OUR PARIS LETTER.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3658, 16 September 1880, Page 2

OUR PARIS LETTER.

Pabis, August 1. A well known fashionable lady foil of wit and experience, has collected her sketches of young ladies, and published them. They are mott amusing reading, under a green tree and a day not too hot. She is not less severe on her own country» women than she is on strangers. Judge: JS Marie is 16, knows nothing about lovevfv but' is willing to learn what it is; her mother never quits her, whispers hew she ought to talk, and nods as to how she should walk. When she weds, tt* husband who believes she is a box of bonbons, finds next day the contrary: she if fond of horsemanship, especially with her cousins; lores dogs, balls, or picnics.; dances better than her mamma: her bed-room is hong round with hunting whips; on the chimney-piece is a stuffed dog, and at the window is a Dutch canary. Julie is 28 years of ag«, and in * state of permanent rage because unmarried; she still wears the costume of the school girl, and lores to associate with pupils and governesses; with a sigh she has renounced playing with dolls, but has still her professor of music and literature; her*portrait has been painted by a celebrated artist, and exposed id the exhibition, but 4i4 not draw; one evening she fell in love with an elderly bachelor, rich, in bad health, and of humble origin ;sh« hesitated and was lost, for next day before noon another had accepted him. At a ball she wears only white dresses, and short; in the street, her capute displays neither feather nor" flower—«mbleai of jjmtfcftfifciii. The entrant to her bedroom, is through her mother's, proof of guarded innooenee. Yolande is 22 years of age; her ancestors go back to the Crusades, and feel their effects still; carries the head high; features regular; has an air of sereoo chastity, will marry only a Pontifical Zouave; has never read a novel; believes waltzing one.of the deadly sios; has never been inside a theatre, Respite the entreaties of her cousin, because her aunt * . tells her the theatre is a minor abode of Satan; what. Saint Anthony saw in his temptation is nothing to wtat X virtuaiit soul witnesses there; the atmosphere is«S) . vitiated that a leg of mutton, if suspended from the lustre, would turn greea'i* a few. hours. She plays : the raao, only in , duet with her sister; worjjn for the Poor's) * Clothing Club, and embroiders- stufls for the chapel at Frobsduff;, skips the accident* effea^ fcw^^.alH sundries in the newspaper; wears dresses cut out - by her chambermaid* and sewn by the society of St. Vincent de Paul: at a ball wears sleeves to the elbow and a square corsage, with dpdeai of white roses; her bed chamber is ia blue chintz, very little furniture; a crucifix hangs over the mantel piece '/close by is a portrait of ker mamma; elsewhere, the family tree from Philippe-Auguste, down to September, 1870; next the certificate of her oonfirma* tion, surrounded by "a vignette of the ' Cardinal virtues, and then the signature of the Comte de Chambordin a fieur de lis frame. -. .-..,. Foreign ladies.are .equally dissected;. Thus the American, dresses loud but not ' flashy : , she, loves toilettes, . pleasure, expense hides no defect, Jays i bejte' her moral character; will flirt all the winter* but will dismiss the adorer in spring for another; goes out alone; travels singly; she will speak love frdm morn till eve, but will not permit even the tips of her finger to be kissed; she amusesi Mrself largely before being married, she has a baby every year; passes her days atone, and her nignts listening to a husband descanting. on machines, on explosible petroleum; and concentrated provisions; . she creates French fashions, but Parisiennes detests her; provincials despise her; men of all nations fall madly, in love with her, but only marry her—unless she is oolossally rich. The English lady sjoasesses adorable features, and of exquisite tint; eyes, large, fearless and chaste; teeth pretty and small, bat which, grow till they resemble piano keys, slender, but without carriage; later she becomes either stout or very lean, but positively frightful at forty; very correct in her personal attire, her bedroom is sacred to herself, and is rather a washing and dressing, than . a sleeping room;. she is mistrees of her actions till married, then becomes a slave of duty; trains herself from youth to be a virtuous woman, an honest wife, and a good mother; generally selects her ' husband herself. If an old maid, society^, finds something for her to do. She auntsal likes music, novels, and politics; haino curiosity to know what men do, and is virtuous from. principle and sentiment. She is serious and sentimental, adcres travelling, speaks several languages, knows history and geography, has a weakness for spices and underdone meats. She will wait years to marry the man she loves, and if he proves faithless, will oherish his memory even in her grey hairs, for though he may drink, become red, or corpulent, she will ever retain his image as if he had but twenty years. Despite money and milliners, Miss can never look well-dressed. She is but a well-dressed knife, with a flying veil round her hat, as the flag from the top of a main mast. ' ' '"■''