OUR PARIS LETTER.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 417, 20 July 1880, Page 3

OUR PARIS LETTER.

(FUOM OUR OWN COHRKSrONDENT.)

Paris, April 22. It is the question of money which is the malady of the present, as in the time of Pan urge ; for the tnnjority there is no corn in Egypt, while Harpagon 'watches bis money-bags as a eunuch guards the Seraglio, and Pandolphe shakes his pistoles as a mule does its bells. In the good old times, to be pinched did not produce melancholy as now: then expedients to

" raise the wind " partook of comedy—at present they belong to tragedy; one suffers to-day from a malady that formerly was so easy to cure. The most sensational novels of Balzac are those where a Bank note interposes between a young man and his dreams of love, happiness, and am■bition, like the legendary spider's net that separated the lover from his affianced, aud that the strongest blows of a Bword coiiid never break through. They are not letters of love that rule the camp and the grove at present, but letters of change and stethoscopic examination of pockets, not chests, would be the surest means for plucking from the heart a rooted sorrow, or effecting a reliable diagnosis.,.

The event in tho theatrical world is the tktbut of Mile. Ugalde, daughter of the famous mother of that name, and pupil of Mme. Calvalho.. It was against the Wish of her family that Mile, selected the stage, but having proved a success they no longer offer any resistance. She appeared, in the' role of Marie in the " Daughter of the Regiment," and quickly displayed a very fresh voice of extensive compass —Weak a little in the medium notes, but charming in the soprano register; ber acting waß very promising. The drama has nothing more prominent than MiirgerV " Life in Bohemia," the picture of hard-op student existence, when Musette and Mini! with empty stomachs loved penniless collegians. 04d persons go to see it for the pleasures .? memory, and among others, two of- the type-clmracters'; ronCriWaUen the.Dominie •Sampson, or Colline of the jplay, and Schon, a toy-manufacturer, who• sa for S/iannart. That was the age when a Bong did duty for a supper, when Miirger the author, was a show case at the St. Louis j hospital for a cutaneous affection, and i when he pledged his stockings to buy ; crape for his wide awoke on hearing of the death of consumptive Mimi in the hospital. ; Artists are become joint stoC'C directors in panorama companies; the ordinary battle-piece picture of an exhibition is too j microscopic; paintings must be enlarged, and figures represented of natural size. Paris will soon have three ramas ; London is to have its Ballaclava charge ; Brussels, Waterloo ; Madrid, Teutan; and lines in' the shape of new companies are being laid down to supply New York and St. i Petersburg. Artists, when tired, can! become directors of the International Society of Panoramas. ] The Appeal to French hearts for pecu- j niaf) help to the distressed Irish, has] taken no other shape than a charity sermon ' at the Madaleine and some house to house collections on the part of the monarchists. The Republicans have stood aloof. Tho Evenement did not organise even a tombola, or the Figaro a theatrical fece. O'Connell never really liked the French, because they were too Voltairian, and the French did not like his following, because too papalm. To this must be added the 1870 grudge against periide Albion. The sermon as preached by the Pere Monsabre demanded:—Was it true that heretical England had voted shameful laws against Irish Catholics, and that Irish landlords ground tenants to the dust,; etc. This was not the language falling like the dew from heaven. The Peres Didon and jjlousabre belong to the Order of Dominicans, but the latter is more orthodox in (Joint of style, as he relies on commonplaces, and holds; fast to -the rhetorical .'? thirdly and lastly." In appearance he is not preposessinfr, lias a. rustic air, his hair is untidy, and his general character suggests strength ratherthan intelligence ; his attitude is unetijous, his voice pleasing and of great flexibility ; he is a correct preacher Pere Didon, who is in ecclesiastical exile, aimed to be original—to deliver a conference, not a sermon ; he desired to raise pulpit eloquence to the taste of the day : instead of saying " brethren." he substituted '•Messieurs" ; he never alluded to adversaries in the current coin of the church, eschewed Latin ; his language waa not polished, his style was coarse ; he was deficient in natural gifts, and his means were inferior to his will ; then, some of his intonation- re-called the voice of the comic actor, Coqiielinc, jun., Gambetta's friend,, amd whom he not a litt'c resembles. In presence of Pure Didon you felt he was (timing at some sincere, but mystical, end. Pere Monsal-re. preached because it wes a sentinel duty, a necessity to say something rather than to have something, to say.

The legislators have returned to their posts.and atlest the perfect tranquillity and prosperity of ihe country. Tbe revenue receipts confirm all this by their continually surpassing expenditure. The question of the religions orders, which includes, the Jesuits, excites but secondary attention ; the nation is resolute that they must submit to the Code, and that the Government will fearlessly apply the law. The religieux have till the close of June to conform to the law, and the episcopacy to reflect. Are they wise, in the interests of religion and their stipends, to identify the church with the recalcitrants ? The able and popular editor of the Debats, John Lemoine, who is also senator and academician, honors diplomacy in being selected to represent the Republic at Brussels; he can be spared to enjoy the laurels he has so brilliantly won, as the Republic has passed out. of its militant stage. Greenacreism still flourishes. A ne'er do-well ex-sailor named Meiiescloux, aged 20, inveigled " Little Louise," in her fifth year, into his bedroom.and after violating, strangled her. Expecting his parents home, he placed the body under the mattress,and slept on it till morning. When his parents had left for work, he heated the stove red hot, cut up the corpse into forty-five fragments, and was in the act of getting rid of them by boiling down and burning, when the mother of the child—all were tenants of the some house—attracted by the odor, arrived with a police officer, and caught him in the midst of bis diabolical work. The head was extracted from the stove.and the little hands were discovered in bis coat pocket. Tbe father—he has seven children —is in hospital undergoing treatmentffo r asthma. Subscriptions are pouring in fo , the family. One dashingly dressed " lady' arrived ; she condoled with the poor mother, asked to be allowed to present mourning to the family, and, watching her opportunity, decamped with the contents of a drawer containing the subscriptions. A very mijed marriage—Alex. Dumas, fits, is a Catholic, and married to a Russian princess, who is of the Greek Church ; their daughter, aged li), is about being married to an Israelite.

The old practice, changed by Ollivier when in office, of addressing the prelates " Monsieur," not " Monseigneur," has been resorted to.

"Piano Keys" is the newest name for rather strongly developed teeth.