the world, now more fascinating than ever since all the gorgeous jewels of