Our Paris Letter.

Manawatu Herald, 16 October 1894, Page 3

Our Paris Letter.

(from our own correspondent.) Paris, 80th August, 1894. Vegetarianism has recently made many adepts in France. Last year M. Francisque Sarcey, the eminent dramatic critic, in a series of leading articles in the Petit Journal, entertained his readers with full details of his conversion to vegetarian principles, and the difficulties he encountered in adhering to them. The Figaro has just furnished its readers with a tremendous array of facts, which if half of them be true, should have the effect of frightening everyone who reads them, into abjuring meat for the rest of his life. Unfortunately for Parisians who may think of following the advice tendered to them by the writer in the Figaro, milk is one of the principal articles recommended as a substitute for animal food, and milk is precisely the which they find it almost impossible to procure. An article of commerce " pure unskimmed milk " is obtainable at 3d a quart, but mothers who value the lives of their children, say that even on so-called milk at 9d a quart babies do not seem to thrive. Except in Paris, : f~ milk is cheap and abundant enough . \ all over France, and it is to be hoped J that a first-rate dairy company will . make its appearance in the fair capital, the sooner the better, in order that it is . given to tha Parisians to hay* for their money good and

wholesome, and of course pure milk. Snea'iing of milk for babies I will contiuue talkirig" afaoiifc the latter and about their names, as in the land of Liberte, Egalit6, and Fraternity, it is not allowed to give a child the name you prefer. Such levity in France is not permitted. According to the taw of 2 Germinal and XI, a French citizen cati only choo3e a name for his children out of a list of 8,750 names, of which every mayor has a copy. If he is imaginative, or original or funny, he must not give play to his talents when christening bis children. There are sOtMe sti'aflge names in. the list, such as Momnioltii PhamfaUnce> Cracaphdide, Mogoldonoborco, which are fortunately seldom selected, and whose origin even a civil service crammer would he puzzled to explain. Remaining always on the same chapter, viz., speaking of our progeniture, a singular affair took place only a few morning's ago, when a cab drew up at the post office at the corner formed by the Rue Alexandra Dumas and the Boulevard Voltaire. The driver, getting down from his seat, led a little boy of about eight years old, whom, he said, he bad been instructed to leave until called for. Before the employes could recover from their astonishment, the cab was out of sight. In reply to the clerk's questions, the little fellow said he had come that day from Sens, and that, as his mother had not met him, some nuns, who had accompanied him, put him into a cab at the Gaze de Lyon, and told the driver to leave him at the Poste Restante. Shortly after, a lady appeared who explained that, unable to meet her son at the station, she had thought the best means of getting over the difficulty was to have him addressed to the post office where she was in the habit of receiving her letters.