Our Contributors.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 507, 24 May 1881, Page 2

Our Contributors.

OUR PARIS LETTER,

[FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

Paris, February 24. M. Naqnet is a .savant, a brilliant orator, and a politician of extreme views; he is 46 years of age, a hunchback ; he took out his diploma as a doctor of medicine, but ho is above all distinguished as a chemist. Of late he has given the whole of his attention to social subjects, notably the re-establishment of divorce and the solution of the contest between capital and labor. To succeed in the latter, the" working classes must he maintains, form co-operative societies, these they cannot profitably direct till they be suitably educated. To help in the good work he maintains all railways ought to be owned by the. state, and the national bank should not be a monopoly. Opinion is not favorable to the first, and the second is not of superlative importance. "M. Naquet is more at home orj the question of divorce ; he is separated from his wife, but they visit each other as old friends ; they disagree on religion; she is Catholic, he is Materialist, and although he" has the legal right to superintend the education of his only child, a son, he chivalrously leaves him to the care of his mother because it would break her heart to take him away. M. Naquet has secured the repeal of the divorce law, for the coming parliament will undoubtedly vote it. . He has received the unexpected testimony of the efficacy of divorce in the case of the Princess de Bauffremont. i_he was married to a worthless husband ; having obtained a separation, she went to Saxony for six months, took out letters of naturalisation as a German subject, married as such the Roumanian Prince Bibesco, and noff declares herself to be the happiest of wives and mothers, and ber home, in Bucharest the most gay; married she was chained to misery and death in France; divorced she has found new life in the husband who understands her. Thus happiness lies, as Pascal [ observed, in the manner in which we use it.

le Paris is at last full; chateaux have h given up their resid nts, and which com- " pensates for the moderate hegira to Nice. The Carnaval promises to be more lively lt this season, and there will be positively t ,_ a bwtifgras. The success of the Rejr public merits the salutation of a fat ox t. — moiitumtesclutant. For boisterous )l fun and v; roar, visiters must go to ■*■ Italy or Nice to witness that overture to Lent. The preparations for the Hugo l_ fete are assuming formidable proportions; c on the honorary committee list figures c all the dwellers beyond Mesopotamia— y Mr Parnell even is there checkby jowl with his fidus achates, Rochefort. ° Spccialtrains are to bring up admirers j? from,the four corners of France, and v (lowers will be in as great demand as during a competition day in ancient a Greece. It will be a veritable battle of c flowers—but no confetti. The masked balls aro few and far between ; they have ceased to amnse since every - one can ? laugh. Originally the masked balls were founded in France, to allow persons V not pn sented at court to encounter tho salt of the earth disguised. Neith rare ~ ordinary balls very numerous ; they arc . superseded by the cotillon, a kind of alia podrida of dances and which in addition to being unexpensive, are amust ing, and admit of early, breaking up. ■ Children's balls are in vogue—public as 7 well as private. The Elysee balls now commencing . will be highly enjoyed by young folks 1 ;- j their elders have been dined and wined. f M. Grevy's table has obtained the repn* ;.. tation of being the best served in Paris, [ as Napoleon the, Third's was. ever the 3 worst. Tho President rarely gives an . official spread but some uncrowned or to-. • be-crowned head is.among the guests. : Ho always dresses in black, with the grand scarlet sash of the Legion of 1 Honor. That costume seems to distinguish the Republic from the Monarchy, as the Kings of France ever received their guests in blue cloth. On the return of the Prince of Wales and his brother from the marriage of their nephew at Berlin they are to dine with M. Grevy. By-the-bye, the bridegroom in question, it may not be generally known, was born with only one-arm ; the second has been supplied most ingeniously in steel, so that in the natural course of events the future Emperor of Germany will rule his subjects with a hand of iron. Mme. Adam, the founder of La Nouvelle Hevue, was entertained by her 85 collaborateyrs, of both sexes, at a complimentary dinner. Passing over the ballads written to her eyebrow, describing her to be "brave as Pallas and beautiful as Cypris," M. de Lesseps, always a pioneer, proposed the first toast as a matter of right, having had the honor to. write the first article for the firsfc number of the Revue. This brought up the heroine of the evening, who, after demanding indulgence for the .noxpected iionor, and being unaccustomed to public speaking, as well as unprepared for the occasion, read a pretty long postprandial oration on the foundation of her periodical. ■'■'■'■ ''■'•■■ Some said, " John, print it;" others said. *' Not so." Some said, " It might do 'good ; others said, "No." She is a grandmother, but hers is not a " Grandmother's Review" by any means ; it is the organ of educated Republicanism ; initiates Frenchmen into correct ideas of foreign politics and a disbelief in international fraternity, which for the French departed this life in

IM-«l|j_M-W____W____-_-l----—«'-M"""**' ,l ' lMM^^^"^^^^ 1870-71. The most remarkable fact about the Revue is, that it has taken, as such form of literature, magazines included, is not in harmony with French taste. The journal is the favorite vehicle. There are 15 wholesale dealers in journals and 1500 retailers of newspapers in Paris, exclusive of 470 porters, who, on their own acconnt, distribute the sheets to the vendors. It is perhaps the safest petite Industrie after tho selling of 'baccy and stamps. A kiosque is an institution, having its permanent clients like a cafe or restaurant, and who wjll never purchase their paper elsewhere. Each buyer ordinarily confines his patronage to a single journal; for him thex-estis .but.". leather. amL.prunella." The multiplicity of journals thus corresponds with the infinity of tastes. Perhaps 3fr. a day is the average profit reaped by the tenant of a kiosque. Those in an important position, and with English and American clionts—in the vicinity of the Grand Hotel, for example—make from 20fr. to 50fr. daily. That the authorities are not exclusive is evidenced by the fact that they haveygjiveu a kiosque to the waiting-maid "of one of Napoleon the Third's mistresses, Marguerite. The old-established journals sell well, none being rarely taken in to vend on speculation ; others are received on account of sale or return. There are individuals who invest in the unsold journals at a great reduction to send to foreign parts. Butter merchants and costermongcrs are extensive buyers always. Each region of Paris has its special customers for- a journal of such and such a hue. The amiable Faubourgs like theirs highly peppered with personalities.