LADIES' LETTER.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 82, 4 September 1874, Page 3

LADIES' LETTER.

(From a correspondent of the " Press") Paris, July 11. If you wish to preserve a spotless name, and avoid a bar sinister on your eseutcheou, nevf>r allow yourself to be seen in Paris after the Ist of July. Go to a nunnery, a monastery, the sea-side, or a spa ; but in any case disappear, if you wish to be thought respectable or to have your bills discounted at 10 per cent over the orthodox 50 ; it is only deputies aud bailiffs, civil servants and policemen, that remain in the capital during the dog-days. Fold up your tent like the Arab then, aud as silently steal away, issue an order of the day to your friends that you are going, going, and are gone. Paris becomes so habitable after the season's Hegira that the butterflies deserve to have an old slipper thrown after them. It is a time of refreshing that ensues, when one no longer talks of horses, of races, of fancy balls, and fancy fairs, where the end sanctifies the means of fleecing; where one is no more tormented with obligatory receptions, dinners, and mariounette parties, and where one is emancipated from ceremonial toilettes, and visits official, patronising, or interested. The watering station is perhaps better than the sea side for obtaining an Asmodean peep at humanitv, it is certain to contain the greatest number of sturdy invalids, of individuals who derive no benefit from drinking the waters, and many others who are improved in health by totally abstaining from them. Gentle reader, have you remarked the number of hunchbacks and persons of Tom Thumb dimensions that flock to renowned spas, who never suffer from deranged digestion or petrified liver, yet expect to be cured, as well as Hebe and Adonis. The seaside is a crush, the watering station is limited by necessity of the virtue of its Pool of Bethesda; you are certain to meet the true believers going to indulge in their few pints, or to speud half their day floating in the bath like a Victoria lily; at the hour for music all invalids take up their beds and walk, the latest Paris fashion reigns, and the preliminaries for separation or divorce are indulged in, the great charm is that politics are tabooed, newspapers rarely are read, an immigrant with Henry V. or the Septennate on the brain, would be avoided, and the admirer of a Conservative Republic would be looked after by the officer of public health; society reflects the wisdom of the Legislative—-know-nothingism; you talk of the water supply this year as the farmer does of his crops; you go to the Casino balls and correspond with your milliner in Paris on every subject save her little bill. After the subjects of diadem head-dresses, colored stockings, and tail-coat wrappers for showers and squalls, nothing is more attractive than the comet literature, but which has been injured in usefulness by the Bonapartists monopolising the cover of the " krict card" of the popular history of the brighttailed .visitor, by printing the likeness of their prince on the cover, and all he would do ■ —which royalists and republicans do not deny—were he elected once more for ever heir to the throne. The comet's appearance is a sign of general abundance, from wine and grain up to solutions for the government of the country; its tail resembles a cornucopia, and dips towards Versailles, which leads many to wish it might give a whisk to the Assembly, and so effect the desired dissolution. One patriotic statistician has calculated that were the five milliards ransom money paid to Prussia extended in a single line of sous, it would exactly represent the distance of the comet from our earth ; is it astonishing then that the comet comeb home here to every man's business and bosom. Equally intellectual as a treat, was the matinee given by a real John Chinaman on the poetry and literature of his country, in his native tongue ; some wags nailed the sides of a few tea-chests on the entrance door, which the police protected, believing them to be the programmes of the seance ; the hall was crowded, and the lecturer applauded. Equally strange literature is that indulged in by Dumas junior ; after writing a letter, intended to be kept as secret as a stage whisper, to serve as a preface to a small work addressed to women, and entitled Le Retour du Christ, he has taken an action against the clever authoress for publishing his communication, and has, at his risk and peril, obtained the suspension of the book pending that the Judges decide the matter. Dumas, it is well known, is no friend of the ladies ; he blames them for being the cause of the failure of several of his dramas, alleging they do not understand them—which is a tribute perhaps to their good sense ; that they do not excite their laughter—thus depriving the ladies of the opportunity of showing off white teeth. These absurdities are about on a par with his letter, wherein he snubs the Virgin Mary, and holds woman to be responsible for the backwardness of man, owing to her possessing perhaps a larger stock of original sin. It would seem that Dumas calculated to set the world in a blaze by his epistle, and is sore at the production being unanimously voted sheer nonsense. An excellent plan for giving the boys a few weeks run in the country, is to take a Subscription ticket, to be obtained from one of the organisers of the botany, geology, &c. excursions, which enables the holder to accompany one of college professors in these branches of science, throughout selected studying grounds in France. These trips of the useful and agreeable have become so popular, that next year their scope will be extended to England and Austria. A good deal of scolding and protesting is taking place respecting ladies' boots, or rather the heels of them ; gentlemen assert the heels have really tapered to a mathematical point which has neither length nor breadth ; it is the latter " want" which is called in question, as destroying all gracefulness in walking, and imparting to the figure the form of a Z, as if the brain was affected with softness aud the spinal marrow diseased; and worse, so trying is it to walk on a point, to march as over eggs, or as if one were counting their steps, that the torment is reflected in the features of the wearer ; a lady is not now so agreeable during a promenade as when the boot no longer pinches—as is the case when she is sitting or in pantonfles.

Louis XV. |is responsible for the absurdity and not his predecessor : Louis XIV. had certainly high-heeled boots, but the heels were rational, and were made expressly elevated in order to make his stature be in harmony with his character of Grand; he patronised high-heeled boots to make good a defect, just as he adopted the bag-wig to conceal by its Hyperion curls a repulsive wen ; a peruke it is said, only deceivs the wearer, but the prevailing high-heeled boot afflicts ladies and so reacts on our social happiness. The present is an exception, just like the " Grecian bend," where women ought not to " stoop to conquer." I am afraid that nearly .all the good works undertaken by benevolent persons in Fan's, in the way of societies and clubs, do not live longer than a uew French Constitution : plans and programmes herald what is believed to be an original idea to supply a glaring want, &c, and when the introductory fireworks are exhausted, darkness sets in on the prematurely born philanthropy. The question of " ladies clubs"—not political ones, the gods be thanked —is again mooted, but meets with no encouragement. They might succeed were each limited to one member. The washerwomen have started a kind of co-operation boardinghousc, which really promises well. These washerwomen are not exactly laundresses ; they are our strong-built sisters who toil from early morn till dewy eve in the public lavoir, a sort of floating washhouse on the river, where the linen is beaten and scrubbed, and next to dissolved in Javel water, a chemical preparation from the city sewerage. The linen after this wear-'em and tear-'cm process is delivered to the real laundress, who has merely to dry and iron the clothes, and assist in delivering it every week to the owners. It is said that the washerwoman lives on snuff, coffee, aud the useful tllhnblefull of cognac. The poor Frenchwoman never smokes ; a few fast but virtuous ladies enjoy a cigarette. It is purposed to revive not gambling but lotteries, a milder species of the vice, and which are not proscribed by law as is gaming. A number of ladies desire to have two grand lotteries annually, where the prizes would be winter and summer clothing ; it is expected that the lottery would draw off the attention ®f the working man from politics that only too 1 often lead him to ruin. Respecting the women's rights question as understood in other countries, it makes not the slightest progress here ; the women do not desire the points of the charter, and the men do not even condescend to notice the subject. A group of young ladies took in charge the clothing of two infant ourang-outangs that were presented to the Jardin d' Acclimatation. The little boy kicked against jupes and jupons. Pantaloons and braces were tried, but he tore them to pieces, so that he was allowed to remain like that noble savage, who when wild ran in the woods. His obstinacy resulted in catching cold,and a galloping consumption finished him. These Dorcases in embryo have broken up their association, because it was proposed to dress the surviving sister in mourning, instead of her present blue petticoat and sailors' jacket. George Sand will come to Paris for good next October, and will inaugurate her salon by giving a series of literary matinees to young ladies. -Her son will «arry out the idea in reference to young meu. The old authoress believes that one of the most potent means for restoring France to her greatness is by kindling a love for literature among youth. She will assist any promising young lady who writes a creditable play or book to bring both before the public. Indeed she holds out hopes that it is possible for intellectual ladies to gain a livelihood by letters ; it is difficult to see this in presence of the number of able men who are so badly remunerated. Females find but little employment on the French press, save for an occasional feuilleton novel, miserably paid. Many write what are called fashion articles, but which are nothing else but a string of puffs of leading milliners, dressmakers, and drapers ; yet, strange, a writer that can throw variety, tact, and ingenuity, in praising rival establishments equally, but differently, can command her own terms, and to read some of these productions would be the strongest proof that woman is not deficient—as is laid to her charge—in " inventive" genius. As an instance that fashion is not dictatorial, the best rule to adopt is, to wear what you like, provided it suits you ; anything otherwise is more than unfashionable, for it is erroneous. There is a tendency for youth to covet some of the good things the appanage of age. Thus, after appropriating garlands of flowers, the diadem coiffure is seized. In the way of materials, anything that is not too dark or too thick is in vogue, and if made to fit the figure well, will be in the height of fashion—now and always. A badly cut robe will never make even the richest stuff look elegant. You will embroider everything you can, and wear nothing at the sea side that you would in town, and in town nothing that is loud, It is said that in the new National opera to be inaugurated on the first of January next, there will be accommodation provided for ladies who desire to give those most important the finishing touches, to their toilettes, and save any possible disturbance from entering and leaving the carriage. In order to prevent a new opera from proving a failure, consequent on the excitement of so important an opening night, Hamlet is the work chosen, with Mdlle Nilsson as Ophelia. What really the .serious public requires is new operas, and good singers—the supply of both being very limited, and not following the law of demand. The Fine. Arts Exhibition has closed ; it is gratifying to learn that more than one-fifth of the several thousand exhibitors were females, whose works not only won distinguished honors, but what is not less, found remunerative buyers ; several ladies received orders ; two of the ladies have found husbands in enthuHiastio admirers of their talent ; every government does all it can to develop painting and sculpture as professions for women in France, and the comfortable position of many, as simple copyists, proves that the fine arts pay to be cultivated. It is stated that Belgium exports multitudes of frogs to France ; it is a great mistake to believe the French are large consumers of this delicacy—the thighs of which are only eaten ; France exports frogs to Italy and Germany in larger quantities than she consumes. The French are certainly weak on snails and turtles ; they throw up their hands in holy horror at the English eating rhubarb, which is more barbarous in their eye? than underdone beefsteaks. However, of late, raw pounded beef, is a general prescription with Paris doctors for weak or wasting constitutions.