OUR LADIES' LETTER.

Evening Star, Issue 4154, 20 June 1876, Page 4

OUR LADIES' LETTER.

Paris, April 15. I As if the racecourse and the" Stock Exchange were not sufficient outlets for gamb- ( ling, the clubs never saw higher play than pending the penitential days of Lent j indeed, nothing appears to be easier than to found a club, and once licensed, play may be recklessly indulged in. There are painful stories current of the shifts losers have to resort to during the twenty-four hours allowed them for paying up. " Uncle," of course, comes to the rescue, and the Republic is blessed by many a Monarchist for authorising the pawn offices to lend extenj sively on valuables, and permitting the director to personally call upon the afflicted and place his services at their disposal. . There is a general disinclination to place the family diamonds in other temporary keeping than the Government pawja office. The event is as secret as the confessional, and further, no danger is to be feared that paste will bo substituted for the real gems. There is a story told of an Italian nobleman who had nearly an attack of apoplexy lately at the magnitude of the pools in the game of baccara ; he was still more astonished at a player who cheated openly, but with a practised hand. He drew the attention of one of the party to the fact, and asked what he ought to do. "Do! why bet on him of course," was the cynical reply. There is this much to be said in favor of modern gambling—the ruined do not seek consolation in blowing out their brains ; -they become a trifle less gay, and solicit their friends, to have them admitted into a monastery. We have had Palm Sunday and frost, and now Easter and snow. France replaces palm by box in the religious rites of the former Sunday, the plant is cheaper and can thus come better home to every person's bosom and purse, /'ome thousands of francs worth of sprigs of box are sold every year at the doors of the churches ; the purchaser brings hia supply with him inside the building, and the blessing pronounced upon it on leaving is included in the two sous paid for the prie Dieu. When blessed the sprig 13 suspended in the bedrooms, or as a frame round a crucifix attached at the head of the bed, and there remains for 365 days. Horses are not forgotten old Palm Sunday, but, strange to say, asses are; and they have an historical right to participate in the emblems of rejoicing. Oab horses display a branch falling over their foreheads, and cabmen exhibit sprigs in their coats, but it does not effect much change in cabby's ordinary character t only give him two sous for a pourboire instead of three, and immediately the pouring out of the vials of his wrath will commence. Being the eldest son, some 11 say daughter, of the Church,, may account for France exporting all the palm she produces in the Bouthern parts of the realm to Eome. Italy cannot compete with her in this respect, for French nurserymen have a peculiar art in tying up the leaves of the palm tree, as gardeners do lettuces to make them heart and whiten. The result is that the prepared palm, instead of being a glossy green, is a sickly yellow, and at the same time nearly transparent. Fashion has decreed that in this state only oan patrician Catholics present it for the benediction of the Cardinals. Many of the trees of these commercial palm plantations are twelve centuries old. They are as long-lived aa olive tree 3 or white elephants.

Employed in olden time to herald the

triumph of a conqueror, for Parisians the secular effect of palm is to remind the masculine sex of the approach of Easter, for ladies are gallantly excepted from taking part in the second annual outbreak of the ttrcnne- black-mailing; but this exception only entails heavier contributions from \ fathers, husbands, and brothers. One would I require to be the Sultan to possess the ability to make presents all the year round. ' The Easter gift i 3 limited to eggs, but these Paschal dainties are no joke; they do represent the produce of all the birds of the farm-yard, as well as of the air, and probability is not kept in view as to size. A hen-egg can contain a little fortune in the way of diamond jewellery—was not the Koh-i-noor originally oval-shaped ? So long as the eggs are of the barndoor fowl dimensions, they are made in sugar ; but when larger, they are built in plaster of Paris, top-dressed with sugar and chocolate. Tom Thumb and all his relations could be accomodated in some of these, egg-shells, and a coach-and-six might be driven through somo of them, as easily as if it wero "an Act of Parliament." Some years ago a banker, with an overcrowded cash-box, sent one Easter Sunday morning to an actress, a monster egg in a furniture van; when the Sie was opened the birds began to sing ; the elighted beauty found insido the egg a pair of Corsican ponies, harnessed to one of Binder's best Queen Mab phaetons, with a tiger, who touched his hat, and begged to know Mademoiselle's wishes.

This was a type of the extravagance of the "lower Empire," when society had no other aim but eat, drink, aud be merry—till July, 1870; there is no prospect of such follies being repeated now, even among " the fastest, of our fast sets." Wild oats are still sown of course, and the heirs and uncles and the inheritors of foolish fathers' wealth,' do not keep the silver spoons in their mouths for any very long period; dissipation is now conducted on decorous principles, and retires to escape Mrs Grundy; the dandies and vlveurs of yore seem to be replaced by a class priding themselves on the name of gnnmeux, a term meaningless in French, as well as in every other language. 'J he Jockey Club, once the gayest of the gay, has settled down into the dimensions of a tea-party, and is as grave aud severe as a Young Men's Christian Society; the members no longer 101 lon the balconies, because the passing world below has something else to do than raise its eyes skywards, and the man having nothing to dp is hj st when, the public ceanes to look at him. The Prince of Orange, who is passing the winter here, as did his clever mother at Cannes, can hardly believe his eyes at the old-fogy spirit of the Jockey Clab, and when presented to that once moat fashionable body, fun was decreed to be the ordor of the day, There is a story current which shows that the future King of Holland is of a congenial turn of mind. On being treated with all the deference and formality due to a Crown Prince, the Prince of Orange protested and begged that he would be regarded as an ordinary-born companion. Taking the ball at the bound, the young mad-cap Due Grammont-Caderouse exclaimed in a stentorian voice, "All right, Mon. Vieux 'Lemons,' pass me the ohampagne." " Lemons " has now become the nick-name in Paris for the Prince of Orange. j