FRENCH HOME LIFE.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1772, 24 October 1879, Page 3

FRENCH HOME LIFE.

A writer in the “ Oonstitutionnol ” publighea an interesting description of post and present family life in Paris. He Bays: —“It is a characteristic sign of the contemporary Parisian that he cannot stay at home of an evening. Great or small, rich or poor, ho must go out, and that in all seasons. Formerly theatres, balls, or evening walks were the exception for the Parisians. After dinner they stayed at home as a rule; they kissed the children, who said ‘ Good night 1 on leaving the dining-room, and went to bed; the mother sometimes did not think it beneath her to put them to bed herself. She would then till about ten embroider, or work tapestry, by the light of the lamp that stood on the round table. Husband and wife would converse together about the small events of the household, or the great events of the day; or the husband might, perchance, read the evening paper aloud. In that way the evening passed, long or short, according to the entente —more or loss cordiale—of the spouses. Those were modest and quiet evenings, which a friendly visit would interrupt from time to time. At eleven, at the latest, the friends separated, and the lamp was turned out. In those days it was almost a trunat, a small extra, when the family went to listen to the military bands in the public gardens, or to sit down on the chairs in the Champs Elysees. At that period very few people, even amongst the richest, could tell their coachman to put the horses to in order to go and breathe the cool air of the Bummer evenings, Tory few people had a coachman. Nowadays, private carriages are as common as boots or umbrellas. The quiet pleasures of home have disappeared from our manners. People now go out every evening, and cannot content themselves with cigars of a moderate price. They go and see all the now pieces, never miss a Saturday night at the Circus, a Friday at the Besselievre Concert, or a Thursday at the Hippodrome. From time to time they go to the Cafes Chantants—the Ambassadenrs, tho Horloge, the Alcazar, et tutti qvanti. They are everywhere, in fact, of an evening, except at home, and that is why public establishments swarm in Paris, why the keepers of cafes become millionaires, and why the great city is the city of night par excellence —the astonishment and joy of foreigners, who cannot help asking “ When do the Parisians sleep ?”