PARIS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1414, 11 February 1873, Page 3

PARIS.

[FROM OUB OWN CORRESPONDENT.] November 30. The rapidity with which this capital has "pickeditself up" from the state of prostration to which it found itself reduced after the disasters of the period popularly epitomised here as "The War aud the Commune," is a matter of wonder even to those who, through long, residence among its people, had already learned to appreciate the resources of a practical cleverness and perseverance as inexhaustible, as the frivolity and the love of amusement and of pleasure with which those qualities are so generally combined in the French character. Much of the. material injury inflicted upon this favorite city is already repaired —much more is in course of being so. Pieces of new stone have been let into the facades that were battered by cannon or nicked by bullets ; and the passage of the mason's scraper or painter's brush over the entire surface of the house fronts has brought the whole to the same hae, and removed all trace of injury—indeed even of revolution. New buildings are being completed, or constructed on the sites of the fires, the vast pile of the Hotel de yille will shortly be restored to its former splendor, and even the historic Palace'of the Tuilleries will probably be rebuilt before the people of France have definitely made up their minds as to the purpose to which the old building of its former sovereigns shall be applied. M. Thiers, in whose eyes the Republic now appears to be the best form of Government, perhaps because its chief office is vested in himself, sagaciously remarked to the "City Fathers" when he gave them a grand dinner during his recent brief occupation of the Elysee, beloved of the Bonapartes —"Do not hesitate to restore the Metropolitan Palace to the magnificence which befits its position and office as the civic centre and representative of the grandeur of Paris and of France. The Republic will have to receive not only all that is most distinguished among the various peoples of Europe, and of the world, but also the various Sovereigns. -Paris should, therefore, to give all its guests a welcome worthy of itself and of them, be provided wi*h appropriate accommodation." And as the assembled magnates expressed their entire concurrence in the view of Parisian duty thus set forth by the President, it is evident that the third French Republic is not destined, in the hopes and anticipations of its Chief Magistrate and its friends, to derogate from the traditions, of ita past, by the assumption of any very close imitation of the simplicity and frugality of a, Spartan rigime. So far, in fact, is any such imitation from the intentions of the people of this capital, that the purveyors of amusement, luxury, and elegance to the sojourners in what Baron Haussmann called "The Caravanserai of* Europe," seem determined to surpass all their former efforts, in order to tempt back the crow4s of wealthy visitors who had so long constituted t^e; main .element of Parisian prosperity, but who were driven away by the late events. Thus, while the old buildings are rising from their ashes, and new private houses, larger and handsomer than any hitherto erected, are being built in the fashionable quarters ; while trees are being re-planted in the renewed and re-beautiful thoroughfares, and beds of brilliant flowers, and of shrubs, whose ri^hly-variegat^d Jeayes rival their hues so cjose]y, are re-appear-the animated precincts of, the public g£fl4ens,'the g^g of ne brilliant capital $re. oveVflpwing with cfwfsd;<B,uwe of arjfcis^tic industry of| every kind, even more fceautitnl and tempting than their former $splays v. l£very branch of the multifarious productions in w,tiich Paris has 30 long feigned supreme, seems tp be resolutely determined' tq do ijto special part towards t>jjp9ging back the golden stream that was diverted from its accustomed channels, by the horrors of which the Capital was so recently the theatre; and one lingers before the exquisite fanciest embodied in $ie innumerable creations of Parisian taate and ingenuity, as though each street were a "gallery" of some new "International Exhibition. To judge by the magnificent display of jewelry, in which the skilfulness of the setting is, as admirable, and almost as costly, as the stones of which they are composed; the artificial flowers that arc almost more beautiful than the " Summer's darlings'* from which every leaf and petal ,is so faithfully copied; the feathers so wonderfnll; transformed in shape, texture, and color

that none of the birds that bore them would ever recognise them for their own ; the tissues of every material and of every make ; the splendid furniture ; the tapestries, carvings, paintings, and bronzes ; the exquisite porcelains of every date and school; the innumerable bagatelles of convenience, luxury, and .elegance that meet the eye in every direction, one might suppose that Paris counted on having the whole world for her customer. And so she has, to a certain extent, and for the multifarious productions included under the comprehensive designation of Articles de Paris ; it may be confidently predicted that the epoch (should it ever come !) that shall see France delivered from the social trammels from which none of her revolutions have even attempted to set her free, will also see the globe her tributary in all those numerous departments of Industry, Art, and Science, in which the peculiar genius of her people stand pre-eminent. The efforts made by Paris to draw back the stream of customers that seemed, a year ago, to have entirely deserted her, have been, at length fully successful ; and her foreign visitors have been arriving for the last few weeks in such numerous and incessant shoals, that every hotel and boarding-house has been filled to overflowing. Some of the principal hotels have refused as many as two hundred applications iv a single day ; favorite boarding-houses have declined eighteen or twenty in the same space of time. The enormous rise in prices, in all the necessaries of life, which has made this city the dearest point of Europe, though the Bubject of constant lamentation to residents, does not seem to disturb the equanimity of the crowds of visitors whose arrival has gladdened the hearts of that large proportion of the Parisian public which has something to sell. And notwithstanding the enormous drawback of the lack of a Court, still farther increased, at present, by the persistence of the French Parliament in remaining at Versailles, it is confidently expected that the coming season will be a very gay one for the pleasant city that was so full of dismay and desolation so short a time ago. The approach of a new year being always heralded by the appearance of a vast number of new and charming objects of all kinds in the shop windows, the display of the latter, already alluded to as being just now unusually brilliant, will be growing finer and finer every day during the next fortnight, by which the show-off will be at its height, and the crowds of flaneurs of both sexes — who will spend hours every day in strolling leisurely through the principal streets, minutely inspecting the contents of every shop window, until they know everything in the shape of a novelty that is to be had — will begin to make their purchases (usually amounting to a total of over ten millions of francs), expended in the new year's gifts, which, under the name of etiennes, constitute the special feature of the social life of Paris in the month of December. The lines of booths and stalls for the sale of objects of a cheaper and more popular character than those which compose the magnificent displays of the shops will be erected on the edge of the pavements of the principal boulevards about a fortnight hence, springing up like mushrooms, in the course of a night, through the combined action of various members of the artisan families to which each booth belongs, and who will thus be enabled to dispose of the products of their industry during the ensuing summer. M. Thiers has neglected no opportunity of supplying, as far as is possible for him to do so, a substitute for the social impulsion and leadership of a Court, so necessary, it would seem, to a city like Paris, that one can hardly imagine its continued prosperity without the brilliant and animating centre, whose influence was implied in all the conditions of its existence. The twenty-five gentlemen appointed by the Assembly to keep watch, under the title of the "Committee of Permanence," over the proceedings of the President, during the vacations of that body, were at first so unwilling to allow him to occupy the Elyaee, that whenever he ventured to give a dinner or to hold an evening reception in that Imperial residence, he was obliged to go back to Versailles to sleep. Fortunately for M. Thiers, his resolution is quite equal to the task of holding its own ; and he accordingly contrived to give dinners and soirees through the whole of the month he recently spent in the charming palace, so intimately associated with the memory of k petit caporal, whose exploits he has done so much to enshrine in the warm imagination of his countrymen. (To be continued.)