The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1940-05-24
Paris Is Now an
llO'clock Town
Gay City of Wartime Lives
Again to Entertain
Boys From Front.

PARASITIC Gay Paree" known
by the A. e. F. in 1919 is carry
ing on in another war, but it's an
II o'clock town now.
AS the war progresses, new
amusements are appearing, and il
is the men back from the front
who insist on the gayety rather than
the civil population. Theaters have
reopened, also music halls, cabarets
and dance places.
If there is a dance Of death at the
front, there must be a dance of for
getfulness in Paris. Guardians OF
wartime Paris listened to the uni
versal complaints and opened up
the town to fun and distraction, that
is, until II o'clock when the black
out descends.
The national playhouses, such as
the Opera, the Opera Comique, the
Coincide Franchise and the Odeon,
are open and crowded. With the
tickets one receives a little slip tell
ing where the nearest afraid shell
ter is located.
Precautions Taken.
One box in the first tier is always
unoccupied, for it encloses bags of
sand and firefighting apparatus in
case of incendiary bombs. These
precautions have been taken every
where and in some houses the am
phitheaters are closed to prevent
possible stampeding down ancient
narrow stairs in case of alarm.
Those authors who are not busy
working in the censorship or who
are not at the front, are busy in
terpreting the intellectual side OF
the war. The critics are looking
for masterpieces born of the new
conflict, although most of them are
just arriving from the World war.
The new war is more articulate
in the dozens of cabarets, such as
the Noctambules called the Nox; lie
Theatre de Dix Heures, La Bolee de
Cidre, legendary haunt of Francois
Villon. In these little theaters
where soldiers and weary Parisians
sit together the audience laughs
over clever burlesque of Hitler and
Goebbels, or war themes and love
themes and the inevitable triangu-
lar situations.
The music halls such as the Ca
sino de Paris, the Folies Bergere,
the Concert Mayol, where nudity is
glorified, the little Bobino and the
Circus Medrano are the soldiers de-
light. There they crowd in with
their sweethearts and comrades and
sit back and gaze intently on scenes
quite unlike a night on the Moselle
or an outpost in the Saar.
Famed Cafes Are Open.
Most of the big cafes which gave
Paris International fame during
peace time are opened for business
but in many cases the crowds are
smaller and generally more serious
In Montparnasse the old Cafe Dome
is going strong. La Coupole, the
biggest night restaurant in Mont
parnasse, is usually crowded.
The big boulevard cafes are much
more sedate. They have settled
down to a war regime of dignified
tolerance. They still seem to be
more reminiscent of the World war
which also emptied them, but ir
which war correspondents met ano
talked and Partisan journalists ano
moving-picture actors, artists anc
critics foregathered for apertifs.
The American bars born of the
last war have taken on a new lease
of life. Harry's New York Bar is
again a den Of joy-seeking Royal
Air Force fiiers and newspaper
men. Fred Payne's coy little bal
at the gateway to Montmarte in the
lower reaches of the Rue Pigalle is
back in its old role Of entertaining
lonesome soldiers and equally lone.
some theater girls. mostly English