PARIS.

Southland Times, Issue 1707, 25 February 1873, Page 3

PARIS.

(fbom oub owh cobbespowdent.) December 12. Tbe lorers' quarrel has been made up. The provisional has been again re-estab-lished, and promises to be permanent aa far as tbe next crisis. The approach of Christmas possibly suggested to the Monarchists — who are all professors of piety, tbe Bonapartists included — peace on eartb and goodwill toward men. The Tast proportions that tbe petition-cam-paign had taken, contributed also not a little to the tranquility of the moment. M. Thiers, after tbe fable, bas temporarily cast aside the lion's skin, and donned tbe fox's ; if he add to this change the policy of patience, of waiting, tbe pear that he has the ambition to gather — the founding of a common-sense republic — will fall to his lot without ever shaking the tree. It is only putting new wine into old bottles, the attempt to build up tbe republic by the aid of its dynastic antagonists. Then M. Thiers is known to boast that he imitates the parrot's plan of moving — holding on by the bill to the old branch till the claws are satisfied about the new one. The pamphlet fever haß set in with renewed violence; one brochure demonstrates that monarchies bave been the cause of all revolutions, and another replies very naturally, a king is tbe only check upon popular explosions. An interesting, lecture is announced on the pia mater malady, as tbe cause of political disasters. The lecturer has been requested to send 750 complimentary admissions to Versailles. In other countries the signing of petitions to the Legislature devolves upon Sunday school children and parish clerks. In France this duty pertains to the wino shops and tobacconists ; or at least did, till a few dayt ago, when a police order prohibited tbat manner of getting up petitions for the dissolution of the Assembly. Some royalist journals suggest the transportation to New Caledonia of all who sign euch petitions. This is very modest, and indicates a return to the age of brass. Indeed the Republican party commence to think tbey have borne long enough with an intolerant'opposition, which only makes a truce the better to re-arm, and that takes its word of command, not from the French nation, but from Bregenz, Chantilly, and Cbiselhurst. The Assembly is on tbe whole nearly divided into two equal divisions ; hence the danger ; and although tbe difficulty has been tided over, the only solution is to be found in tbe election of a new Chamber. That would be laying the axe to the root of the tree. If tbis radical measure be not adopted, the country and foreigners may calculate upon a continuance of, say, a weekly crisis. On Mondays all will be lost, on Saturdays ererything will be saved. The departure of the invader certainly will put an end to the usual scenes between an ill-assorted couple, provided the people do not discount the event from sheer fatigue of being rescued once a week. It is calculated tbat commerce loses 120 million of francs pending the duration of the usual misunderstanding between the Executive and the Assembly It is not too much to allow an interval of peace so tbat trade can be prepared to meet tbe next loss. It was the fashion under the Empire, when tbe home department was troubled by White- Boys, Baudin subscribers, orations in favor of pure liberty — by those who subsequently ignored" all that kind of thing on arriving at power — to assert business never was more brisk, and that traders were becoming Croesuses Tbe traders themselves did not say this, but the agreeable press did so for them. At the present time the inspired journals chant the same tune, the inference being, tbat tbe more the country is troubled and institutions unstable, the more prosperous is industry-. In proportion as other mortals lose confidence, it would seem tbat merchants and traders gain it. The Chamber bas found a few moments to attend to tbe interests of the nation, and consequently these seances are prdnounced humdrum and dull. The reporters yawn over such at the commencement, and display a green and yellow melancholy at their close. Not a lady would think of ordering a special toilette to witness a meeting where business only is transacted. The " inte resting 4 ' day ia tbat when nothing is got i

through, and the country thrown into a state of alarm. The salaries of the ambassadors have been voted, on the I understanding that the recipients would at least present themselves at the Courts to which tbey were accredited. The \ Minister of Public Instruction was pulled up for appointing as Chief Inspector of Schools a person who had published books of an anti-social and irreligious tendency. That true soldier of the Church, the Bishop of Orleans, with passionate gesture and emotional, yet resolute, language, pressed the charge home in the hammering style. The Minister was requested during the debate to encourage the teaching of Sacred History, and to bring into relief certain subjects, among others the " Deluge" and the " Tower of Babel.*' The incessant rain and the newlydiscovered " Deluge Tablet" may have suggested tbe first, as tbe Assembly itself may hare done the second. There is a general desire not to disturb, to agitate the country at tbis season, when commerce has so many bills to meet, and manufacturers orders to fill "We are far, however, from the times when J. J. Rousseau wrote his celebrated phrase, some nre gorged with superfluities, whilst the multitude wants and starves More than one-half of the deputies permanently live in Paris, including the principal opponents of the return of the Assembly to the capital. There is nothing peculiar in the death rate, except that infant mortality haa increased, owing to the sudden transition from a milk diet, now so costly, to a farinaceous one, for bebe's. Indeed the French too early initiate tbeir children to an adult regimen. The very newest thing out in fashion was to be met with on Sunday last in the Champs Elysees, where two ladies appeared with golden bells suspended from their necks by a band of black velvet. They were not evening belles. Cooks persist to be as much occupied as diplomatists, and dinners continue to be the order of the day. M. Thiers resembles Louis Philippe and Napoleon 111 in his plain dinners — homeliness itself — and where be questions, rather than conv*rses with his guests. In fact, since Louis | XVIII., France has not been accustomed to Belsbazzar feasts; then the royal repast was accompanied by a guard of honor to tbe dining hall, and the invited guests rose to salute tbe announcement that the King was served. Baroa Rothschild takes the lead at present in princely dinners, his service of plate is the first in Paris ; then comes the Due de Mouchy's, and next in the number of pieces and beauty, that of the Duchess de Luynes. The Seine after retiring to its bed has turned out again, and to all appearances promises on this occasion to do considerable damage. How like one inundation is to another, so much so, that the illustrated journals find the cuts of the floods of a dozen years ago to suit present circumstances. One paper, in ita anxiety to out-distance contemporaries, published / a view of a town almost swamped by a river some hundreds of miles away from it. There never was such a supply of violets as is now to be met with in every street-corner of the city. According to the language of flowers, the violet signifies modesty, virtue, discreet love ; hence why the Imperialists doubtless patronize it. High and low in Paris love the flower — only differing in the size of the bouquet they can command. Gallantry, it is es timated, expends over half a million annually in tbe city, in the purchase of violets — for which there are two seasons, the spring, when tbe woods yield the supply, and at present, when the hothouses and Nice come to the rescue. The culture andthe supplying the market are in the hands of the gardeners and their children, who, fork large bundle, receive from three to thirty sous according to tbe season. The wholesale market is at the Halles Centrales, where flowers are disposed of by private bargain, all other articles being put up to public auction. The Communists will be glad to hear that from receut experiments the G-overn-ment finds sailing vessels superior to steam ships to convey the condemned to | New Caledonia, and that August and I September are the best months for undertaking the voyage. Paris seems to be the centre of the world for tbe sale of books and objects of art — so much so, that London largely exports curiosities here, as well as Norway, China, and Peru. A very curious study are the book stalls of Paris, grouped in certain quarters or scattered abroad. They are calculated to measure a total length of two miles, and are to be met with, not in tbe most populous portions of the city, but where the dilettanti move and have their being. It is a singular study to watch the crowds that lounge over the book-cases on tbe quay-walls ; what crushing and pushing and yet all too occupied to think that rudeness is intended. It is generally Normans who own the stalis. The best time to find a valuable book is in the morning, when the cases are being opened It is then the Dominie Sampsons are to be met with — like the sportsman, who knows tbe value of going early to work. It is rumored that the clergy have at last set themselves against tbe practice of their female parishioners, in Auvergne, Brittany, and Normandy, selling their hair. There is no law against tbe traffic, excepting tbat the wandering merchant must uot cut off the locks in public ; he must- operate privately. This he does by hiring for a day an unoccupied room, stable, or barn ; in tbe case of a fair he bas his tent. His signboard is a pole, with a bankerchief at one end, and some hair plats at the other. Then the dealer must be known to the authorities, which thus concentrates tbe business during the season — April to September — in tbe hands of local bakers, shoemakers, butchers, and blacksmiths. Margaret of Navarre, sister of Charles IX., was amongst the earliest ladies to wear locks borrowed from other crowns. She wan bald from her youth, and footmen with

blond hair were specially retained to be shorn of their hair from time to time, for their mistress, who, in dread of being deprived of her curls by an accident, always carried a supply of thero in her pocket. Tn France, the " home crop" of hair is valued at 24 tons, and less than half that quantity is imported, generally from Italy, Belgium, and Bohemia. France, bear in mind, manufactures chignons, wigs, false fronts, &c, for the universe. The finest hair comes from Belgium ; the longest, and blackest, from Venetia ; the most beautiful, and the dirtiest, from Brit f any. It is observed that the more a country is opened up by railways, the less inclined the girls are to sell their hair. In Italy, three beads furnish a pound of hair ; in Brittany, it requires eight ; in Belgium, twelve. " Starvation hair " is the name given to what misery yields. The hair of dead or sick persons finds no purchasers ; it does not " work" when fabricated. The chiffoniers of the city collect a good deal also of hair, combed out of fair tresses in the daily toilette, and swept into tbe household garbage to be thrown into the street.