OUR LADIES’ LETTER.

Evening Star, Issue 4283, 17 November 1876, Page 3

OUR LADIES’ LETTER.

Paris, September 2. A short fortnight of tropical weather has been abruptly followed by heavy rains, and the fall of the thermometer from the regions of 100 degrees down to 40. We seem to have passed from the middle of Augnst to the end of November in skipping over the months of September and October. The change may not be a permanent one, but its effects will fee lasting. So far as the fashionable world is concerned, the summer of 1876 is finished ; the moment is come to reside in one’s castle, to shoot over preserves, superintend the vintage, and organise excorsiona in the forests. Before, we bury the past, the lodging - house keepers of Trouville deserve a parting word. They are wailing like captive Jews—so much so as almost to drown the voice ©f the ocean. A late spring and a fleeting summer have destroyed their harvest; but to do these land-sharks justice, it must be confessed they did their best to profit by the sunshine and to make their August visitors pay for the shortcomings of dame Nature. Their plan was the same as followed of yore by the vendor of the Sybilline books—three, six, or nine—the price remained unchanged. .Indeed, some of the Trouville lirippers even went so far as to ask twice as much for three weeks as for three months. According to his custom, the Prince of Wales spent the race week at Trouville, the most fashionable of all watering-places—the Biarritz of the Republic . Taught no doubt by a dearly-purchased experience, he dispensed with the Normand hospitality and very wisely employed his yacht, Hildegarde, as his hotel. There is a story told about a member of his suite, Lord 8-^—, a novice perhaps at Trouville. He took a spacious set of rooms at a first-class hotel. On the third day of his stay the landlord asked him in an inquisitive manner if he “did not expect his family soon?” “No,” replied his lordship, with a halfrestrained ejaculation at “ the fellow’s impudence.” His wrath, however, had greater vent when, on returning Lorn his bath, he discovered a Parisian family in possession of his rooms, and his goods and chattels transferred to a closet on the attic story. “ Did said he, shaking his closed hand in anything but a manner suggestive of peace, think that I was too poor to stand being cheated by you ? ” Boniface drew himself up with an air worthy of a descendant of William the Conqueror. “ Learn,” was his answer, “t hat my house is one of confidence, where, cheating is unknown; in milord’s hands, the rooms did not bring in their proper value. They are family rooms, and milord can have them if he is willing to pay like a family, and not as a single man.” History does not relate if his lordship was willing to pay sevenfold for his bed and board ; likely he adopted the orthodox course, said something very hasty, supplemented with a grumble, and paid. Baron Rothschild, in a similar circumstance, neither grumbled nor paid. The proprietor of a furnished villa thinking, doubtless, that nothing was too dear for a millionaire, demanded 18,000fr. for a fortnight’s letting. The' Baron smiled,, and repeated the figures before some friends on the point of leaving fqr the sea-side. Many of the well-known faces were missing this season on the frequented plank-walk leading' from the Casino to the bathing cabins; hard times were not the cause of the absence, fdp money is never wanting in France when individual or national glory is in question; but many distinguished leaders of fashion art in mourning, and black is a color tabooed at Trouville. Indeed death is very busy in all ranks of society, and a M. de Lavergne has created quite a sensation by asserting, with columns of figures to support him, that the French population, like the frogs, is marching backwards, and that in a few years hence she will be so much left behind in the matter of increase of the inhabitants that all idea of retaking Alsace must be abandoned,: since Germany alone has a quadruple augmentation annually in her net births, as compared with France, The Republic, which is now captivating even old Royalists, and surpassing monarchies in the maintenance of order and the development of riches, ought to take in hand this social obstacle to national prosperity, .A death that has very much astonished tbc fashionable as well as the literary worlds , > Leon Duchemiu’s, better known under the nom de plume of “ Fervacques.” He devoted' much of his time and talent to initiating the outside world into the splendors of court life. His chroniques were eagerly devoured by ladies doomed to sigh their lives away in country homes, after the gorgeous fetes of : the Tuilleries. One morning he awoke, = observed the Tuilleries in flames, and the Empire a dream of the past. He never recovered from tl« shock, like so many other Buonapartists that believed the dynasty, like the Church, was founded on a rock. He found nothing in the social teas and White House receptions of our Presidents Worthy of ; his pen; and bis novels, nasty sometimes, • bat keenly satirical and true to life, also

invested a falling off. In the grand monde ha Was, notwithstanding, only regarded as an intruder, as a periodical utility, for it would be a great mistake to imagine that French society is not exclusive: it has its sets and its snobberies, as in other countries, whose favorites of fortuned claim to be the salt of the earth ; only in France this “ stand-aside, I’m-bolier-tban-thou ” attitude is less brutally and less generally exercised. “ Fervacques ” had a flirtation, that many said approached to a liaison , with the Princess S , and I relate the story as told to me. He had bundles of her letters, all compromising, the friends quarrelled, and the Princess was anxious receive back her billets-doux ; Fervacques resolved to keep them as a souvenir. He was invited to make friends again, and to give a proof of his willingness, he was requested to appear on the grand stand at the races in the Bois de Boulogne when the grand prlx was being run for, wearing the decoration of the Empire of Brazil in his button-hole. This bit of ribbon was to be as the olive branch—a sign of peace. Of course he had no right to wear such a decoration, and so the police thought, as he was arrested. The arrest gives the right to a domiciliary visit, and the examination of your papers. When Fervacques was liberated ne found all his private papers had been over-haoled, and none were missing except the billets-doux. His death was very sudden, and hushed up by his friends, so it is not too much to guess he committed suicide.

The ex-Minister of War, General de Cissey, has fallen upon hard times. His wife died when he was a prisoner in Germany, and he was recently on the point of marrying, when his intended bride, an American lady, expired from the effects of over-rinking. He never has been himself since, and he resigned on account of illhealth. However, he never learned his resignation till he saw it in the Journal Offlciel. Twenty-four hours previously, an aide-de-camp was despatched to acquaint him with the nomination of his snccessor. The bearer of the bow-string could not And the watering-place at which the General was staying, till a day after the appearance of the gazette. There are “veels vithin veels” it seems now-a-days, just as in the time of Mr Weller. Under the Empire, the Empress Eugenie often said laughingly to her mends, that she and her husband were not of the same opinions in politics; “ while lam a Legitimist snragie, Louis is at heart an Orleanist.”

Ladies’ sporting costumes are very simple and close-fitting as possible, so as to enable them to freely march among the vines and over the stubbles; for linking, white cashmere is preferred, and the hair falls over the back in two plaits, tied with ribbons according to fancy. The ladies look very charming rolling along in twos, and working their fans. Red and blue, in all their varieties of shades, seem to be engaged in a war of extermination with white and its several tones, If white could only be as permanently fashionable as black, and its shades could be made to suit all kinds of beauty, it might conquer. Corsages continue to be flat before, the basques very small. It is not certain that this mode will rule the rich and heavy toilettes destined to hold sway thia winter. At present cashmere, faille, and foulard are the stuffs in favor. Note, the polonaise is worn very long—indeed, the same may be said of the tuniqne; perhaps it is in honor of the Eastern question that lad’es now ornament themselves with sequins. It is an addition to the many ether et cetras they are condemned to carry. They have already collars, and chains are hung round their necks to support mMaillons, which replace the traditional velvet; then the bracelets under various names and of different patterns, not forgetting the fan, which the simplest work girl now employs as much as the proudest lady. They unite, also, in common to wear the peasant fichu, the most useful article in lace, either black or white, ever introduced. The fan is generally attached to the waist-belt by means of a ribbon, unless the cordeli&re exists, the latter must be adapted to the toilette. Felt hats are the newest of the new style, but colored straws, black especially, are not to be considered as unfashionable ; the Pifferaro is, perhaps, the predominating shape, and is feting garnished with more mixed feathers and velvet than flowers and ribbons; grapes, ever a respectable “trimming,” are very generally worn. One-half of the plan of the Exhibition of 1878 has been published. The Commissioners, promise the other moiety in their “next, as soon as they decide how the passage across the Seine to the Trocadero will be made. The plan is remarkable for its great simplicity and convenience; an infant could not lose its way, and there will be no occasion for guides, philosophers, or friends in the building. All the materials requisite for the construction are contracted for, and to be delivered by the Ist |of October, 1877. The French- are putting their hearts into this Exhibition ; first, to make it an honor for the Republic, and next to show the world that they arc as intellectually as they are financially rich.