OUR PARIS LETTER.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 436, 24 September 1880, Page 2

OUR PARIS LETTER.

Paris, Juno'l,7

Dr Decaisne is an authority on the tobacco question. Fifteen years ago he won distinction by his investigation of the influence of the weed on children ; he demonstrated that smoking on the part of youth led to the deterioration of the blood, diminished intelligence, and developed a desire for alcoholic drinks. ~ He now treats the subject of women smoking, a practice more general than is supposed. The pernicious effects of tobacco on tho delicate organism of the "~ fair sex is about the same as that on youth, in addition to the consequences connected with maternity. He has had female patients who puffed their score of cigars a day, but as a rule ladies prefer cigarettes. With smoking, drinking habits follow invariably. Dr Deoaisno blames smoking husbands and brothers as the cause of wives and sisters following the bad cxamp'e. A well-known fashionable lady, full of wit and experience, has collected her sketches of young ladies and published them. They are most amu.-ing reading * —under a green tree and a day not too hot. She is not less severe on her own countrywomen than she is on strangers. Judge.—Marie is 10, knows nothing *"* about love, but is willing to learn, h«r mother never quits her, whispers how she ought to talk, and nods as to how she should walk ; when she weds, the husband who believes she is a box ol bon-bons, finds next day the contrary— she is fond of horsewomanship, especially with her cousins, loves' dogs, balls, picnics ; dances better than her mamma ; her bedroom is hung with hunting whips, on the chimney piece is a stuffed dog, and at the window a Dutch canary. Julie is 28 years of age, and in a *■* * state of permanent rage because, unmarried : she still wears the costume, of the school girl, and loves .to associate with pupils, and governesses ; with a *"\ sigh, she has renounced playing with dolls, but has still'her professor ofimusic andliterature ; her portrait has, been painted by a celebrated artist, and exposed at the Exhibition, but did not draw; one evening, she. fell in love with an elderly bachelor, rich, in bad health, and of humble origin ; she hesitated, and was lost, for next day before noon another had accepted him ; at a ball, *- she wears only white dresses and short ; in the street, her capote displays neither feather nor flower—emblem of, fulness ; the entrance to her bed-room is.through her mother's proof of guarded innocence.. Yoland.e is 22 years of age ; her ancestors go back to the Crusades, and feel their effects still ; carries the ; _ head high, featun s regular, has an air*' of severe chastity, and will marry only a P-intifical Zouave ; his never read a novel; believes waltzing one of the deadly sins ; has never been inside a fieatre, desp t; the ci treaties of her cousin, because her aunt tells her the theatre is a minor abode of Satan's : what St. Anthony saw in his temptation is nothing to what a virtuous soul wit- "* nesses there; the atmosphere is so vitiated that a log of mutton, if suspended from the lustre, would turn green in a few.hours ;. she .plays the piano only in duets with her sister, works for the Poors' Clothing Club; and embroiders >.*■* stuffs for the chapel at Frohsclorff; she skips-the- accidents, > offences, law! and-sundries in the newspaper ; ; wears dresses cut out by her chambermaid, and **

sewn by the Society of St, Vincent de Paul; at a ball, wears sleeves to the elbow, and a square corsage, with a diadem of whit'i roses ; her ; bedchamber is in blue chintz, very like the furniture; a crucifix hangs over the mantel-piece, close by is a portrait of her mamma, else where the family tree from PhillippeAugustedown to September, 1870, next the certificate of her confirmation, surmounted by a vignette of the cardinal virtues, and then the signature of the Comtc de Chambord in a " fleur-de-lis " frame. Foreign ladies are equally dissected. Thus, the American dresses loud,but not flashy ; she loves toilettes, pleasure, expense 4 hides no defect, lays bare her moral character, will flirt all the winter but will dismiss the adorer in spring for another ; goes out alone, travels singly, -she will speak love from morn till eve, but will not permit even the tip of her > finger, to be kissed ;■ she amuses herself largely before being married, when married, she has a baby every year, passes her days alone, and her nights listening to her husband.descanting on-machines,, on explosible petroleum, and concentrated provisions ; she creates French ■fashions, but ■ Parisicnnc-s ; detest her,, i Provincials despise, her ; men of all nations fall madly in love with her, but + never marry her unless she is colossally arich. The Epglish lady possesses adorable features, and of exquisite tint ; eyes ** fearless and chaste ; teeth pretty and small, but .which grow till tlify resemble piano keys ; slender, but out carriage; later she becomes either very stout or very lean, but positively frightful at forty; very correct in her' personal attire ; her bedroom is sacred to' herself, and is rather a washing and *" dressing, than a sleeping room ; she is mistress of her actions till married, and then becomes a slav«ofduty ; trains herself from youth to be a virtuous * woman, an honest wife, and a good mother; generally selects her husband herself; if an old maid, society finds •something for her to do—she hunts, likes ! music, novels and politics ; has no curiosity to know what men do, and is - virtuous from principle and sentiment ; she is serious and sentimental, adores travelling, speaks several languages, knows history and geography, has a * weakness for spices and underdone meats; she will wait years to marry tho man she loves, and if he proves faithless will •cherish his memory even in her grey •* hairs, for though he may drink, become red, or corpulent, she will ever retain hisimage as if he had but twenty years. - Despite money and milliners, Miss can never look well-dressed ; she is but a well-dressed knife, with a flying veil round her hat, as the flag from the top of a main-mast. The Spanish lady is a creole to per- , fection ; her eyes look love, before she can speak it; she dances, sleeps, and „ - fans away life ; she eats little, a- cup of •chocolate and a* biscuit smelling of rose pomade ; for supper a serenade ; she is I -devout, without .beine- nearer heaven ; " she wears short dresses, open worked stockings,' and'" shoes without heels ; likes jewellery and showy colors ; marries when occupied with her skipping rope, feeling that' a husband is indispensable; her bedroom .is full of shells, artificial flowers, and pet animals. an absf-nce of order ana cleanliness ; in summer she' washes herself, but in winter it is so cold. The German .is a lady at once romantic and sensual.; love originates, in her head and descends to her heart ; has " the devil's beauty," thanks to chaste eyes under half-closed lids ; loves men in general, but one or two in particular ; is a rigid Lutheian, severe for the sins *" of others.; for her own she settles them with heaven direct; false and cunning ; says yes and no in all scandals as the majority inclines ; has a weakness for study, musicj housekeeping, darning stockings, and. making jam ; her bonnet is shaped like a Strasburg pie ;. her teeth are rarely brushed, and her hair is combed.twice a week; her corset generally extends from her. chin, to her knees ; has a weakness for ; paper flowers ; her boots have unusable heels, and in a pinch, would serve for.-'a. portmanteau.