LADIES’ GOSSIP.

Evening Star, Issue 3753, 4 March 1875, Page 2

LADIES’ GOSSIP.

XT ... , Paris, January 10. Nothing pleasanter m the merry-go-round life °£ Pfti'is than to go shopping in a sledge, with a mondjik for driver, who is as innocent of the M. Rouber of the existence of his famous or infamous—the difference a mere matter of appreciation—Committee of Appeal to the People. Then you must have seal furs; no joint stock association of cats’ Sams, or what amounts to the same thing, hire them along with the vehicle : the crowd will : f° take a good look at you—one of the tolerated impertinences that Parisians succeeded m having appended to the Rights of Man-and will conclude you are either a Nabob or a donkey, or both; for the union is not incompatihle Another real delight for the female descendants of the hardy Norsemen is skating, U lea er P ettic °at ß ; this material If , eroco l ade 1 pattern, not because it is as thick as shoe leather, but from its wavy or pearly design It is nearly as soft as foulard* and when bespattered with mud, blacking and brushes must be avoided; all ladies agree that there is nothing like leather. More French ladies can skate than can talk English, and are excellent performers m describing curved lines of beauty, or attempts at squaring iho circle I never yet knew a philosopher to bo a skater • it would be a delightful thing to keep up a running conversation” with him as you both skirted the lakes in the Bois; no other compamon is left for your strides abroad but politicians, and you can imagine how interesiing a tetc a tete must truly be with a Frenchman just now, who is most truly composed of politics and cigarettes, and has as many solutions for endowing his beloved country with free and definite institutions, as the number, three hundred and twenty, of different ways laid town cookery books for dressing eggs. The liberal fall of snow, for nature is profuse in her gifts to France, has positively encouraged the fine arts, as statues were dedicated to Thiers and Gambetta, till the scavengers carried off the modelled figures as quickly as would the Uhlans a distinguished member of the sovereign people. The Government remained neutral in this slight to the men who respectively saved and ruined France ; indeed it is a common observation that the Ministers take sides for none but themselves, and await their coming doom next month like Roman Senators m their curule chairs. What a droll for administrators, that of attempting nothing and saying nothing, succeeding in both, and being unanimously badgered for triumphing m the masterly silence the Solomon section of the Assembly urged them to adopt, aa being the least compromising for their portfolios, and best suited to tranquility of mind 1 That horrible i russian Comte d’Amim has caused some bitter discussions m French circles ; if French ladies could ever bring themselves to allow him to . come within one hundred miles of their salons, they would torture him to death with pins! Just think of him describing Madame Guitav* Rothschild, one of the most popular and accomplished of our iligantes, as a person of unhmshed education, because she, an Alsatian, fett ill at the idea of being asked to sit beside the Comte at a State dinner—he, the representative of her conquered Alsace. Why not respect ; a woman of feeling as well as a man of feelings and-bught one to expect from a patriotic lady the stoicism of a Brutus, or the strongminded- ’ urn- 8 ° f Let the Comte abuse Ihiers, de Broglie, and Gambetta; laugh at Henry V,, and snub the money-grubbing ; propensities of the Orleanist family, and ■ .‘-he can never do this new kind of • oetter than the French themselves), but ; let him be polite to the fair sex. What a signal honor, too, for Mdme. Rothschild to be mixed up with the question of Papal Infallibility and the payment of the French ransom, and how strong a claim the Comte’s correspondence makes oat, for our sex at least, to possess . °ld women a rights. However, the season is neither appropriate to games of speculation in politics, nor drawing, morals from nasty diplomacy; it is all-liallowcd to festivities presentation schemes, downright fleecings,’ and ; gastronomy; literature might be included, as 1 it engrosses as much attention now as drums toy-revolvers, boxes of soldiers, speaking and speechless dolls, sweetmeats, and sausages. A book is said to be a book although there be nothing in it; but now it is essential to have aU its utility on the outside, so as to look well: and Alexandre Dumas has just written, that muhonnaires without brains (as if it were fools who have the gift for making money) ought to be applauded for furnishing their library with the costliest bound books, as they do m their own kind, billiard-rooms, stables, and fumoirs; the volumes can never be surpassed as to being excellently preserved for , future generation. Some way or other, it strikes i me > the nsihg generations does not take to these gorgeous bindings; they are too awfully grand, pleasing, and deterring at once, like a Lord Mayor s snow or Bceuf Gras procession. Having performed our religious duties by attending the Christmas Eve midnight mass (as one does St. 1 eter sat Rome), and listened to Faure at the Madeleine, where he formerly was a choir-boy, ftnd Mine. Coaneau, who warbles as sweetly now as when in the hey-day of affluence and influence, when her son, “ young Conneau ” was the bosom playmate of the Prince Imperial, the visitor has next to do a supper in a restaurant, preferring a portion of the historical dish—goose garnished with sausages, but which are really black puddings. It is strange why the custom is universal in France to patronise pork during the small hours on Christmas morning, unless to vex the Jews, for the French, according to Carlyle, are a “ Messiah ” people. The Parisians have only this one Walpurgis night throughout the year. Formerly, ham and sauerkraut formed the dainty dish for the revellers, but the individual who would command that mess now, flanked with a bock of beer, would run the risk of being taken for a Prussian spy; would see neighbors gradually moving away from him, and the garcon casting leerish glances at the chimney clock. Par those who prefer indigestion to a headache, onion soup and cheese is above international suspicion. The writers in one of the chief sporting papers here have the good (or ill) fortune to receive specimens of the animal creation of the strangest from their subscribers, to pronounce if such he good for food. Two of the staff died during the year, martyrs, it is said, to this arduous duty, anti during the siege the Firmiu publishers and their editors constituted the “tasting committee” of all articles produced as substitutes for ordinary food; it is thus posterity has been secured a dmirable reports as to the comparative comestibihty of tlic iunißtcs of tbc Zoological gardoQß from vultures to flamingoes, from the wolf to the rhinoceros, and indeed all kinds of “os,” Ihe phiiantrophists in question have just essayea lion’s flesh, and have pronounced it onlv to be so-so ; the heart was found to be as tough as J. 8., though stuffed according to orthodox receipts. Lion is not likely to become popular as a pUce dt resistance, and besides, Bottom, the hearer, asserts that such among ladies is a dreadful thing. The general French custom of exchanging presents is not in itself reprehensible, provided the gifts be not extravagant, and the reciprocity be not like the Irishman’s, all on one side. Many sensible mothers encourage common breakable toys, as more suited for infants than works of art, gold, or hank notes, and so say we all of us. The shops are full of elegant things for presents—the choice alone ia difficult where money may be no object. Jewellery is very enticing, the false as well as the true ; butterflies in precious stones appear to be very much in favor for earrings, biooches, and pins ; sugar has been baked into a multiplicity of strange designs or freaks ; there are admirable imitations of chestnuts boiled and roasted, to suit all digestions; there are bunches of raisins and superfine chocolate where flour does duty for coooanut, just as there is excellent wine independent of grapes * there are excellent mushrooms warranted not to poison, and corks that would melt rather than stuff the mouth of a bottle. What are called useful presents can only take place between near relatives, and comprise large sashes in Renaissance, or damasked ribbon, with bows to match. Marie Antoinette and Char lotto Corday fichus, in tulle or China crape,

fauchms for the theatre in knitted wool—in a word, head "ears of all sorts ; a box of "loves, a scented coif ret of handkerchiefs, pretty nvmoniires, with belt and chatelaines, sacs in Russian leather, do not come within the degrees of prohibited affinity; nor do fans, provided th»y be not of the exploded giant form, nor perfumeries, hand "laces, psyches, and bonbons ; the latter and dowers are safest fur all other friends a little more than kin and less than kind. [To he continued,)