OUR PARIS LETTER

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 320, 12 August 1879, Page 2

OUR PARIS LETTER

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Pari|, June 19. r," Tho late Prince of Orange and the electric light for common use are the,topics of* the moment. The remains of the.-worth-less prince will, on therr departure, royal honors. The deceased was pjresm|ied> to be " a friend of .Frincp," because I he; frittered away -his life on the of the Boulevards; mtHe timing and the green rooms" l _f»pirt_ie : ' establishments. His whole duty of man was to obtain money as best he could and spend it. Citron, as everyone called him, djd nothing to uphold, the dignity of royalty in the eyes of sceptical Frenchmen. Viveur to the last, the Dutch prince could not resist the seduction to visit the late Opera File—that-rendezvous for cosmopolitan gallants ; he caught,,a,felapse, and a precociously worn-out constitution did the rest. History records some Dutch princes "who rose: f roirf ]HiMr not^miss a battle."' '' "■' """''"" The electric Tign,t,, J&hlochkofl: system, as applied to the' Fine Arts Exhibition in the .Palace of Industlyris a failure. It is insufficieiit to) light up the so the statuary and, resemble phantoms ; the light is also intermittent, passes from red ; to rose,: and violet,?so that ladies soon retire to the salons, where are the pictures. Orily" the artiste, here are to be pitied: Electricity devours certain colors and heightens Qthers/,re.-make&, as it were, the paintings, so jthat ;the, beat, picture, resembles the thousandth probf of a colored lithograph. The illumination charms, is ingenious, but will never be tried again. As a compensation, the chief cafes on the Boulevards will, from next October, patronize the electric candles. ) . It is becoming the general practice at dinner parties for the guests >to march to: table to the sounds of invisible music. The Queen of Spain ever adopts the practice, which is,'perhaps,; only following:up' the idea of Louis who was ever preceded in his passage to Church by the scrapings of violins. The fashionable world is slow to leave for the sea-side, Vichy, or the Pyrenees'; ,why go in search of " water" when so much is to be found in the streets. Ladies, whose, word is law, have decided that, this season, robes will be worn short, the favcrite hat the Shepherdess, and for evening wearthe mantille. .The preferred color is yellow Isabel, of which its origin is more authentic than hygienic. When the Spaniards besieged Ostend, the Archduchess Isabelle who accompanied her husband, vowed she would not change her linen, save inside'the town. But the troops were repelled, and kept so long waiting, that Isabelle's linen began to turn disagreeably yellow, and to imitate her the Court ladies dyed theirs to match. The newspapers grumble at the projected. Press laws without being abJe ; to show the reason why ; the Bill accords all that jburnalists.have reasonably. demanded up to the present; save absolute impunity; The only severity maintained is that for attacks against ambassadors : and foreign potentates. France is not fully ripe for every Press liberty, and the latter is not durable unless surrounded by respect; how much lee way has in this sense to be made up. ' Formerly the stars, various metals, the form of certain plants, orttheir colors were considered excellent cures for special diseases. In Brittany these are all discarded in. favor of invocations of the saints.. Thus reliance on St. Cloud will, cure boils and blains ; St. Meeri is capital; against itch; St. Eutrope for' dropsy- 'St.* Lbuis !; for St. Clair for opthalmia;;- Sfc. Plinte is the favorite of wet nurses, arid St. Roch is perfect in;the ease of scab in sheep and ordinary fever. The, calendar records nothing to cure phylloxera; this is the more regrettable as some 11,000 "remedies" have been tried and.foimd wanting. Of late the public gardens of the city have been invaded by a class of persons not usual to meet in these places. The police allowed the immigrants to make themselves at home ; then organised a rafle, or sweep ; the majority' of the arrested were "wanted ". since a long time, and the others constituted the'utilities or inutilities of the theatres. Further, a gang of young ruffians was lately arrested; the police seized their papers, among which were the articles of a joint stock association of robbery duly drawn up, with I rates of dividends and rewards.

M. Dumreicher, a* German, in a volume just published, states that the comfort which all classes of French society enjoy is not only due to the geographical constitution of the country, the character of the people, &c, but to the work of the Governments since three hundred years. It was the monarchy endowed the French with their artistic faculties, while the Revolution secured their instruction. The latter may explain why it is seriously proposed to raise a large loan to found secondary schools. Business continues to be more and more depressed, and people are very desponding because, despite every reduction aud economy, the pinching continues. Pam personally aware that one of the chief glass manufacturers of this city has had to discharge 15 old hands last week. But there is balm in Gilead—the duty on tobacco has been reduced 20 per cent. Voltaire's brain is not lost, as is popularly supposed. Mithonord, who embalmed the philosopher, preserved the brain, and it formed a family heirloom ; the Verdier family now possess it, and have again offered it to the Academy, which declines to accept the gift. What would be the. position of that body if compelled to preserve all the brains of its immortals— Ollivier's in time included ? The papers have so ridiculed old Blanqui that the conspirator admits he, has no more influence, and will for the future rest in the shade. Gras means fat, and is the name of the improver of the Chassepot rifle ; well, the height of abstinence is refusing to shoulder a Gras musket on Good Friday. A lame duck upbraided a friend for not inviting him to his soiree. "Hush, my dear fellow, the Minister of .Police (the handsomest official in France, by-the-bye) was present, you know."