The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1922-10-06
By John G Woolley


By John G
The trip from London to Paris is
made i'll a rush. One bolts it as he
takes drink" or dose of medicine,
according to his point of view. | dis
like Paris, having been skinned here
fifty years ago and several times since.
1t would be hard fol me to be fair TO
the Worlds Capital of Dissipation.
But | do my best 1t is undeniably
the most beautiful of cities. | went
today and sat in the Madeleine to rest
and to think. 1t was almost holy in
the quietness and beauty of the
wonderful church. Traffic was roar
ing on the four sides of it, but the
massive walls shut out the noise and
one could mediate as if there were
no turmoil in the world.
From the stone walls of London to
the chalk cliffs of Dover is a lovely
ride, and, for change, the day was
beautiful. The countryside is not the
best in England, but very fair. | was
in compartment with five American
women newly landed, high spirited
and full of the will to be delighted.
helped them with their French ex-
changes and when they protested
against my getting their bags down
from the racks assured them quite
sincerely, that | was ready to go any
length of manual labor in the sheer joy
of meeting up with such a flock of
Yankee women.
The Strait of Dover, usually so fatal
to charming manners. was as pacific
as cup of tea, SO that the glorihed
sand spit of Calais received a very
cheerful batch of voyagers, who very
shortly lost their equaninity in the
indignities OF the customs. The
French duties are even meaner than
the American. Only worn clothes are
exempt and no passengers word is
respected. Every garment is inspected
and the only way to enter free is to
travel with a trunk full of soiled
clothes.
Up to Paris via Bouogne. Amiens,
Abbeville and St. Denis, is through a
continuous garden of little farms with
scarlet peoples running like streaks OF
flame among the following grain--for
it is near harvest time-and the odor
of the new hay coming into the open
windows Of the train.
|. We reached Paris at eighteen"
o'clock, i. e., six P. M. There more
custom inspectors heckled us and then
at last having been done" twice the
same day we were at liberty to do
Paris-and be done more in more
polite and less authoritative ways. |
spent the evening with my daughter
and grandson at their pretty hotel in
the shadow of the Luxembourg and
started to walk back to my own room
"a matter of six or seven miles. AT
first | passed many family groups
gathered about their own doorways on
the street where all Paris lives
usually three generations, the parents
and children talking with great anirna-
ton and the grandfather silently hold
ing the cat
Wine Shops Busy
Then came the wine shops, count
less and very busy, where it seemed
to me most of the men drank spirits
and the women wine and beer. | saw
absolutely none OF the swearing, boast
ing, dice-throwing, fighting drunken
ness of the old American saloon. The
central purpose of the drinkers
seemed to be conversation, with
alcohol, s;pped slowly, as an accel-
orator. Many men had, say. two
sheets in the wind, in which case they
simply Rugged the nearest woman and
talked right on, and on the sidewalk
the curious stranger was solicited by
MISUNDERSTANDING girls once ii
FIVE minutes or so. The difference be.
tween them and US seems to be that
they have no sense of any breach oil
virtue in getting drunk, while az
American drunk considers himself a
devil, or a victim. And the French
prostitute considers herself, quite
calmly, to be merchant of strange