OUR PARIS LETTER

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 16, 19 January 1924, Page 13

OUR PARIS LETTER

THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER MEMORIAE -."•: •■■■•■■;--

ORIGIN/OF THE IDE&

(rtOH OCR OWN COSEISPOTOMfI.) '. j : - • PARIS/21«t November^" ' Where originated the idea"ofccornmemi" orating the nation's sacrifices by a~me--morial; to the Unknown Soldier?; The. claim has been put forward..that,.'not: only was Great Britain the first country. to realise this project; 'Which has-sinc«-appealed co vividly to the wo>ld imagination, but also that the^suggestion itself emanated from a British brain, and 'that. in its character it bore the' truei' Anglo--Saxon stamp.; But now it has been remembered that long before the canY non thundered on th© Maine and Yser, " and the Allied bayonets, backed by 'the courage and spirit of sacrifice of which' the Unknown Soldier has bean chosen-, as a symbol, beat back the German on^ slaughts, when few even dreamed that Europe was to be turned into-a shambles —that in those days of- -peace- the- ideabad., germinated- of representing., the., soiil of-a nation by raising an- everlasting; testimony to • theSoldat Anonyme; •- In 1921 the proposal Was made and" debated.that on the field of Waterloo should boraised a memorial to the great' French" romanticist, Victor Hugo. The opinion., was sought of the French writer Jules . Claretie. He deprecated the project:"Rather," he. said "if you wish to have a memorial on the\ field of Waterloo, let it be tothe Soldai Anonyme, to those whose bones rest there. Was it, then", Jules Claretie who was the father of the idea which almost, all the Allied Powers have adopted sincb the_ Armistice^ and is it to the constructive imagination . of the French genius that ffie'world owes - this conception of commemoration! of ~& glory that will never fade? .. . . 1. " .; A WAR REVELATION. " It is. not generally known, says the1 "Matin" that during the German advance on Paris in 1914 the enemy came within 60" miles of the capital on the south; eide. On the night of 3rd September, " a cavalry patrol from von,Xluck's. army reached the railway line from .Paris, tp Montreau via Hericy which ,is of cpnfiiderable strategic importance;- Theyblew up the rails with a dynamite-cart-ridge and retreated. The. damageCrois repaired next day, and a feW day«:iaterv. the Germans, being unable to 'get in touch with their main body,^rbde to. Montereau and surrendered. ", They_'obtained supplies at two or three farms by; passing themselves off;as English!" '' PLANT-GRAFTING CURIOSITIES..'"'" i. Curious results of grafting "experiments ' with poisonous and harmless-plants havebeen reported to the Academy of Science by M. Dangeard. The experiments-were carried out by M. Daniel and Mr Ropert, who found that by grafting tansy on arborescent 'daisy plants, ihe.i aromatic flavour of the former was considerably strengthened. Another combination tried ■■vas belladonna and tomato, and "the consequence was that the belladonna ceased,to produce it« atropine, and he-: came harmless. The practical application of these results, which are at present only scientific curiosities, will no doubt follow in due course. "..'...•'..'" TOBACCO RAVAGES OLD MASTERS. It has long been the practice to utilise some of the large apartments in the Palace at Versailles for elections wheu it ' became ' necessary to choose a Senator for the Seine-et-Oise, the Department of which Versailles is the chief town. The day after the last election, which was held in the famous Gallery of Battles it was found that all the pictures were covered with a dark,, elimy.i coating, which was, attributed to ;a" combination of dust, damp, and tobacco smoke. Snow i fell.on the"day of the electipi, and ifc! was not to be expected that the officials could carry on all day -without a cigar- .'' ette, or that such refreshment could be forbidden to the Senatorial delegates. Considerable difficulty was experienced in removing this coating, which had actually eaten into the varnish of somo pictures.. The Fine. Arts ■ Department has requested that the Gallery of Bat* ■ ties shall not in.future "be" used" for elections, and it has been decided.to^ hold them in the old Theatre dcs Varietes, in the Rue de la Chancellerie, which ■•m now being repaired and renovated. '"-.' HAWKERS AS .FINANCIERS., Few people who sit outside cafes escape the attentions of the hawker, who wants to sell them thousands of marks * for a few sous. It dees not sound a paying proposition, and as a matter of fact . it is not. This does not mean that the thousands are not worth the coppers but that there are too many sellers-and not enough buyers. According Iti'one of the former, who has poured his sorrows into i the ear of a writer in the "Figaro," you : may sell thousands of millions of marks in a day without being able to make""a, living out of it. This financial business is not to be compared with selling boot--laces or pencils .or newspapers or other * things that people really want.: It is nothing more than a side-line. ,' . BOTTLING A SNAKE. .' .' . A large Bnake wriggling about on the floor was the first object that met the' gaze of Mile. Pincel when she enteredher bedroom at the top of a house in the" Rue Labruyere the other evening., ' She did what, most women would have done' - under similar circumstances, she rushed out, slammed the door, and .shrieked for / help. In a few seconds an improvised council of neighbours was being-held on-the-landing. A suggestion to send-for the iiremen—the'ordinary resources 'of Parisians in sudden emergencies—was rejected. A member of the council having read in an encyclopaedia that snakes are fond of milk, procured a bottle, half - filled it with milk, and thrust it hurriedly inside the door. The snake, being as ' hungry as it was harmless, was only too glad to crawl into the' bottle- and feed ■ A courageous hand put the cork into the bottle,, and a hearfelt sigh of relief went ■ up. As none of the hunters claimed the prey, it was taken to the police station Ihe most important point in the.:whblS aHair—who put the snake in Mile Pin. eels room?—remains to be cleared up, but a smah ooy is under grave suspicion