SPIRIT OF PARIS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1645, 11 January 1913, Page 11

SPIRIT OF PARIS.

GREATEST OF EARTH'S CITIES, Haunting, all-porvading, as elusive as thistledown, is the atmosphere which floats in and'around earth's greatest of cities .(writes J. P. Loveland, in the "World"), in some of them to-day tho ponderous and gloomy pasts which they have survived have been etherealiscd into a gentle melancholy, perfumed with an Old World fragrance which dims the tragedy of other days with the brighter and more opalescent tint 9 of a breath upon a mirror. , But Paris is unique, and it i 9 a difficult task to imprison in cold English the charm of her life and being. To her native writers-it is. easier, but the Latin touch comes haltingly to foreign pens in many cases. La Villo Lumiere, city of a hiyrmd lights—lights electric, which wink and flash from tho breezy heights of Montmartro to the old, dead quarters across the river j lights of the stage, which twinklo in every sense ooross the brilliant footlights; lights of art, of science, of medioine, of a universal gaiety of outlook, blurring over, but not altogether obscuring, a very solid substratum of commonsense and reliability—the lights of Paris are innumerable. Totally Different Histories. What a history, what A series of totally different histories,- is bound up,in this venerable town which, like Peter Pan, refuses to grow up, and ever remains young at heart. The story of the Paris of Saint Louis, blends through the centuries into the tale of tho Paris of Henri Quatre, who thought it—l express'no individual opinion—well worth a mass. The days of the Sun-King form a fresh glittering chapter of the apogee of kingly splendour, and —as in a twinkling, it seems—after, him comes the Deluge he foresaw, and the blood-stained pages of the Terror, the toppling down of throne and noblesse, and'the -iron, reign of the First Consul as the inevitable consequence. But the Spirit of Paris rises again to the surface, and the velvet, glove on the hand of the Emperor Napoleon renews tho vanished glories, restores the superb Court, and gives a new lease of life to the lighter side of the French character. ■ When one wonders vainly how tho nation ; which had Ijnown the glories of the' Napoleonic era could have allowed art to "stop short in the cultivated Court of the Empress Josephine," it must have been, something of the spirit of the age, for one must Temember that if France survived .the Bourbons, yet the England of that dato was even more marvellous,' in that it survived the four Georges! Since tho consolidation of tho Third Republic a Court has ceased to be a necessity, for Paris has its own primacy in all tho lighter walks of life.

Its Myriad Sounds. 'The Spirit of Paris is apparent to tho most unobservant of its visitors in its sounds, as well as in its sights. Who has not wondered at early morn at tho quaint reed music which strikes tho air so strangely, as the goat-hord pipes his Pan-song hehind the hc-d' of goats ho drives through the # smart quarters'of the town, selling their milk, aye! and milking them on your own doorstep!. His tuneful chant must have come straight down from, the great god Pan himself; it is a measure to which fauns must have tripped in the dim ages of the world in their sylvan haunts, with a gay lilt in it which seems to end on o haunting minor noto of interrogation.. By .police regulations, all vehicles fitted . with pneumatic tyres must carry a jingling hell and'their silver tintlin?. chime seems often to dominato the traffic. \The itinerant'hawkers are legion, each with their own traditional cry, from the. mender.'of broken crockery to the vendor of mussels or the buyer of old clothes ('chond d'habits—synonymous with our crybf clo!"). Strident noises, plaintivo noises, interesting noises, if the epithet may; serve, but rarely musical noises; yet they go to form tho harmony of. the great .orchestra' which voices the Spirit of Paris. • •'■ .^ Paris by Night. • ,': The Paris of thei, theatre, .and of the 'cabaret, the little hoiisss with triple, quadruple, or quintuplo bill, where youvcan laugh and cry, be. shocked and horrified; : in-fact,'run through the whole: gamut of life's,sensations in half-hour doses! 1 ' Nowhere is this brought to. such absolute perfection; these, little dramas, comedies, tragedies, shocks—what you will—are. presented by actors and actresses, boasting .no famous name, yet artists of the -."first i -water.' ..-:'■, " ' ■ - ■'

Opera is grandiose, the House of Maliere is classical and dull, but there are a dozen theatres where sparkling, comedy scintillates year in, year out, and if it be (lavcured with "Gallic wit," well, so much the more amusing for tho 3riton who can folLc-ivit all. '■."■■■••'■ . That is one of the secrets to remember in Paris—don't analyso!. drink the froth—/ in Paris—don't analyse! drink the froth on the champagne while it sparkles, and xlon'fc trouble .to look for any possiblo dregs. That is- the trua Spirit of Parisi -the) lightness, the gaiety, the bonhomie—, superficial if you will—but so infectious, so irresponsible, and withal, so captivating,' that you cannot refrain from giving "the glad eye" in! return for its spontaneous welcome. .' '.■