OUR PARIS LETTER.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3829, 6 April 1881, Page 2

OUR PARIS LETTER.

(FBOM OUE OWN COBREBPONDENT.)

Pabis, January 27. Life in Paris is a daily struggle against frost and snow. The thaw is as treacherous as the two former are wicked, and, if all together were not miserios enough, we have occasional downpours of icicles. Thanks to superhuman efforts' of scavengers of both sexes, the streets are kept free, and the law secures the same for the footpaths, as it compels householders to scrape before their-doors. Salt is sold at a nominal price to melt King Frost. In many cases he proves as stubborn as a Pharaoh, and will not let go—his grip. A friend of mine, who has just made the voyage to and .from London, and so, by all accounts, merits the Victoria Cross and the Legion of Honor, supplies me with a few notes . and wrinkles. First make your will, as in the old coaching days ; then secure one of the middle compartments in the new * and splendid carriages of the Northern railway, when you can sleep as deliciously, with a foot warmer, as if in a Eussian bed-room— where clothes are never taken off, and leaning on a couch that a Sultana might envy. Keep toes turned to a central stove. Arrived at Calais, the mail boat will make you so snug as to regard with pity the land-lubbers left behind. Pay no attention to your luggage; it will arrive at Hoiborn or Victoria as safely as a banker's registered letter; but enjoy the golden minutes to sip a cup of real tea in the refreshment room, and wink at the guard to keep you a warm corner in , one of the new carriages, truly got up ' regardless of expense, and rendering a' Pullman a superfluity. These carriages have a double communication with the guard and driver. On the floor a cord— sufficient to strangle either functionary— and the tiny tassal of the electric wire, which the touch of an infant could bring the lightning express to a standstill. The ! employment of mirror panelling in the carriages of the London, v Chatham, and Dover line is very effective in point of decoration, and chimes in admirably with the other sumptuous accessories, where comfort and luxury are not obtained at the cost of stuffiness. To return to Paris,

, the new day service is a veritable boon • it allows full time to partake of a com". fortable ifinglish breakfast at London, and allow the rawness of the morning to wear away. At two o'clock one is iv time at Calais^ to enjoy a smoking bowl of consommee and the wing of a chicken cooked to perfection. After five Amiens will supply, though like. Israelites witL staff in hand, adequate time for a good square meal, that will dispense with all etceteras on arriving in Paris. My friend observes, respecting London during the snow, on a Sunday, and a fog that * could be cut and exported, and % then sold by retail, that Dant« * never imagined such a perfect com* bination of miseries, and which all '} moralists would deem sufficient to justify | the felo de se phase of suicide. The snow, "'' like fallen trees, lay where it fell; occasionally a patriotic householder,|in north*, pole costume, crept through the skylight^ and shovelled the snow off the roof, careless of all " passing tiles " below; occasionally dogs, with bones on the brain and a Constantinople appetite, while on boring ' expeditions, received the contents of a shovel, that sharpened their misery, while flattening them like pancakes, and that ought to exonerate them from taxation during the remainder of their natural lives. Two were so injured, owing to the head of the shovel accompanying the A snow, as to justify the animals' immediate admission into the accidental ward of the Dog Hospital. The evidence of British pluck, my friend—who is a combination of Monsieur and John Bull—found most developed in a brass band that played, for the sentimental, "The Last Eose of Summer," and for the pious, " From Greenland's Icy Mountains." The inhabitants of the street had more than the value of the solicited contributions—all thankfully received, for the echoes of trombones and cornets will..remain frozen —Maunchaussen-like; the latter an event that he suggests all Londoners ought to intercalate in the " to be delivered from" part of the litany, provided that response be not by this revised out of the Book of Common Prayer.

The Assizes have disposed of notorious scoundrels. One fallow has been sent to cease to do evil and learn to do well for fifteen years : he seduced an actress, and when she declined the degrading rdle of prostitution, to keep him supplied with baccy aid absinthe, he threw vitriol in her face, and rendered her beauty beyond all surgery. Another ruffian, not having received the fortune promised with his bride, assassinated her, thus rendering marriage settlements unnecessary. A broth of a boy, to frighten his mother into giving him pocket money, resorted to suicide a la, Mantelini. " He had two bottles—one of poison, the other of gooseberry wine; by mistake he swallowed the first, and experienced no more financial anxieties.

Those who may for the future intend patronising the shrines of Paray Ie Monial or Lourdes, must bear in mind that if they put up at » conrent or monastery, the latter by the old law revived, is taxed as an hotel. Like the famous French King, the Republic seems inclined to prohibit the Deity working miracles.

For remainder of News see Ist Page.