New-York tribune., 1921-02-27
British Author
Finds Paris a City
OF lJtter. Sadness
Nearly All Residents Dress
i'm Mourning; Signs oi
the Struggle for Existence
Meet One Everywhere


LONDON, Feb. I4.--only by actually
going there, writes Agnes Egerton
Castle, che author, 60 The London
Daily News. can one realize the sad
ness Of Paris.
~ have Just spent three days." ahe
writes. s'in the once City Of Light.
which had not revisited since the
war. / brought TO IL memories Of
streets, gold and blue and gray, like
delicate watsr-eolor. shronged with
merry. busy people. brilliant with
shops. kaieidoseopic with color and
movement The blaa and gray and
gold were there--bright, clear, f-sssy
weather, with air intensely vivifying,
impossible &c describe save by the trite
comparison, iced wine. To draw it
into your lungs seemed in stsel2 g
sort Of ecstasy. But there is no
ecstasy in Paris; IL IL sad city.
"Its citizens are dressed nearly all
in mourning, and even thoss who axe
not wear sad-colored clothes You see
few elegantes Ia splendid Surs. q
certain number Of expensive Ameri-
cans, and hare and there painted
thing with vivid hues, out of place
and out Of taste, lost and futile As q
butterfly in winter Of dark trial. Rut
taken as q whole. Paris is filled with
the gravity Of those who have only
just left the death chamber.
Stamp of the Ordeal
"Upon every couneenance yeu see
Chs ssamp OF the ordeal. Men end
women alike have locked on horror so
long, have 30 long fronted the ex-
treme Of human suffering, have had
so strencusly to brace their souls co
meet personal and public calamity, that
they hav, no. yet been able to lay
of their armour. The eyes still behold,
the soul still stiffens herself. France
has agonized and ince cannot forget.
"And life is difficult. The people
are cold and food is scarce. Last year,
OF all years, pestilence fell upon the
the restored herds. Milk is all but
unobtainable; even the wealthy have
to get doctors certificate for 8 daily
pint for each child. You wonder how
il fares with the poor. You see the
pinched faces, and you guess. Sugar,
too, seems wanting-sugsr and milk,
those two necessary heat-giving fact
ors for health; and with this, fuel
shortage.
People Impoverished
"Signs of the struggle for existence
rect you at every turn. Along the
boulevards and nearly all the streets
booths have been set up, filled with
pitiable gimcrack wares, such as
would hardly pass muster even in q
county fair; and as if it were indeed
fair, every 800 yards or so some unfortu-
nate arrests the traffic, gathers ring
about him of staring, silent people,
nournfully to display some feeble
acrobatics.
Paris, indeseribably altered, heavy
with the memory of the past, weighted
with the burden Of present difficulty,
hardly able yet to look to the bright
ness of the future! 1t is only when
one is there that one realizes how
little, with all our own great share of
it, We have really endured, compared
with the French, what it was the noble
and beloved dead saved US from at the
cost OF the supreme sacrifice.
"ln contrast with London Paris ss as
town still in q state of siege. Eng
land never knew the foot of the enemy
on her soil, she never saw the town in
vaded, the home burn, never heard the
ring of the conqueror's heel on her own
pavement, never saw her youth, her
girls and her boys, driven forth like
cattle to toll for the aggressor.
Eve ought all to bear heart toward
france very full of sympathy and for
bearRnce."