SOMBRE PARIS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 16, 26 February 1915, Page 1 (Supplement)

SOMBRE PARIS.

Paris is changed. The Parisians are changed. Not that they have grown into "a sort of perpetual " grouches," not that the laughter has been banished, or that worry has been permitted to get tho upper hand over their s llnn >" natures; but the war has proved a sobering influence. There are, in a sense, two cities of Paris. There '« (says tho London "Evening Standard tho popular city beloved of foreigners a city of gav l'ghts, all-night restaurants, crowds of merrymakers, übiquitous waiters, and rivers of champagne. Thus city has undergone a great transformation. The long rows of taxi-catw or ti'.icn?s have disappeared, and one may safely cross the l'lace de I'Opera at no matter what hour of the day. iho throngs of passers-by along the boulevards have dwindled to a tr-ckling stream of people. Tho cafe terrasss aro desert"d. Imagine two people in front, of the Cafe d e la Pais at two o'clock : n tlu afternoon ! Ihe two bolitarv iigup'; but emphasised the loneliness of tho busiest corner in all 1 arm. When evening shadows fall, the central streets It. come somewhat animated. The villi; s and most shops closo at five, and tin* Parisian hasten; to Irs favourite cafe for a breath of former days, but evei'vono is different somehow. Occas'onallv a man in a khaki uniform lets .no a joud guffaw, but nearly m the same moment- he checks himself w:tn tho air of having committed some hnarh of etiquette. The clatter of tho busses t.li> tooting of the horns of the passing vehicle, tho thousand and on© noise.i that made tlrs quarter of Pans the H ost unique in the world, arc there no linger.