OUR LADIES' LETTER.

Evening Star, Issue 4264, 26 October 1876, Page 1

OUR LADIES' LETTER.

Pabis, August 5. The funds and the thermometer are running a race. As yet, the five per cents.' have much the best of the struggle, as they have risen to 107, while the thermometer >as noo succeeded in reaching ninety. But • iiis figure is, in any case, higher than p«usa bonds and Turkish obligation*, in *hich ladies, even of certain age, have had uc imprudence in France to largely Bpecu- . it-;. There a time when Dorcas instituaomj knew nothing but the sweet sim-r;-o:ty of the three per cents. ; but u's hminye, apart from other misfortunes 'Titaik-d in French Society, infected the liiir sex with a positive mania for beouming rich by speculating in public funds and stocks, and the remnants of «ke old Adarc are still but too vibible. Well, then, the French arc proud of the two figures 107 and 90, as already mentioned ; the first indicates national prosperity and the second promises a fine harvest. Our neighbors, the Russians, have tried in vain to raise a loan I of 120 millions, but when the town of Paris saked lastVweek for the same sum the , bankers offered her in one day sixty times' that amount. A host of cooks, coachmen, eoßtermongers, and clerks spent a whole night waiting outside of the town halls, of which there are twenty in the city, their iurmto'subscribe; the crowd was greatest at -Vlontmarfcre and Belleville, two quarters reputed to be inhabited by penniless red republicans, who fare supposed to occasionally feast upon cold clergymen and hashed royalist. To while away rue tedium of waiting, the men played cards n the pavement, by the light of a.tallow oandle imbedded in some sand. The women knitted as if they were at their own firesides, and the children brought their parents food from the nearest cook-shop. Occasionally a fiddler appeared, and sometimes ;*. Tprovidence in the shape of aTefreshment man selling ices at one sous the glass, which \ he purchaser emptied by his teeth, and collected the fragments by a twirl of the index finger inside the glass; the latter then was refilled without further preparation—so the French do not stand on ceremony. At each town hall two policemen were sufficient to keep theV crowd l in order. People with pockets full of money are never eager for creating fights. The next evening when the • office doors closed at five o'clock, several persons had to return unable to secure a slice of the loan. The Senate continues to play its fantastic tricks against the Constitution it was chosen to defend, so the grave and reverend seigniors—but not happily potent—will be allowed rope enough. The Chamber of Deputies is occupied voting supplies at an ex-' press rate, po as to be able to enter on the * holidays. There is only an occasional pause to allow the Bonapartist deputies to show the depth to which they have fallen, and to permit Gambetta to sink them Btill lower by his withering eloquence. These attractions do not, however, prevent everyone investing three sous in the new toy, generally called a oe'c. Under every doorway this new torture is sold, and recommended by eloquence in every form; " ladies ard gentlemen, it is the most stupendous thing ever invented and the cheapest; it is tye joy of infants and the tranquility of families—only three sous, nothiDg, Mesdames and Messieurs." The cheap Jacks of Paris are making a golden harvest out of a flat piece of crinoline wire net in a socket; when pressed between the - • finger and thumb, it emits a grasshopper crick, crick. For a good month, this toy, said to be of American origin, will be the pastime of Parisians, and then some other hobby will make its appearance. Last week quite a celebrity was buried, one Lion, the ow.ier of tho little pastry shop near the Porte St. Linrtin ; he was the discoverer of the petit cake or brioche, that was Bold for cne sou, and despite the price of flour or the reign of hard times, it never varied in price or volume. It was impossible to pass by the shop without buying two, each a mouthful, and where three buxom girls in white, worked like niggers, putting the delicacy smoking hot into a tiny paper bag. People had to form a queue before this establishment on cold days. Lion amassed a fortune exceeding a million, and leaves a business worth as much more. This M. Lion also invented a cheap thermometer for . half a franc, and now-a-days all the good J bourgeois consult one of these little instruments to ascertain if Paris be mot as warm as Senegal. Unfortunate Parisians unable to vieit even for a day Trouville or Dieppe, to listen to what the wild waves are saying, are necessarily condemned to the golden exile of patronizing one of the pretty villages that | stud the banks of the Seine from Jonville ! down to Poißsy. If we. were only rcason- ! able, unaxious to keep up appearances, we would resolve to not quit .Paris for these suburbs ; for life in them is very dull. Paterfamilias has his daily run up to town and down in the afternoon, with the gossip picked up on Change and the Boulevards, and fresh fruit and vegetables from the» central market. Materfainilias, after wearing successfully all her new dresses, purchased in view of a long stay in the country, finds the time hangs heavily on her hands* The children get into scrapes too numerous to mention, and often become the cause of a vendetta between a Swiss chalet and & Gothic castle next door ; and when autumn arrives itfie miseries of villa life are forgotten in the universal vow, never to quit Paris again during the summer. It is amusing to sail up and down the river of an evening arcl morning in the little passenger-boats; thu banks of the river are lined with the most Satient fishermen; then bathers in full ress, and bathing establishments whera ; r clients resemble bees in a hive and buzz aa continuously. During the hot weather this is a favorite watery way for citizens. A spectacle, gratuitous and amusing, is than portion of the river roped off for bathing dogs ; for three sous ladies can have their poodles well washed and dipped, afterwards thkd, combed, brushed, and made as good id new. Some dear souls appear as nervous when their pug takes a foroed dip as. i£ it were a son-in-heir or the only child of a lo\ing couplo advanced somewhat in years, .The preliniicM'ioa for the year IS7S Exhibition i ic; all satisfactorily suttlf\l. A special i: is to "be vipir»ed {or Udics—ihs w ;■;.'. port. • ;. :s

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