LADIES' LETTER FROM PARIS.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 244, 22 March 1875, Page 4

LADIES' LETTER FROM PARIS.

{From the Press.) Paris, January 23. The most progressive class in this country are the drapers ; in the way of advertising they have exhausted worlds and imagined new ; they are so obliging that they will dispatch a three-horse monster van to deliver a pair of gloves at your address; in place of discount for cash, as in tbe times when George the Third was King, they present you with a real balloon capable of " carrying up " your chignon, or with a kite, a box of sugar-plums, an almanack for the new year, or a scented list of their fixed prices. Others give a lunch and " lift " you up to it; a few gave a free subscription for a month to a political journal. Later came concerts, where the shop assistants were the performers; the dandy that presided over the rayon for ribbons, was a flute player in the evening, and the chef of the bargains department became a first fiddle; to this crescendo of business philanthropy has now been added " establishment balls " for the pleasure of customers, and the profit, of course, of no one. The invitations are not transferable, but this did not prevent one of these gatherings to be inundated a few evenings ago by such a crowd of suspicious looking people, that the ball had to be stopped, and an extra inventory taken of stock next morning At present nothing is more amusing than politics, since they engage everybody's attention and disturb nobody's temper. 1 he deputies, it would seem, after claiming to be independent of the nation, have been left by the nation to flounder as they please. Ministers are abused like pick-pockets, and to eject them from office seems to uc % beat plan to ensure their continuance. It is a game of Aunt Sally, or of nine-pins, or any other game of putting up and knocking down, observing President Lincoln's advice, •'to keep ptggiog away." ihe only gloom to daja our spirits is an occasional

anniversary mass for the repose of some grand person's soul; feelings of regret are lessened in presence of political devotion and the latest fashions in mourning, because the occasion is solemn and respectable, and mourners must appear in well cut trappings of woe The Bonapartists have had their mortuary mass, the Legitimists have just had theirs in memory of Louis XVI; the Orleanists and Republicans abstain. The nine days' pilgrimage to the shrine of Sainte Genevieve, the patroness of Paris has also been observed. She is believed to have the power of favorably considering ordinary requests, and on condition that worshippers promise to be good, no reasonable offer is declined. In bygone centuries her relics were carried through Paris—beat the bounds of the parish, in a word—frightening off besiegers, for there were no Prussians in those days, and staying the pest. Some argue that recourse to the relics is now the only solution for conjuring that other pest, the Assembly. In observing Moliere's anniversary recently, the classical theatres presented arms with all due honors, but the city authorities were not behindhand in paying their tribute to the departed worth of 1673. They scoured and burnished up the various monuments erected to his memory. This innovation of an annual " clean shave" for the statues generally of remembered or forgotten worthies, is worthy of imitation. The new opera is not yet in working, though in part in apple-pie order. The term grand is not prefixed to its name, because such might run counter with that commercial adjective monopolised by hotels, groceries, dairies, and boot shops. The beautiful Austrian singer, Mdle Krauss, alone attracts monster houses, and it would seem that the magnificent building was reserved to make her famous, as its opening had been to make the Lord Mayor of London immortal. The opera is becoming a kind of Mecca for all pilgrims suffering from architecture on the brain; and since the clergy have denounced the structure to be Pagan, the faithful flock in greater crowds to contemplate the beautiful abomination. Ladies still revert to the melancholy fact that the inauguration was a down right deception in point of the production of new toilettes; not a novelty has taken birth from that event, save the old custom of carrying bouquets, constructed more or less on the broad-gauge principle, and driving to the opera in family state. Bnt not a new dress made its appearance; invention seemed to be paralysed in presence of that concentration of the creme dv la creme of European society; no lady considered herself sufficiently elevated in position to take the lead, to give the ton to such a gathering of taste and criticism concentrated within four walls. Madame Macmahon does not aspire to the role of dictatress in this respect, like her husband's programme, she guards a neutral position; and at her balls, whether public or private, she displays that excellent tact of a true hostess, of being more soberly dressed than her guests. At the late Elysee ball every one noticed the number of very young ladies present, which of course accounts for the unusual period danoing was kept up to. Ihe Princess de Sagan was remarked for her magnificent long train costume in red Van-Dyck velvet, with an under jupe of yellow satin. The long gloves covering the arms are now terminated with a band of flowers, so as to form a bracelet near the elbow, and others have an elegant border of gold and silver worked in relief. It is customary now for the host to present ladies on entering the ball-room with an elegant fan in satin cardboard, quite an objet oVart ; each fold has the name of the dance printed at the head, so that the lady has only to enter under each to whom she is engaged. The same principle is applied to the menu at dinner parties, the name of each delicacy being detailed on the leaves of the fan, the latter is however, a more costly article. Some fans appear in the shop windows with a hollow handle, into which a pocket hankerchief can be thrust, if there was only a little space also for a smelling bottle, what a capital amnoniere such a fan would be in a ball room ! After long agitation it has been decided that brides may visit in white hats, with orange blossoms, and leafless roses to match. For dinners and balls low-bodied dresses are a necessity; the trains are very sweeping; velvet and black faille are very generally worn, perhaps fur trimming, unless the fur be very superior, is a little less in vogue, but then there is no falling off in feathers, and jec is still more the rage ; bonnet strings seem to be plated with pearls; there is no change in the flat and broad hats, if the borders do not tend to become larger; black felt is the favorite material, and there is a tendency to load it with white and black ribbons, white ribbon streamers too fall over the back ; bodices are made to fit like a glove, and everything in the way of strings is avoided that would give the waist a bulky appearance; actual tight lacing is being superseded by reliance on hooks and eyes in arranging slender waists. Woollen materials are much patronized, but then, the quality of thecloth must be first-rate. French ladies are very much engaged in works of charity at present, and perhaps there are more dinner parties than balls, much time is also devoted to music, drawing, and sculpture. In good French society novel reading, as popularly understood, does not exist; a first-class romancier is certain to be read and studied as a work of art, but neither sensation nor emotion is sought for in the novel; there is a tendency to translate some of the novels by English authoresses, but the experiment does not appear to succeed, the world of English society being unfamiliar to French ladies. Shakspeare must be in favor as several excellent French editions are advertised, and the divine Williams is as much a drawing-table ornament here, as in his native land ; books of travel are devoured with avidity, and conferences are very much followed. However, there is one peculiar manner for agreeably and profitably, not killing but occupying time, and of which the French have the monopoly—conversation, where no subject ever proves insipid, and never commonplaces find a welcome; to foster this charming resource, the custom of afternoon tea-parties is extending ; four o'clock visitors take to tea and cake in the most natural manner possible, and which never spoils the seven o'clock dinner. These causeries are not devoted to frivolities, the weather, &c, but to these little nothings which instruct without fatiguing, and the visi tors are supposed to be on a certain footing in the family, for acquaintances arrive earlier and depart quickly. The goldsmiths' and iewellers' annual ball is looked forward to wivt a little impatience—it is late this year; one the*o tne newest designs in jewellery; Efe* gathering i 8 » kind of understood competition, just as the hair-dreatrera parade their female relatives with the newest

coiffures at their professional balls. Good news for the fair sex—the supply of doctors is so inadequate in France that the expediency of encouraging lady medical students is much advocated ; indeed it is even alleged, that were there a larger sprinkling of female pupils, the medical schools would not be so chronically rebellious. What discourages male doctors in France is, not the want of practice, but the weakness of patients not to pay ; the medical attendant is viewed as a philanthropist, and considered to be superior to receiving fees. As a commencement of the new departure, a young woman has been licensed to practise the apothecary art—may sharp misery never wear her to the bones, and may she never have a beggarly account of empty boxes. Every chemist's wife in France keeps her husband's books, registers the recipes, and perhaps, when business is pressing, compounds"them 100. A few other extraordinary ladies have turned up recently; one, a nun aged ninety, and now in the Hospice of Incurables in, Paris. She has renewed all her teeth at forty-seven and sixty-three years old, and others are now promising ; dentists cannot do better henceforth than to advise their lady clients to "go to a nunnery." In, Ijhe Necker Hospital an old pensioner, nearly ninety, has been admitted, and who till then was believed to belong to the male sex. She commenced soldiering at fourteen years of age, followed the fortunes of the First Empire, was wounded in the face at Waterloo, received medals for good service, and thanks in the army bulletins from Marshals; in the wars of the future, and big ones are said to be imminent, women can henceforth be relied on to form the landsturm of their country. Not many months ago M. Block traced the social comfort and wealth of France to late marriages, and highly approved of them, while Dr Bertillon now laments the prevailing practice of early marriages, as tending to premature deaths. Doctors will differ. Ladies, according to the doctor, should only marry between the ages of twenty-two and thirty. It is with a kind of delight, in which we beg to be permitted to share, that old bachelors die in a greater proportion than married men, but which could be avoided by their marrying. Henceforth a coroner's inquest ought to be held on every bachelor, and a verdict of felo de se recorded, so that he would have to be buried at the four cross roads, to be a sublime warning to his fellows. The memoirs of the Comtesse de Sparre, the celebrated cantatrice during the early reign of Louis Philippe, are on the eve of publication, and will contain some piquant revelations. Her father was the famous singer Naldi, who found " death in the pot "in a curious manner. He had invented a boiler for cooking meat in a few minutes, by turning on steam ; one day he invited Garcia to witness his wonderful apparatus ; the steam was admitted into the pot, but when Naldi went to ascertain if the meat was cooked, the apparatus exploded, and his remains were picked up in fragments. The new Hotel Dieu has adopted an excellent idea, that of erecting a gymnasium for the use of the patients ; the spectacle of sturdy invalids enjoying the trapeze and vaulting bars ought to stimulate the knitting of broken limbs and ribs ; exercise and good air, with moderate diet and fair work, are gradually cutting out pharmacy. The ladies' gymnasium in this city is very well patronised, a course of lessons therein is as essential an extra as the piano and the use of the globes; it does away with the backboard and such Torquemadaen machinery ; the gymnasium and the riding school are doing as much good for French ladies as the compulsory military service for young gentlemen. In fact, a year or two in the army is found to be the 'best of modern schools. I forgot to mention a new kind of evening party that the Comte de Eazeville has inaugurated. He made a journey specially to Home in order to have five score of chaplets blessed by the Holy Father ; this done—for his Holiness is as liberal in benedictions as in denunciations—the Comte on arriving in Paris invited his elect, The Archbishop had been secured to distribute the chaplets, and then a pious conversazione ensued. The invited resolved to hold similar merry meetings, where each would produce some authentic relic, as if all relics were not authentic, and sermonise on it for a text. One of the daughters of Louis XV., Louise, I think, waß abbess of St Denis. She had a mania for relics, and ransacked Italy for the remains of reputed saintly people. So many were consigned to her, that the Custom House authorities would not allow the corpses to pass till they had undergone a kind of quarantine, and paid their dues; hence she was continually begging her father to allow this body and that to be "liberated." Even on on her death bed she was a decided woman, her last words being " quick, quick, gallop to Paradise." One should be very cautious for the future in purchasing a volume at a French railway stall, for the Home Minister has just stated he allows only frivolous and sometimes licentious volumes to be sold there. The only discovery worth recording is that connected with potatoes. A citizen has " new ones" at all seasons in his garden, where they no longer grow as in summer. They develope as truffles underground in winter. This benefactor complains of being neglected. It is the common fate of genius. The hotels are becoming dairies. Each has its stock of cows, and sends the milk out in champagne bottles to extern customers. What a melancholy lesson to ladies having a weakness for talking and confessing their ways and means. The widow Kougier indulged in both while seated in the Luxembourg gardens. She had for neighbor at her back a ticket of leave man. He overheard her, followed her, and in the morning she was found murdered and robbed. Silence is gold.