OUR PARIS LETTER.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 391, 4 May 1880, Page 3

OUR PARIS LETTER.

(from our own correspondent.) ; , ■■ •. w • . Paris, Feb. 26. Paris presents very-little appearance of being ir» Lent; never was mortification of the flesh leas visible ; a restaurant that would advertise a bill of fare in harmony with ; the , 'season would, be avoided as a lazar-house. Provision shops are bursting with , the few things man wants here below; balle and dinner parties never were more numerous or more brilliant, and public amusements are liberally patronised. The Lenten sermons, whether by , euch " old " Catholics as the Rev Pere Loyson and his curates, or the Rev. Fathers Didon and Monsabre, who Weekly demonstrate the harmony between the Vatican and Modern Society, ( unknown to the "People's William," attract no marked crowds. Yet, Parisians are capable of enduring ;not only fast but famine. In 1793, the citizens practised a "civil fast" voluntarily for two months to allow the' provinces, devastated by war, to gather themselves up to forward food supplies, and the whole nation later, also voluntarily, went on short commons to be able to more generously aid her sans culottes. Russia is awarded the palm of being the model of Lenten abstinence; the nation, even including the Winter Palace on explosion ' days, takes to black bread, salt, and dried fish, washed down with deep draughts of brandy—" for nothing so the spirit calme as rum and true religion." But after the forty days, what a revenge for all the dear moments' one was absent from the fleshpots of Egypt! Meat is devoured so voraciously, along with the other prohibited fruits, that the bills of mortality become as swollen as the stomachs of the departed. However, holy Russia is exceptional in all her products—Nihilism included. At Monaco, the extraordinary fact is noticed that at the Casino Theatre, the spectators sdern to array themselves in all the diamonds they possess, whether sirass or paste is anether question. Can this have anything to do with the scare caused in the diamond, equal to what Edison created in the gas, world by Mr Haniiay's plan for making Koh-i-noors and Stars of South Africa artificially, and so bring down the rate of usance in Venice ? It is whispered that Parisian jewellers are quietly getting rid of stocks of colorless and yellow diamonds. This is a bad prospect ior the motion of Victor Hugo's half son-in-law, Lockroy, which demands the sale of the French Crown diamands, and to employ the proceeds of the monarchical baubles to decorating the country with schools. From Monaco also comes the assurance that Faure's baritone voice never was more splendid than in his singing of the serenade in " Don Juan," a part in which he firtf appeared in I860; if the real hero sang like that, no wonder he made " one thousand and three conquests." The first financier you meet would boast of catching , more than that of Becky j Sharps with his cheque-book. In honor of the Revolution of 1848, the Chambers (lid not meet on the 24th ; it is ::ot stated if the Orleanist Princes, so I faithful observers of. family memorial I

obituaries, kept the day all-hallowed. With Republicans at large it is viewed as Thanksgiving Day, in honor of the triumph of universal suffrage, to the author of which—Ledru Rollin—a statue is to be erected. ; Indeed, the Republicans are running up tributes to their worthics-'as if they were a Bonapartist dynasty, seeking sites for statues to family relations, from the frisky Queen Hortense to the free and easy military cardinal priest, Uncle Fesch. M. John Lemoine, editor of the Debate, has been, as was expected, elected a litesenator ; the.United Monarchists could not muster even the ghost of an opposition against him,; hence£ortb,:he will pass life between his curule chair and academic fauteuil, which is better than an office stool or a possible pallet in Saint Pelagic —the prison not dear to journalists. He is now immovable, inviolable, and immortal, and in addition the prince of good fellows. He was born in London, of French parents, in 1815 ; there he caught his Christian name and that spice of English humor which imparts such a piquancy to his articles. He was sent originally as correspondent by a religious journal to the, Eternal City, but was summoned back as he had become Voltarian—instead of. cursing he blessed the enemy. Always regarding the political antecedents of a Frenchman as so, much ancient historyforgotten even by himself, 4 Lemoine has been one of the most powerful builders of the Third Republic, despite his usual taste for making voluntarily a condottiere war to all parties. One of hie favorite beliefs is that journals are destined to replace Parliaments, and he proved it by politically killing the de Broglie and MacMahon rule, when itgagged the nation for six months. He is associated in the Rothschild house, in the direction of the finances of the Great Northern of Spain railway— filling the cash-boxes, the wags say, when emptied by brigands, In certain salons he passes for anti-Christ, and many plethoric dowagers make the sign of the cross when his name is mentioned. But.he has given, not the religion, but the politics of the Vatican, some Nasmyth-hammer blows. During the trial of a man named Affre, for murder, he stood up in the dock and exclaimed: "I can see nothing, I am getting blind." The Judge stopped the trial, ordered a medical examination, and the doctor reported the prisoner had become stone blind. The barrier police complain that the fair sex are the greatest smugglers, and who entail a staff of female searchers at a great expense. The corset, crinoline, and chignon are favorite hiding places for contraband articles; double-crowned bonnets and fronts contain lace, and the inside of dead poultry is stuffed with tissues ; heads of cabbage and rolls of butter disguise coffee, while soles of shoes perform the duty of snuff-boxes. Thiers relates the story that when he was eight years old his mother one dark November night covered him up in shawls, and deposited him in a basket slung over the side of an ass ; the latter, and alone, passed through the customs gate of Marseilles unobserved, when an officer ran with his searching spear to drive it into the basket to feel what were the, contents, then the mother scieuned to not hurt the child. Thus was saved the late President of the Republic. Mile. Deraismes has made a capital conference on Zola's nasty novel "Nana;" she Mated that his naturalism is not nature at all, but contrary to science, art, literature, and civilization. How can " Nana," represented as physically beautiful, be the product of four degenerate nnceetors. Disease, she says, is hereditary, but not vice, and the aim of civilization is to fortify tbe body and perfect the soul. Shethen attacked Sardorc, whom she demonstrated five years ago to be incapable of creating a character, and his breakdown in " Daniel Rochat " was the proof; his ability lies in simply pulling the strings of marionettes. The new ladies' bonnet is owl-shape— emblem of sagacity and vigilance. At theNice race-course, under a blazing sun, open air stoves nre in use, on which ladies can place their foet to display their tinkles. Invitation cards to the Postmaster-Gen-eral's parties intimate : •' Dancing sans ceretr-onie." Judge to prisoner on the 3rd January : " Whnl, up again, and 80 early !" '' Yes, Mon Jvge, 1 wished to express my compliments to you on the new year." Between friends : " Mile. B. wears no longer low-bodied dresses." "No, she understands the necessity of throwing a veil over tbe past." At midnight a crowd gathered round a man, down from an attack of apoplexy: " Night attacks again re-commencing, eaid an old gentleman ; what a Government; what a Republic 1"