Evening star., 1946-09-29
Dazed Paris Carries On AimlessIv
People Hide Underlying of Another More
Daily Activities Inevitable
b. Newd Noye,Jr


now. Springtime in Paris
has always been famous
for its loveliness, and ~
autumn should not be very ~
different. Psychologically, SM
however, it is. Most days Mi
are not yet cold, although I'm
it rains lot. The leaves
have not turned red, but WAA
from time to time one of MzE
them seems just to get NSE
tired and falls slowly to WS
the pavement. $Ae
On the surface Paris is MN
still all here. They let you
know it. They put flood NS
lights on the things they
want you to notice at night
on the Madeleine and. -
the opera, the slender COL.
umns in the squares and
the Arc de Triomphe. The =.
horns of the taxis still
squawk, the "Follies Ber-
ceres" are going strong.
The artiSts-and the tour
ists-still sit under big
umbrellas in the Place de
Tertre up on Montmartre,
slipping wine while an ac-
Gordon plays. The handsome rich
women who dine at the Tour d'Argent
are making the rounds of the cou-
turiers; the new fashions get head
lines in all the papers. They get
almost page in the Paris edition OF
the Herald Tribune on some busy
days
Nothing has changed really-and
yet nothing is the same. You walk
the streets of this wonderful city,
and you know that the people around
you, the people who live here, are as
lost as you are. They do not seem
to belong any more. And none of it
seems to belong to them.
To the People-Nothing.
Big things are happening in Paris
Many of the worlds current crop of
great men are here, scattered around
town at their various hotels, and
every day except Sunday they get
together at the Luxembourg Palace.
They are fashioning peace for Europe,
for the world.
To the people it means absolutely
nothing.
Twice every day there is group
of about 20 gathered at the main gate
of the palace to watch shiny big cars
carry the great men in for the morn
ing and afternoon sessions. Twice
daily another 20 or so-or maybe 1t
is the same 20-bunch at the side
gate to watch the cars take the great
men out for lunch and dinner. These
people stand quietly behind the police
lines, and when the last car is gone
they walk away exactly as the
would if they had been watching
steam shovel and it had stopped.
Nobody understands what is going
on in the palace. Nobody tries to.
Nobody really cares. For nobody
seems to have the remotest feeling
that the great men in their shiny
cars may really put things right.
Listless and Discouraged.
Nowhere, not even where everything
is ruins, could watcher realize more
fully than he realizes here how sici-
the world is. Sick of the past snt
the present and the thought of tht
future, sick to death of itself. Yol
hear from a taxi driver what 20
saw in the faces of the silent fel
standing at the palace gates.
ION sent que ca "a n,dl," he says
"One feels that everything is going
wrong. But there is nothing to be
done. Europe is bad-life is bad
Man is a dirty kind of thing-une
sale espece"
You try to talk to people about
peace, but you do not get very far.
Half OF them do not speak of "the
next war" 1t is this war" The
one just finished is "the last war"
The young bartender at the Grand
Hotel Is an alert type, very articulate.
He was a prisoner in Germany for
more than year.
But, of course, a war" he says,
Impossible to avoid. Do you see, sir,
If I put these two glasses in this
cocktail shaker. Can they avoid the
collision? Something must smash.
1t will be bad for all, but it must
smash"