OUR PARIS LETTER.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 447, 2 November 1880, Page 3

OUR PARIS LETTER.

(Fkom ouu own Correspondent.)

Paris, Sept. 16.

M, Zolji has fallen out with the Republican Pret*s, and has gone over to the Opposition. He complains of ill— treatment, because the leading journal, with which he was connected, declined to allow him to bombard M. Gambetta, ministers, and celebrities connected with the present regime : nay more, he desired to break a lance in defence of those periodicals notoriously founded to disseminate filth. M. Zola culls all this *' naturalism," but others view it as very

unnatural

Blaise Pascal was born in 1G23, at

Clermont, in Auvergne, ami died in IG62—a bhort-lived goniiw. Yet it is only in this year of grace that a statue liap been inaugurated to his memory.

From Piiris to Clermont is a ran of nine

? ours by rail, but in Pascal's time it a matter of nine days, over roads

and no roads. Gentlemen preferred accomplishing the journey on horseback, armed to the teeth, and followed by their

faithful clegs to keep them company. •Clermont is in a volcanic (extinct) district, and is of severe and melancholy aspect. -Other celebrities of the place were Gregory of Tours, Massillon, and General Desaix. I may add that the (populace believe Pascal was also a general, not a natural philosopher or a theologian. But he passed most of his life in Paris, where his body, in a state ■of agony as much as his soul was in a state of doubt, found rest in death. It was here he wrote his " Provincial

Letters," and it was on his deathbed lie committed to every scrap of paper within his reach those " Thoughts " that will live as long as humanity itself. When Pascal was born, it was believed he had been bewitched by a sorceress. The latter, when arrested, confessed she •had done so, but if provided with two •cats, she would kill the latter, and so exorcise the spell worked on the child. And it was Pascal's father, an eminent judge, who provided the cats, and saw them dashed dead. It w*s the same gentleman who lent a debtor 10,000 -crowns to save his official position, although having previously abused —as is natural —the creditor. One of Pascal's relatives, a brother-in-law, was an ascetic, as on his deathbed ho was discovered to have worn a belt with nails, and baro planks formed his mattress. It was by climbing the Puy de 3>6uie mountain, at the foot of which is Clermont, that Pascal demonstrated that air •becomes lighter as we ascend. lie was not insensible to love : in the vicinity of Clermont resided a lady with a Sappho reputation, to whom he paid more thiui Jiia homages. His sister was a genius also, and being " toadied by God " gave lierself up to piety. Pascal was gloomy from religious meditation, and it was in connection with the accident of the bridge of Neuilly outside Paris, that he in turn felt also " touched by God," and forsook mtural philosophy fo: religious controversies.

The sporting season hits sot in with a vengeance. Several lady crack-shots .are at their posts, as usual ; it affords also an occasion for changing toilettes, and employing real offensive weapons ; the Empress of Austria is as accomplished with the gun, as in riding ; she shoots in and Hungarian costume, short ■*■ jupe and sleeveless coat; the Duchess do Chartros follows rather the hounds, and is ready to pass her flask to any thirsty soul ; the ex-queen of Naples, "* looks like a model β-anc tireur when in sporting toilette; the Princess de Metternich is an excellent shot, but none can come up to the Princess de Hohenlohe, wife of the German ambassador ; she follows the chamois and aims like William Tell. The majority of ladies however prefer hunting the deer, it is at once merry and theatrical; for taking a hedge or a fivebar gate, Mmc. de Tonnere has no rival; having an income of half a million of francs, she is disqualified as i** a circus rider. The thermal station of Contrexville is much patronised this season ; it is generally sacred to nymphs aged f>o, * and to Adonises on the shady side of <J0 : it is a "apital place to catch an heiress, between drinking the water every ten minutes, and its effects. The Countess of Beanchamp is there, the queen of beauty, and never appears a second time in the same dress. A celebrated lady under the second empire is also a visitor, having come in for an 9~ inheritance of three million of francs ; she was the cause of a qu.rrel between a, dashing Colonel and a Prince ; to get rid of the rival, the Colonel ordered the Prince, his subaltern, under arrest ; but the Prince obtained a private letter of fk" the Colonel's in which he roundly abused the Empire—and had it placed in the Emperor's dinner napkin. The consequence was, Col. G was ordered to Africa : since then he became a republican, and the bosom friend of Gambetta. The Prince of Wales during his late trip to Paris, was bored by a wel l - - known brazen duchess, who among other questions asked him what was the most beautiful monument in Paris ; " Youreelf, Duchess"—replied the Prince. # Sardove is a collector of curiosities ; on the occaion of the golden wedding of his parents, the salute fired in their honor in his park, was by four cannons of the reign of Louis XIV. In French " Garden Parties," pigeon shooting has replaced lawn-tennis. W Mr Krupp, of cannon notoriety, announces by circular to the French, that his chief commercial traveller is dead. A certain author is reported to be quite deaf, since his works arc no longer praised.