Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1922-04-02
BY MYER AGEN.

PARIS, March %. 1922.
YHY do Americans. artists ind
NN/ writer's especially. come to
the French capital? 1t is as
tonishing to learn the actual
number of literary and artistic asplr-
ants from the United States VINO
have contrived by one method or an
other to get to what they seem to IN
stinctiyeIy feel is the intellectual
capital of the world. Even IN .ne
days of comparatively cheap lVins
and cheaper travel. when year III
a Paris garnet was consloereo
necessary feature Of ones salad days.
the relative number of eager Amer
leans sojourning here was not 81
large as it is today.
Probably. no generalization does
more than cover small part Oh 'he
ground; so far as prospective paint
ers, authors, sculptors or musicians
are concerned, two chief reasons
seem to stand out. The artistic or
literary person is of necessity
sensitive and in certain respects an
unreasonable sort of person; ne Is
alive to beauty and to freedom. But
of Paris, as the Greeks used 10 re-
late of Athens, one can still say tha'
TO see the city is to fall in love win
1.-THE subtle restraint OF the pro.
portions, the v;stas OF twisted olo
streets with not a shadow or an EN-
phasis misplaced, the queer massins
lilo
TONS of the trees along the river al
dusk, and the balance and htness
of the we'll grouped squares and pup
lie buildings, all contribute to MAKE
of Paris the ideal city.
Even when most inarticu!ate-and
oftenest they are-the American
youngsters of imagination feel inns
. beauty and are made happy by II.
With a little sympathy. one can I'M
iderstand how so often during their
first months here they seem content
70 do absolutely nothing, to walk
aimlessIy about day after day-orlnh-
ing in, in long draughts. the centuries
and centuries of beauty all aoou'
them. They are acquiring 'is'oh
which some day America will be graz
that they bring back to her
IN it's more intellectual side, PARIS
~ has an appeal which stirs Amer
lean youth particularly-the respect
for individuality. Even the most gen.
erous critic of life in the United
States today laments the degree OF
Standardization that has come ABOUT
there.
The young American feels a freedom
in Paris which often. to be sure goes
to his head like the wine that ne
drinks with his meals, where in Amer
lea he only drank water. But he
soon learns that he can abuse this
freedom or make the most OF 1t Tor
hfmself-Paris can either make him
or break him. The city has its many
tragedies of the young men and wom-
en- from the United States who have
gone to pieces in Its current OF gay
and easy life. but it has as well its
triumphs in the lives Of many who
have seen its beauty and learned to
know themselves.
To delve into the byways of Paris
has been the joy Of Americans from
time immemorial. Unlike the see-the-
world-in- three-weeks' tourists. the
youngsters who come to study here,
and even the staid business men.
whose routine takes them from Office
to hotel and back again, are drawn
forth in their moments of leisure to
look into that part Of Paris that lives
mainly in it's past.
Many years ago-in fact, so long ago
that houses still lined the bridges Of
the Seine, and the Place st. Michel
was a patch of grassy meadow. beside
the little suburban church and ceme-
terry of st. Andre-des-Art Rue de