OUR PARIS LETTER.

Evening Star, Issue 4027, 22 January 1876, Page 2 (Supplement)

OUR PARIS LETTER.

November 27. It is impossible not to admire the ingenuity displayed in propagandise! by the Bonapartists ; they equal in point of invention the creators of sensational advertisements. Their last dodge has been “to draw at Belleville, the classic home, since some years of extreme politics. For this purpose they, found the inevitable cobbler to form an electoral committee, and this committee invited Paul Cassagnac, of the red-hot Imperialist journal, the ‘Pays,’ to come before a public meeting and expound the advantages the country would derive by the restoration of the Empire. The same individuals that Organised ementes under the Empire, to demonstrate the necessity of Napoleon ill. remaining as the first of saviours of society, proved equally successful in getting up an audience for the fighting Paul de Cassagnac. Though a cobbler, the president of the meeting appeared not the less in evening dress ®nd white necktie, and the claque admirably did its work, now cheering, now hooting. Not a blouse was present, and everything passed off like a meeting of lambs; few {jolicemen were in attendance—they doubtess knew the joke. M, de Cassagnac delivered a rattling speech, hitting out right and left. He told his audience the Empire meant an age of gold, a period of turning swords into plough-shares, &c. Yet so courteous were the hot-headed Bellevistes, that not one even interrupted by an allusion to Sedan or Mexico, to Lambessa or Cayenne. The joke is good for France, but foreigners ought not be taken in by imagining the inhabitants of Belleville long for the Sedan dynasty. The death agonies of the Chamber commence to amuse the country ; it is accepted as a true biiybat the severities of the Ministry against the opinion of the country will, hardly affect the issue. The cabinet firmly believes the nation, at the general elections, will only occupy itself with the maintenance of ministers. Hence the anxiety for upholding the state of siege to enable the elections to be “all serene.” The chief of the cabinet has startled everyone by announcing the Republic has not been voted at all; the Septennale then only has been organised. Such is the stuff talked on the eve of the day when the country js about performing one of the most solemn duties ever imposed upon it—that of closing definitely the era of pretenders. Happily the electors have not lost their heads, and their memories are green.

At the close of every year a whip is made by the faithful to request the charitable to save all their old papers and send them to Paris, where they can be profitably sold and proceeds handed over to the fund for the personal support of the Pope. A special journal is devoted to supplying information respecting the good work, first organised in 18b9. The journal has for escutcheon the tiara and keys of heaveu, with the motto, “ Gather up the fragments that remain that nothing be lost.” it is further stated that His Holiness has not only blessed the good work, but has issued three briefs in its favor : it would be strange to refuse a Godspeed to what brings grist to one’s mill. Not only wastepapers are solicited, but also “dangerous books.” A pious journal recommends the channel as a means for circulating Radical and Materialistic periodicals. The paper sells at the rate of 20f. per cwt for uncut journals, good for wrapping, others for onc-half and one-tenth of that sum for pulping purposes. Another religious curiosity is the ‘ Pilgrims’ Almanac ’ for the new year ; it commences in the same extraordinary mystical writing, and terminates with a series of advertisements and puffs of patent medicines and concentrated food. This is strange, as there is an endless list of cures effected by visits to shrines, relics and holy wells. Mustard and com plasters, ami the painless extraction of teeth, &c., however, would appear to be essential auxiliaries to faith. There is also a profound discussion on the palpitating question, “Was St. Peter bald?” and the authorities quoted would satisfy Dominie Sampson himself as being “ prodigious. ” A carnal-minded perfumer, at the close of the article, manages to secure a place for an infallible remedy against the fall of the hair—dying it, &c. A few pots will endow heads as bald as the knee-pan with Absalom locks, no matter whether the purchaser be devotee or atheist.

The patron saint of old maids and waggoners is St. Catherine. Her anniversary has just come round, and, oddly enough, it is school girls just entered their teens and not ladies of uncertain age that fete, the dear departed, crushed under the chariot wheels of an emperor. Hence why waggoners reverence her memory ; engine-drivers might also take kindly to her. Cabby and coachmen snear like the gardeners by St. Fiacre. The Bonapartists have again “ struck ile” in the matter of a further novelty in propagandism. During a recent trial in Normandy, for the non-delivery of goods by a manufacturer, it was disclosed that the latter being an ardent Imperialist had baptised his coats, vests, pantaloons, &c., after Bouapartist celebrities; thus a man upon town could muffle himself up in the “ Haussraann”ulster overcoat; keep his chest warm with a “Ney” flannel jacket; look perfection in a ‘‘Murat” trousers, and positively captivating in “The Prince” dress suit. Everything appears to be fair in war. Nothing is ever named in honor of the coup d'etat, Mexico, Sedan, &c. The exhibitions of wild beasts seem to be taking up their permanent abode in Paris ; it is certainly their winter quarters. A sixth tamer has announced his opening day ; the first representation is to be given exclusively for the members of the Press, and reporters will have the privilege of accompanying, if they wish, the tamer into the lions’ and tigers’ cages. Wonder the legislature in its plans for curbing newspapers never imagined this means of disposing of disagreeable editors.

In a restaurant, “Waiter,” said a customer, “yesterday I was charged sfr for fruit and to-day the figure is double.” “Mon-, sieur forgets he did not touch the fruit yesterday, but to-day ho eat a pear. ” The leading Ultramontane journal has commenced a crusade in favor of the religious ceremony of marriage being obligatory, before the civil part. This thin end of the wedge will never be got into the code. Every one must first be married by the Mayor, if so inclined to enter into the matrijjjonial state, and then by the clergy, if they -please. The first is obligatory, the second optional. The anxiety displayed by three-fourths of the deputies to be nominated to the office of Senator for life, knowing full well they will never be m-elected, has suggested the propriety of erecting an hospice for discharged representatives, when Othello’s occupation will be gone, now but a matter of days. Jfot a few of these sovereigns but will experience hard times, owing to the loss of thenpay. It iff rumored that 150 deputies at least who will vote black or white, as requested, if assured a life Senatorship, These are the patriots who are nerw all things to all men.

Conferences are becoming a very important institution in France, though only dating their origin from the last fifteen years. They were a forced product under the Empire, when all thought haring been silenced, men of distinction sought, in popular a channel for their ideas. Of late, njore distinguished mCn ate associating thehufclvus

with conference work, and the provincial towns are engaging con/4rencvrs as if they were theatrical stars, and, who as a rule are neither lawyers, politicians, nor professors ; they are rather popular writers, ahe Conference is perhaps the eighteenth century mlous in another form ; it is not a dry iectiire, the making of difficult things easy, of bringing down knowledge to the humblest capacity; it is an agreeable hour’s chat by a gentleman—or lady—for women have here their rights of, where wit, keen observation, and originality, charm away an educated audience, from the comforts of a bright lire, an old armed chair, easy slippers, and a good book. Old men can only obtain love in one manner—by purchasing it. An exhibition of a very humorous kind is announced, that of a series of puppits representing 163 different ways for punish mg mothers-in-law. Many a husband retires consoled after viewing the spectacle. We are pleased at the misfortunes, often of friends.