ASPECT OF SOCIETY IN PARIS.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 21, 31 October 1871, Page 3

ASPECT OF SOCIETY IN PARIS.

Writing of the aspect of society in Paris, a Correspondent of the Globe says : —Paris, if not yet itself again, is fast becoming so. Betting offices, of which there was a swarm on or near the Boulevards, (the the part of them that is frequented by decent people), which were shut up during the seige and the Commune, are reopening. Seeing one blazing with light last evening, I entered, and found some men of “ horsey ” appearance, some servant girls, and some splendidly-dressed young ladies, who were not accompauied by their mothers, handing in money and receiving tickets —they were betting on a race to be run at Brighton. In the palmy days of the Empire these betting-houses were crowded, and they turned over several thousand pounds in the course of a week. It is with surprise that people see that they are allowed to be open again. In another respect also, Paris is becoming what it was. The “ scandal newspapers,” as the Government itself calls them this evening in the Officiel, are just as eagerly read as they used to be before the war, when the people flaunted gaily in frivolity and vice. Go into the reading room or cafe —for it is there more than in clubs that newspaper clients congregate —and ask for one of these journals ; you will see that a grim old colonel, or a stupid bourgeoise, Btill smelling of the cellar in which he sought safety during the Commune, or a vapid looking dandy has it in hand, and does not evidently mean to let it go until he has read every line. “ And it is bespoken, sir, three times over,” says the attendant. If declining to wait, you order a copy to be bought, you find it filled with scandal of precisely the same sort as of old : how Madame has run away from her husband ; how the Count de lost a heavy sum last night at play ; how k the celebrated Mademoiselle was dressed at the the theatre ; and how her great rival Blanche is about to astonish the world (a certain set in Paris is meant) by changing the colour of her hair from flaming yellow to bright blue,