Our Paris Letter.

Manawatu Herald, 2 April 1896, Page 3

Our Paris Letter.

(from our own correspondent.) Paris, 28th January, 1896. Not content with spreading the Mardi Gras fetes (Lent days) over three days, the organisers are going to perambulate Paris with a perfect menagerie of live stock, instead of with the traditional xtnique fat ox. Three oxen, ten sheep, and three pigs, all the fattest of the fat, and decorated with prize favours and other ribbons, will make up such a show as to render .it worth to make a special trip to the gay capital. Although the oxen have not yet been selll^l, and quite ignorant of the triumphal march reserved for them, their names have already been decided upon. As to the mi care*rae fe r es, the Queen of Queens has already been chosen, it is a pretty brunette of sweet eighteen, and, as a matter of - course, a laundress, the king being a young man serving in the same laundry as bis companion for one day. In this time of soiree, - ball?, masques, etc., etc., a carnaval story has been told by a morning paper which is too good to be missed, and will replace the confetti and serptntiut of the present carnaval days. The story runs as follows :— J,ust at the moment when a Montmartre omnibus was starting, a practical joker noticed an odd looking gentleman of about sixty clinging on to the step. Sauntering up to another elderly worthy who was on the point of following, this wicked individual whispered in his ear in confidential fashion, " You see that gentleman. He is my uncle. He has just got out of an asylum, and is still rather weak in the upper ' storey.' Be so kind as to see that he alights at Saint Eustache, I shall be so much obliged to you." The good man promised to discharge the mission \ faithfully, and when the omnibus reached St. Eustache he pulled the old gentleman by the sleeve and said " Here we are. Now you must get out." The person thus addressed stared at him in amazement, and when the speech had been repeated several times he gave vent to language of ungrateful, not to say rude, ts - r ", winding up with the exclama-ti-;ii ;hat if this was intended for a je3t, he did tiot sue the gist of it. A mtlof remonstrance met with a rebuff of «>.ii even sterner nature, promptly followed up by a well directed blow. Evidently the old gentleman had : left the asylum too soon, thought the good Samaritan who had. undertaken to see him safely to his destination, , but, smarting from the injury that I he had received, he bit out with i equal vigour, and in a moment a sparring match was taking place in the omnibus, to the consternation of ] the ladies present, who gave vent to » cHenre of shrieks. The conductor, unable to bring the encounter to a close, had to summon the aid of the police, and eveutualiy the combat- : aafcs were led, with blackened eyes to the station. Then, after the usual examination, they learnt to their diar gflPMhat they had been the victims ', oHhe practical joker who had re- ; presented himself as the anxious ■ nephew of the odd-looking old gentleman,