PARISIAN GOSSIP.
(FROM OUR PARIS CORRESPONDENT.)
Parts, February 15 A practical joke, which was something beyond a joke, has just been played on a retired picture dealer, M. D , who has a large collection of ptmtings at his residence. He wen; to Nice a short time back, leaving his house m the charge of an old man servant. A few days later \ some young men, dressed as painters and | carrying boxes of colors, called at the ' 'bouse, and said that they had received ' orders from M. D— — — — to varnish and . restore some pictures m hiß gallery. The man, unsuspectingly, allowed them to enter , and they shortly after left. M. D ■ •-, ; I who has just returned home, stood aghast , at the transformation bis pictures had undergone. Madonnas were smoking { j pipes, a John the Baptist wearing a Chamberlain glass m his eye ; Hippocrates i wearing a box hat, eto. The authors of this costly piece of fun are supposed to be young painters dissatisfied with their dealings with M. D— — — . ' ! A statue is about to be placed m the cathedral of Rouen to Oavelier de la ' Salle, a native of that town, who firßt planted the flag of France m 1687 m the territory which afterwards became the State of Louisiana. Tbe hero is represented with flowing hair thrown back, and a curled moustache, giving him a proud air as described by his biographers. The French Government has granted a pension of COOfr. a year to Mdme. Le Goff, mother of the medical student who died last year through an operation of transfusion of blood, to which he had voluntarily submitted to save the life of a patient. A band of young conscripts have made a theatrioal display on Ine Place Riroli, Paris. Kneeling bareheaded before* the statue of " Jeanne d'Arc," they sang the little-used national air, " Mourir pour la Pa»rie." An old lady, who was passing, was so overcome with this display of patriotism that she fainted, and had to be tended m a neighboring chemist's shop. The women's rights journal, the "Citoyenne," has put forward afresh c'aim, and supports it by a very plausible argument, lt demands that the places of inspector of meat markets should be given to females. Women, it says, buy the meat and cook it, and should therefore know more about the quality tnan the " swells" who are sometimes appointed Full atatißticß are now published relative to the persons under treatment at the Pasteur Institute. The total number under treatment during 1886 was 2,682, of whom 31 died, being at the rate of 115 per cent. The number of those bitten by animals proved by experiment to be mad was 1,538, of whom 16, or 1 04 per cent. died. The intenaitied treatment which M. Pasteur has recently adopted has been extraordinarily successful m cases where patients wore bitten about the head or face. Out of fifty cases no I one has died; whereas had they not been under treatment the mortality would probably have amounted to 40 or 44 per cent. The " Kolnische 7eitun?" eaysloO,CoO new repeating rifles have been distributed ; to the German Army since last autumn, and one-tbird of the forces are now m possession of the new weapon. It is : added that from the 19th inst (February) 1 250,000 men will be thoroughly well i practised m the use of the new weapon. [ M M. Loisean and Lettane, inventors of an automatic danger signal for railways, , have submitted it to the committee for ' assuring the safetj of passengers. The r committee intend to compare the invent ion with systems already existing. 1 An illustration of the extraordinary i Kkill applied to the falsification of pictures has just come to light m connection : with a picture by Habey just offered for sale at the Hotel Drouot. A careful examination by an expert proved, that the work m question, which figured as an oil painting, was a water color drawing by 1 the master, cunningly transferred to an oak pane), and transferred to an oil i painting by the copious use of thick var- ; nish, such as is used for carriages The skill with which the fraud was accoini plished was such that Its discovery was only due to a mere accident. An Arab, named Mahomed-Ben-Sarbi, who was buried last week at Blidab, had lived to the age of one hundred and nine years. He had an astonishing memory, and would relate at great length his , recollections of the 18th century. His ' youngeßt Bon, 72 years of age, was the chief mourner. The high prices realised at the Hotel Drouot for Stradivarius violoncellos the . other day were east into the shade by that paid for a bow by Tourte. The products . of this unrivalled workman, the Cellini of the fiddle-bow, are becoming scarcer year by year, and are eagerly disputed by > amateurs whenever one is offered for sale. ; But such a price as was paid for the speoi i men m question (eleven thousand francs) , haß nevor bofore been heard of. It was a remarkable instrument. The bow itself was of tortoisesbell, with mountings inlaid 1 with pearl .and gold. An eccentric Italian at Milan, named i Vito Cercolone, belonging to an old i family, has bequeathed his fortune, ' amounting to 600,000 lire, to King Humbert. The bequest is accompanied with ' several strange conditions, among which is one that the testator shall be buried m • the middlo of a field The King of Italy, according to a telegram m the '" Temps," has expressed his firm conviction that the peace of Europe will not be disturbed France and Russia, he recently observed to a senator, are both pacific, and Prince Bismarck's utterances m the Reichstag are {.but the expression of the views of the Emperor and of the Crown Prince. His Majesty re gards the attitude of France as calculated to reassure everybody. The latest method of obtaining a livelihood has been illustrated by Charles Tarlier, 62 years of a«e, who haa been m the habit of stealing billiard balls from publichouses, substituting m their stead so many balls m plaster. ' Ho seems to have eked out an existence by selling the genuine articles to the publicans whom he had, robbed. It waß the other day decided by the Higher Commiß-ioners for the F-xhibition "f 1889, that the Agricultural Show shall occupy an area of 26,000 metres along the Quai d'Orsay, and that special buildings may be erected on tbe Esplanade des Invalidos for machinery. The telephone rate between Paris and Brussels is fixed af; three francs for five minutes' conversation ; and, subject to a deposit pf 60 francs, and the adaptation of the apparatus at his own expense, any Parisian already having a telephone can communicate direct from Brussels. The cen.ua return of foreigners shows that France, with a population of 38,000,000, has 1,115,000 aliens, the pro portion boing thus about 1 m 34. In Paris and* its suburbs thero are 213,000 foreigners out of a population of 2.961,000 inhabit aais, or 1 m 14. In the Nord the proportion is 1 m I£, and m the Bouches de Rhone 1 m 8, whereas Vendee has only 1 foreigner m 3000 The English m Paris have increased m 3& years from 11,000 to 14,000.
Canadians are learning to their sorrow this winter that their great Pacific railroad is too far north, that indeed, it is impassable during a part of the winter season. For about three weeks a large part of tha western seotion has been praotically abandoned, owing to deep snow and landslides. In the Selkirk range the snow sheds wore orushed and the approaches to Vancouver, the western terminus, are |>Iq. faded by ice.
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Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1529, 11 April 1887, Page 2
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1,283PARISIAN GOSSIP. Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1529, 11 April 1887, Page 2
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