AT THE PETIT GUIGNQL

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 138, 8 December 1938, Page 22

AT THE PETIT GUIGNQL

Parisian school children, writes a I correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian," seem to possess the Bourbon knack of forgetting nothing during their long holidays, and they 'are pleasingly unself-conecious when asked: to display their knowledge. The other i afternoon at the Petit Guigaol—a puppet show -in the children's theatre in the Luxembourg Gardens, iiot-to be' confused with tne bloodrcuniling Grand Guignbl—this aptitude was' harnessed in a charming manner. Before the curtain rose on the Parisian Mr. Punch the compere announced that there would be prizes for all children prepared to stand on a stool and name any of their compatriots who had done "quelque chose d'exlraordinaire" for France. There were plenty of entries from the under-tens. One small girl unconsciously affirmed her belief in the Entente Cordiale by proclaiming that <(le roi Georges" was a famous Frenchman, but the older infants were x%markably well informed. A tiny girl told us that Joan of Asa saved France. Another child knew that Pasteur "found out something, to cure sick people," and quite a small boy knew that the Curies discovered radium. The compere (who appeared to be something of a schoolmaster) was so pleased with the last answer that he delivered a short lecture on the benefits of radio-therapy before proceeding to award paper hats and "comics" all round. ' r