OUR PARIS LETTER.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3806, 10 March 1881, Page 3

OUR PARIS LETTER.

(fbom our own cobeespondent.)

Pabts, December 30,

Another year interred ; and the wooden shanties that are run up along the Bouvelards for the tea days' toy fair appear like so .many coffins to convey away the remains of 1880. In Paris, at all events, the years, if they do not efpire like Clarence in a butt of Malmsey, do so in floods of drink. Christmas Eve is only regarded sacred if one does not go to bed : the capital will not shut an eye on the occasion : the very pious, and the excellent profane, alike attend a midnight muss to hear the execution of Adolphe Adam's Christmas Anthem, executed during the administration of the sacrament. On the conclusion of the rite there is a rush to a supper room, to partake of pork in some form, and it can be prepared in as many different manners as there are for cooking eggs ; the workman will have his bonne louche of snails and garlic, then his Portugaise oystfrs and their corrugated shells, washed down with petit lieu, or cider innocent of apples; the middle classes will have goose and chestnuts, pigs' feet and flat or cylindrical sausages, with a black pudding to act as mem6nto tnori; the Upper Ten will have what they please ; ham will represent the souvenir of the friend of Sfc. Anthony, there will be Ostend and Dutch natives, washed down with golden tokay in Bohemian glasses; but whether high or low, rich or poor, feasting will be the rule, and the next morning the heaps of oyster shells will testify to the work and labour done, at the same time suggesting that Paris might be built on the shells of the bivalves, as Amsterdam is said to have been founded on herring bones.

Ah- orator stated last week in the Chamber of Deputies, on the discussion of the'budget, that "the mass was the opera of the poor." The crush before the several churches to gain admission to the midnight mass, is strong illustration of this; nothing conld be less reverential than to hear the gods cracking jokes, and indulging in cross firing at the expense of their paradise. There were whistlings and groans ; the beadle was alluded to as the chef of the claque, and the clergyman as the artiste. Notre Dame, as usual, was closed. A single policeman assured ignorant visitors "no ceremony would take place that night."

During the past year customs as much as fashions have changed. The club is evidently killing the salon ; the green room, the family circle; the oigar, female society. Periodical dinners between members of the same " shop" have increased in favor. It is at least something to be able to shake the hand of an auld acquaintance once a fortnight, or once a month, and to prepare an effusion of friendship for an acquaintance recognised at the serving of the soup, and totally forgotten at sipping of the;coflPee. In the matter of bonbons, a speciality at this period, they are certainly being superseded by .flowers. Flowers, like Figaro, here, there, and everywhere: at birth —for a bouquet is sent to a mother after her confinement; at weddings it rains flowers; at funerals, bouquets deprive death of much of its terror —all lying most in apprehension according to the divine "Williams. The flowers are expensive, as they are considered valuable in proportion to their variety, and the corbeille in which they are placed : indeed the latter threatens to become as expensive a nuisance as the sac for the bonsbons. If one would only be content with ,a bunch of violets, sold by the phthysical flower girl for two sous ! The pig is not only honored at supper parties, but it still rules in symbolic jewellery : in the theatres, and in the sugar bakers ; the pig is made in chocolate, or stuffed with pralines ; It is even worked in silk, velvet, and satin, for bags for sweetmeats.

The theatres are occupied with their annual revues, which do duty for pantomimes, it is remarked, that while these eminently Parisian spectacles were at one time characterised by general features they are at present merely composed of ward peculiarities and hits at parochial celebrities. There is a good deal of gossip taking place still respecting M. Dtt Camp's reception at the French Academy, and of the scandalous manner he attacked the republicans after being their spoiled- child. Zola of course comes to,.'the rescue : lie bemoans with a Jeremiah tenacity of wail the degeneracy of the age, because it prefers a leaning for an international billiard match, rather than to literature, and a scandal to a fine art criticism. It is thus the self nominated censor castigates Messrs Grevy and Gambetta, for their weakness in gunning, billiards, and chess, instead of a three volume novel, a treatise on Schopenhauer, or a compendium of P. L. Boileau's new theories on Ricardo, the origin of property, and the question of averages.

What is the use of a cremation society that does not cremate ? Paris has a splendid list of subscribers consenting "and desiring to be promptly consumed— at the psychological moment understood, and yet their paternal government will not allow the quick to the slow process of disappearance. "Brother, it is necessary to burn !" is the palpitating how-do-you-do of the moment. Perhaps the most extraordinary feature of 1880 was the outbreak, of pornographic literature, and it« merciless suppression by the Republic. French Legislature, like a wellconducted household, ought to have its washing—say, it would be better could the washing be given out. Imagine the Deputies debating and dividing on a letter written by an eccentric political lady, Mdme. Graux, who accused Emile de Gxirardin of being the chief of the Prussian gpies. This is only an outcome of the horribly personal school of politics inaugurated by Rochefort to keep his journal afloat with his Communist friends. He does nothing but abuse Gambetta delenda est Carthago. But Cato ought to look pearer home ; the public re-unions organised to bring out Rocbefort, no longer draw, and when some unfortunates pat in an appearance, they do not applaud the exLanternier. A few days ago, Rochefort presided at a quasi public meeting; be was concealed in a neighbouring cafe for two hours beyond the time fixed for commencing proceedings, in order to give the room an opportunity to fill, but which ever remained a beggarly account of empty benches. His new note was that Gambetta was sebeming to run up the price of gas and water oh the citizens, Rochefort will end by charging Gambetta with filling the batcher's shops with large blue flies.