PARIS.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 407, 6 September 1876, Page 3

PARIS.

(r'HOVt OUB OWN COBBESFONDEST.) July 8 Like their elders, the children are deeply interested in the “Eastern Question,” and which consists of a piece of iron wire twisted so as to resemble three eagles, single and double headed, so as to represent the three Emperors; a crescent, “ Turkey ” is suspended on the wire, and the problem is to extricate it from the claws and beaks of these peculiar birds of freedom. The trick is far more interesting than despatches from the seat of war, where all belligerents are at once victors and vanquished; indeed the fate of the Turks, or the fortune of the Servians, gives Prance but little concern, —as yet, she is interested only in Germany, and would like to contract a marriage de rai-son with Russia, but safety is felt not to lie in that direction, and there is a little trepidation that England may effect a similar kind of marriage with all Germany. This wedlock view of foreign politics interests ladies very much, and they are quite active in match making, and, strange to say, they are shrewder in their previsions than the gentlemen who are all for the Great Bear, out of pique for England’snot fighting by their side in 1870, but the ladies do not feel the union with the Russian would be happy, aiid could turn out lamentable. Then as dash and daring captivate woman’s heart, such having been displayed lately by England, the latter has the majority of the fair sex on her side. The accounts of fashionable life at the sea-side this year are not enthusiastic, everyone confesses the late spring has spoiled the season, rents have been increased proportionately, to compensate for the time lost; this extortion has simply caused mortals, for whom a constant moving to and fro is essential to their health, to change their programme ; many will go to England for greater cheapness, and not a few English will come to French bathing places for greater dearness ; Holland is coming in for much patronage from the birds of passage. If the truth must be confessed, ladies find this roving kind of life involves “much weariness of the flesh a quiet bathing place is dullness itself, save on fete days, Sundays, and when husbands, brothers, and lovers can run down from Saturday till Monday; on the contrary, the seaports resemble by their crowds, the city one has left, less its comforts, facilities, ■and attractions. But those who have gids, must bring their girls out, give them a chance in fact, and the girls are mostly occupied in the monotonous work of toilettes, and chiffons. A French mother, always the vigilant guardian of her daughter, is more than ever so when away from home, and feels the want of occupation for both. Then the casino balls are never select, so are mostly left to the cosmopolitans. In Paris a lady ordinarily gets up between seven and . eight, visits the “ nursery —for such she ever regards the bedrooms of her children be they infants or adults ; after the orthodox cup of chpeolate, she drives to the central markets, here she bargains and purchases with the air of‘a connoisseur, she presents and recommends her friends to her purveyors, smiles at the latters

compliments, and exchanges a repartee with an old trader, for nothing smoothens your way so much in France as a piece of wit or a capital joke, and social relations in France are free without been familiar, independent without being disrespectful, and obedience stops at servility. Mater-, familias has her phaeton full of . little baskets of strawberries, cherries, and little pots of fresh cream ; to say nothing of the large bunches of flowers she has bid for at the public sales ; perhaps on driving home she may do a little shopping it is the most agreeable portion of the day for such business ; arrived at home by eleven, she superintends baby in its bath,' set wooden ducks to float and cork red carp to swim, in order to calm the eries of the little rebel, whom she dredges all over with perfumed starch, after being dried, and rolls the ball of living fat in a flannel robe. After dejeuner, ever a light meal, madame converses with the servant respecting household reforms ; then she indulges in one of those thousand boudoir occupations always awaiting execution; she paints a fan for a lottery, some glass for the windows of a. village church, executes a thank offering work, for her baby has passed successfully through the measles; from four in the afternoon madame pays or receives visits ; after dinner to the opera, or theatre, or ball, or perhaps she muffles herself in a cashmere, and sets out with her husband for a promenade in the Bois de Boulogne, looking ns much as possible like a newly married couple. M. Gambetta though he indulged in very strong language against the Bonapartists, pays them home as it is said, in their own coin, is gallantry itself for our sex ; he is a bachelor, but recommends every one who can to marry; may he himself soon find his Beatrice. As President of the Commission of the Budget, he has carried a resolution, recommending that for the future young women b 6 employed as telegrgph clerks; bis recommendation is a law ; he is in favor of extending to woman all the rights she demands, save to her becoming a senator, deputy, town councillor, or barrister ; he might restore to her some of her old rights by recommending that his countrymen should cease to perform the duties of house maids and laundresses. Efforts are being made to reconcile M. Gambetta and Marshal Macmahon; they have never met in their lives, and only Messrs Thiers and Grevy, both patriarchs, stand, up to the present, between Gambetta and the succession to the Presidentship. Gambetta has commenced the overture by securing a special credit of fr. 300,000, as official pocket money for the Marshal, but the latter swears by all the gods, big and little, that he will never invite the heir apparent to the presidency to dinner till he first executes the kotou ceremony of attending one of the Marshal’s official receptions as a preliminary. The few, able, but not great men that France possesses, are dying off rapidly; after M. Ricard, Casimir-Perier, both excellent “ republicans by necessity.” The latter contributed more than any other person to found the present republican constitution of France, the Hobson’s choice between anarchy and imperialism, and when dying he might well borrow the words of an illustrious French general at Marenga, pronounced as he expired, “ I regret I could do no more for France.” What is peculiarly sad about M. Casimir-Perier’s death is, that he was on the high road to recovery, after having five weeks ago received the last rites of the church, so desperate had been his attack of gout ; a few days ago he drove to the Bois de Boulogne, and drank a bowl of fresh milk which brought on a reaction, and it may be said his death was sudden. A few hours after his dissolution M. Thiers called, and for an hour sat crying beside the remains of his personal and political friend.