OUR PARIS LETTER

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 384, 26 March 1880, Page 2

OUR PARIS LETTER

(from odr own correspondent.)

Pakis, Jan. 17.

Among tho great men who were never Academicians figure Pascal, Descartes, Scarron, Moliere, La Rochefoucauld, Bayle, Diderat, Beauimrchais, Balzac, aud Beranger.

The weather chart supplied to several French journals joins England to the Contineni.

The official Salary of an artiste of the Theatre Frangais is 70,000f, equal to a cabinet minister's and superior to a Mar sbal's.

The Evenement states the Empress Eugenic will sail for Zululand next March in the " Union Steamship Company."

The Figaro hns rained the tariff of its three franc a line advertising column, 25 per cent. Puffs vary from 12f to 20f the line.

Nearly all the newspapers in Par's are owned either by financial companies, or leading politicians.

It is said to bo as difficult for some of the Grand Dukes to enter Russia, as for a Nihilist to quit it.

Mr Duruy, minister of Public Instruction, under the second Empire, and a distinguished historian, was apprenticed to a weaver: his uncles are the first weavers of tapestry at the Gobelins. During the reign of Terror, the Marquis of Mirabeau, father of the orator, had often only two potatoes and a plate of beans for his daily repast m Iris eastje; meat and bread then cost 25 and 45f the pound reepectipely; the expense of writing a letter, paper, ink, and lamp oil included, amounted to 100f. In the splendid Rue Royale, Paris, the bouses have no sewers. Tame says vice and virtue are products like sugar and vitriol. Talleyrand was immensely rich due tospeculation in stocks. " It's not surprising," observed a gtntlenmn, " Pie has sold all those who bought him." A fashionable lady was accustomed to remark of the first season's snow: " there's indifference falling." The Poles of Paris are just now in remarkably high spirits. What's coming ? Parisians resemble Laplanders by their - patronage ot furs y a-traveller once called Paris " the country of i'ura." At a restaurant in the Faubourg Montmartre there is a notice, " on account of the intense cold, the oysters are within." The fashionable costume for a fancy Ball, is that of a Cordon-bleu. M. Gatnbettfi has issued no less than 15,000 visiting cards, the return for those he received. Ex-queen Isabella of Spain presented as new year's gifts to her friends, exquisitely carved and painted fans. Rochefort's new novel, Rodricjues is highly spoken of; he receives 500f per week for his contributions to the Eappel, and it is wliispered he has an interest in one of the leading- curiosity shops of Paris. M. Arnaucl was asked on ono occasion, what pleasure he found in listening to a lady speaking, who possessed not a grain ofsenae; he replied "I like to see her speak." The Rev. M. Bersier, Protestant Clergyman, calls upon nil denominations to contribute towards the support of "their idiots," in a hospital near Bordeaux. Discarded snuff boxes can be made to do duty for bon-bon caskets. The Patti conjugal difficulty is arranged, she aPowe her husband 100,000f a year, and pays all the lt\w expenses connected with the separation. Both are free to apply for a divorce, with the view of re-marrying in casa'the Naquet bill becomes law. ■■,;-.■'

Mtne. Recamier was admired by a government clerk who lived in an opposite house ; every morning and evening he called during thirty years to know how she was When that beauty lost her eyeeight, he offered to become her reader, and to qualify for the task, he at seventy years of age, t took private lessons iv elocution. A troupe of French artistes is being engaged for a theatre at- Constantinople. Sarah Bernhardt netted 42,000f last year by the sale of her paintings and sculptures. Her fixed salary at the Theatre Francaiu is G2,GOO£ per annum. Feathers, flowers, and minerals, the three kingdoms of nature, vie with each other as to which shall figure most extensively in a lady's bonnet. M. Lafarre, an ancestor of the present Minister of War, was for many years in love with Mine. LaSabliere ; one day he called to visit: " What on earth have you in your eye, Mine ?" "Ah ! Lafarre," she replied, " now I'm certain you love me no ■ more ; I have had that defect in my eye all my life, and it is only now you perceive it." " A new box of bonbons has appeared ; it has separate compartments filled with different sweetmeats' in color and perfume; it has received the soubriquet " the box of. paints." • ••■••■ M. de Harcourt, Private Secretary to MacMahon, pending the letter's presidency, is writing the history of an " Unexpired Septennate." Piquant revelations are looked forward to^ " Because nothing ought to endure long * in France," is the reason alleged by the engineers of Paris for their bungling in not freeing the Btreetsfrom snow. Ihe robustness of a vagrant is estim mated by the number of soup kitchens he can do in & day. M. Tame boasted that there were only 400 people in the world could comprehend his volume L'lntelligence. There must be something wrong, as the French language is the clearest in the world. We know it is v melancholy" also, according to Mr Lilyvick. Arrangements are being made by which telegrams from England to ihe United States will be sent first to Paris, and thence through the French cable. This will effect a saving of 20 per cent, at the lowest, and no time loet. The Swiss Admiral is a famed institution ; but under Charles X., M. d'Haussez was appointed Minister of the Marine ; he never was on board a ship in his life, but he took a foot-bath every morning to accustom himself to water. French actors decline all foreign decorations till their own Government deems them worthy of the Order of the Legion of Honor. • No marked eagerness is displayed to purchase the tickets for the FrancoSpanieh lottery. . " Who paye his debts becomes nch. v Don't believe a word of it," said Mar- * tainville, "it is only a rumor put into circulation by creditors." It is contemplated to tax the wines en- * ' tering Paris by an ad valorem scale ; at present all qualities pay the same impot. The municipality is considering a proposition for establishing steamboat com- * - niunication between eacli side of the river; the ticket would be one sou, with the right to re-cross by any ferry-boat. J. B. Bousseau showed one day his " Ode to posterity" to Voltaire. The latter, •after glancing over it, replied-—" I do not believe your letter will ever arrive at its address." The Paris cooks have declared in favor e of American dried eggs; the potted ham is unanimously rejected as being flaccid and possessing a creosote flavor. Empty meat tins are carefully collected and sold to the fabricants of metallic toys. The object of literary men in France is to be so pecuniarily successful as to be able to build a house in Nice. Bolieau implored Louie XIV. to cease to conquer, or he would cease to write. The King's illegitimate son, the Due dv Maine, j^aid—" Sire, I feel 1 will become an ignoramus, for my tutor gives me'a holiday on every occasion your Majesty obtains a victory." The same Monarch was the poplanser of two besetting sins—gluttony and adultery. . . Fast life is bo on the increase in Pans that the crack restaurants can now afford to regularly remain . open all night for supper parties. At the present time, Paris has the greatest display of used up young men of any capital in the world.