OUR PARIS LETTER.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 4008, 2 November 1881, Page 2

OUR PARIS LETTER.

(FHOM OXJE OWN COBREBPONDENT.) Paris, August 11.

It is next to impossible to acquire any. accurate knowledge respecting the state of affairs in Tunis and Algeria. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, it is to be feared is unknown. Following opposition journals, which claim to be independent, matters cannot be worse in North Africa. Order is uot fully established! the troops are deciminated by sickness, and military organisation is defectiTe; more troops must be "sent to conquer Tunisia this time, and chastise the Bon Amena9. The agreeable newspapers admit there is no insurreclion— only wandering bands of robbers, which cavalry patrols will scon correct. The effort is to be made to constitute for Tunisia a native police force that will uphold the authority of the Bey and bring his disaffected tribes to a more submissive state of mind. If the latter keep on pillaging and killing right and left, it is estimated that 40,000 French troops will be necessary to compel them to accept the blessings of European civilisation. The French would certainly consider that was paying too dear for the Tunisian whistle. Naaif Pacha is considered the Kroumir of Tripolitania ; his recall as Governor is demanded ; be is as much a thorn in the flesh at Tripoli as vriis Signor Maccio of unblessed memory at Tunis. He is rigor itself in closing the gates of Tripoli between noon and one o'clock daily—the hour of prayer. It is thus he kept some French navy officers outside, but the gates open wide at any hour for the arrival of Krupp cannon and repeating rifles. The Greeks maintained that virtue was sufficient happiness; Diderot held that virtue required no reward, while Seneca said the recompense of a good action lies in having done it. Despite all this, France rewards virtue once a year—Mintyon Day at the Academy. Those who have distinguished themselves by self denial and practical charity receive medals or filthy lucre in the form of money; poets and

litterateurs in general are eligible for honors also. The Academy has published as many volumes devoted to the record of recompensed virtue, s as it has to its celebrated dictionary; yet so perverse is mankind, these official recognitions of goody goody people are never read. The Tract Society would find a mine of wealth therein, in case the gold diggings at home ever show signs of exhaustion. No prize was awarded for poetry this year, although upwards of 120 poetasters competed : the theme on which the grinding was to take place was ■• Lamartine." No work was found gushing enough to the memory of the author of "Meditations." Poor Lamartine—a 120 poet power cannot recompense you with a fitting stanza. Hugo to the rescue. The Academy was bequeathed two sums of IO.OOOfr. and 5,000fr. by an old bachelor, who on his deathbed must have been frightened at the relatively increasing depopulation of France. The prizes were to be annually awarded, not to the "covering of old maids under the name of vosieres, but to the women who would have most children. These anti Malthus matters do no come within the ken of the Academy exactly, though fecundity is a social virtue—when not immoral. The sages discussed the matter, and finally declined the legacy, as the testator did not state, if the mother must be married. Now there are very prolific mothers in France, strangers at once to the church and the mayor.

The inhabitants of Paris continue still to fly the capital; the hegira must not be attributed to the heat, now no longer 99 degrees in the shade, but to the necessity of seeking refuge in some unknown spot and there practice an economy which will balance the heavy expenditure of the past, and enable the coming winter to be met. Such people are accused of seeking qua.rrels with their servants so as to get rid of them, retaking them some month* later ; the same prudence leads to sending the hired horses to the livery. The master and mistress in their retreat live like hermits, and their clothing is as humble as the toilette of a candidate deputy canvassing proletaires. The luxury that so much dazzles in Paris is the outcome of foreigners whose fortunes are boundless, and whose only aim is to find some new channels for the expenditure of their wealth. It is between the third storey and the attic, one writer asserts, that the model French family and home must be sought. It is there that all the simple tastes and the domestic virtues are to be found : round such firesides every philosophical maxim of Dr Watts will be found to be practised.

A memoire of another Barras, a res* pectable old farmer, residing at Surfon* lame. He had a daughter, boasting of the romantic name of Alzea—strange how her godfathers and godmothers were able to give her that, seeing that it does not figure in the calendar of saints or of other authorised names. Well, she had twenty two summers, when *he made the acquaintance of a farm servant, aged 40, who boasted to be unmarried, but was a paterfamilias. Alzea resembled Sappho in everything, less composing poetry. She became not only the laborer's mil*. tres?, but eloped with him. - The father brought her back, and forgave her on condition she would see the man no more* She kept her word for a time, and thttr arranged to receive her lover surreptitiously in her bedroom at night.' One evening while at supper, the father heard a noise overhead. He quietly rose, took down his gun, went up stairs, fired at a passing shadow, heard a fall and a groan, and locked the door. " I have shot your love/ said he to Alzea, •• he will receive no aid, he must die like a dog." After 18 hours' atrocious suffering, the unfortunate The jury acquitted the old farmer.

The Rev. M. Loyson experiences that kind of annoyance which many business people, with a good invention have to deplore, despite trade marks and fee faw f'ura Chancery rulings. His Old Catholicism has been pirated, aud he publishes a warning, for the benefit of all true believers.

In the thirteenth century it was a custom in Normandy, when an individual was found guilty of calumny, not only had he to pay the fine, but to appear in Court, squeeze his nose strongly, and avow he had lied. ... In a recent caucus meeting, eleven deputy candidates presented themselves for election; all were unpopular* and the meeting decided that the whole eleven should recite their political credo simuU. taneously, Proof of populace good sense: Felix Pyat turned up and proposed.him*. self somewhere as a fit and proper person to represent &<s. : he was hooted, and recommended to stick to bolting. The Palais Eoyal garden- concerts are : lit up by electricity; the belt of the generating machine snapped a few nights ago, and in the twinkling of an eye all v was Egyptian darkness. The, orchestra : continued all the same to finish its morceau —" Fair shines the moon to night." Emile Zola detests elections, politics, and all that; universal suffrage he dos« - cribes as "vermin;" the hand of, tbe author of "Nana" has thus not lost'its cunning.

The city will soon be purged of its dangerous classes. The police sweep on an average, 133 vagabonds and prostitutes nightly into the lock-up. Fans, called " Northern puffs," sell for one sous each. An observer believes the heat is going to last " all the winter." The passion of love with ladies can lead to the other place, while passing through paradise. Marriage is a savings bank, where the book is often lost.