LITERARY NOTES,

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2167, 29 May 1886, Page 6 (Supplement)

LITERARY NOTES,

I.PROM OUR OWN COIUIRSPONDENT.] P.uus, March 27. ' When tho telegraphic wire* were first laid in the vicinity of Bagdad, the Arabs, according to M. L. Peat, habitually converted thetn into excellent bracelets. Tho sheik of the M.mtufig, being compelled to suppress the pillage, ordered that all wrists with the bracelets should be cut off. The population of Bagdad varies from 80,000 to 120,000. thus it is "floating," chiefly on account of plagHfs. In 1881 no le« than three sanitary cordons were drawn round the city. The Austrian doctors are most in roputo with the population. They receive no fees, but secure pivment on the medicaments, they bring silent partnen with tho chemists. Bagdad is a kind of penitential colony for Turkey. When Ltiui* XIV desired to e\preis his displeasure against a courtier he ordered him to reside on his estate. Turkey icinoxes inconvenient public men to Bagd id, limiting them to a residence within a radius of a " lady's mile." Tiie Government of British India aKo transports there any suspicious native rulers— the Nabad of Oude for example. The chief furniture of a room, or rather cellar, following the heat, is a ni.ittres«, a stool and a trunk. Ladies sit on a caned chair, with their feet on a «econd, like an Ainpiican at whittling hour. The stool i> not for sitting upon, but to hold pipes and salvers. Occasionally the mattress is pl.vced inside a palm woven kind of poultry crate, which does tour-p ister duty. The trunk is an omnibus cupboard for clothing, pipes, vegotables and provisions, as well as penates in general. When the European male costume is patronised the oosft is colUrles*. and the necktie is dispensed with. Tho Turkish ladies commence to wear European boots, and Jewish ladies have been accorded the same privilege. Both employ the thick veil in hollow tulle. If married a Jewess hat to put on a muffler that would not disgrace a 'baa driver on a wild January day. A lady's costume oasts 125fr.— as dear as in Park Tailors are odd fellows ; they will make a suit, but another artisan must sew on the buttons, and a third the braiding. The shoemaker blows the dust off his wares when showing them to a customer, and if he observes a point not shining, he gives it a lick with his tongue. The climate of Bigdad is one of the driest on the globe— only fifteen rain days yearly ; as a compensation, there are sand showers, which penetrate to your very bed. A new coiner is visited the first by society, and when invited to dinner, it is the host, and not the guest, who makes the " visite de digestion." It in the superior who salutes first, not the inferior, and m.orta} en.etn.ies when meeting, exphan.ge s> n»4 »nd nod., In visiting, the angle of bowing; is tbe measure of friendship and. politeness, "How do you do," must l»a repeated three, times, and at intervals, say minute gun*. A Paul Pry will not be regarded as an intruder, if if he drops in like an rerolite, and an nounces, " I atu come f -o pass the day with you." Wearing but little clothing in summer, there is no necessity to undress for bed. Besides, to do so would incur the risk of catching cold. To induce sleep, the sole of the foot is tittled— a hint for Prince B,ismarck and others suffering froifl in^oiqnia. The ladies wed very youn& which is a necessity, a* they ar-e regarded as old women when aged twenty, They are the clergy who make the matches-=marriag-es in any case are said to be made in heaven. Between ten and fifteen years old, Romeos and Juliets set up housekeeping. Slaves are nearly as dear as horses. Arabia supplies tho market. A slave aged ten costs 200fr. If she knows music, and is a good story-teller, she will fetch 800fr., and they will not receive more blows than if in liberty. Circular tourists should bear in mind that whoever puts foot in Bagdad catches the " date mark." This is a dry ulcer, which seizes any point of the body. It takes five to nine months to come to a head, and then the incrustation falls, leaving the skin marked,, as (t ttra.n.c<ed like a date fruit. Since 35 years there is steam n^vipf^tiw on the Tigris. The boat does not <atop at all the places desired., so if an inhabitant wishes tq land at some spot along the banks he makes his parcels up into a bundle, and next adding his clothes, plunges into the stream, and swims ashore. No ordrr is ever given to "ease" or " stop" the steamer. Whoexer pays in Persian money incurs the danger of imprisonment. Since fifteen years Germany is transformed. In addition to being a great military, she aspires to be a g^-eat commercial empire -a Rome and Carthage combined, Railways, roads, oanals, and workshops appear on her territory as if summoned by the majrio wand of Prcspa.ro, and thin n«w departure has spread to the extreme limits of tho woi ld. France suffers more severely than any other country from this renaissance of Germany. Foreign purchasers have taken tho habit', to visit] Germany before coming to France. Now, the latter seems absolutely ignorant of the qeces^y of producing rapidly. a,n,d ab,qve all, cheap. She locks herself up" in the belief that wellfinished and artistic, but high-priced goods will suffice to decide customers, who want not elegance— about which they are ignorant or indifferent, but tho most they can obtain of anything for their money, h ibout is cheaper in Germany, M, Davnust says that tbe same work; which is paid 7fr, in Paris costs only Sfr, in Germany. In the building trade for example, overseers, masons, and labourers receive per week in Berlin 34fr., 22fr., and 17fr.. while in Paris the wage* are fiOfr., 48fr., and 30fr., respectively. M. La voile 1 j, after much investigation, fixes the average daily rate of salary of a Gorman artizm at 3sfr. I^w. in Franc* it is, 7fr. in Pa.rjs, and dfr. in the provinqes, It is alleged that the German workman is a heavy feeder. He has five repasts daily, which cost ljfr. The Parisian workman's meals costs 3fr. 20c Drink is included in both cases— for each has reljnsuished the old days of wa.ter and milk beverages. "They aw corrupted." as Murger says, " for they like no longer what is good." Further, n manufacturing people cm only live by exportation, hence the coin < nerd il battles of the future must be fought, not in Enropi, but in the far East, in Africa, and in America, The nations that pay the hurheat wages, packet the highest profits, and nrc the heaviest taxed, will be shut out of th« new marketswhile losing th* old. M. Liffitte says :— 11 France is now in such a critical position. She is worse ; her employers and employed are isolated— individualism r«i?n< supreme. Apprenticeship in only * nominal matter at present in France. The latter and Germany had their ancient corporation*. The Revolution broke up both, but Germany remade a new mould out of the best fragments of the 1 old, while France seemingly has done nothing. In Germany gnild.l exist— reorganised, and henoe their suooess with popular bank*, and of their food co-operative societies— modern institutions next to unknown in France, where capital and labour are free to coalesce. French artizans are at liberty to associate, but they do not ; ther possess the rights but not the manners of liberty. It is a case where the gnneral has no confidence in his soldiers, and the soldiers mistrust their commanders. France has lived on the vanity of Voltaire, the insouciance of Beranger, and the chauvinism, qf historian Theirs, l^et her industrials of high and low degree group together, modernise their business manners, and rise to the imposed necessities of the times. Safety that way lies, Berlin robbers are a trifle apart. They never oppose any resistance to the police on being arrested, even on suspicion, Besides, they live, till " wanted," on the beat terms with the constables, and the latter know them by their sobriquet as well as, by their baptismal name, Jjach robber practises a " speoiality," aocording to M- Klauwmann. Thus, the "robbers of the dead" are not Burkes or Hires, but professionals who light on a drunken man asleep at night on a public seat in the streets, and relieve him of every article of clothing, even to his chemise, and so ably as not to awaken the sleeper, while replacing him as xjaked as a worm. In Berlin the upper rooms of the houses are devotod to laundry purposes, As there are no house porters, the thieves ascend the common staircase as noiselessly as a wolf, force open the laundry door by a pressure of the knee, and in the twinkling of an eye bundle up the family linen and decamp as silently as Arabs. Another lucrative calling is relieving a passing parcel delivery van of a few of its packages with the dexterity of a pick-pocket. The loot is at once passed into a neighbouring receiving house. The worst calamity that can befall a vagabond is to have to sleep in < a co-operative casual-ward. Hero a certain number of lodgers are put inside a kind of poultry-crate, which is then locked ; they have planks and bars for bed and bedding, and hence are called "roosters." The end kept in view by a Berlin out-cast is to be a uuui of peace, to avoid receiving & sentence

of more then two or three month* in prison, and to arrange thin accident so that it will square in with the Head season— and be for him a repose. Escande, recently decoded, was a type of French journalism of the most extraordinary kind. Ho was fifty yearn connected with the press, and during that time wrote more than Voltaire, or s«y Entile de (iirardin. He wan born .»t Custres, according to M. Fourncll, in ltilO, and his classmate at Toulouse College was tho father of Paul de Cassagnac. Possessed with the " demon of journalism" hecamo to Paris at the age of 2j. In politics he was an e\tieme royalist, and remained no till his death. He retired from active journali-stn after the Comumne. One of his first important articles led to a duel between Euule Olivier's brother and de (iinpstous, when tlie former was shot. K>cande was a lusus natune, a deformity from head to foot. Quasimodo was beautiful in comparison with him. He was the ideal of a hunchback. He was humped both at back and client, so he was called "the dromedary ;" lus skull was long, endmcr in a point like a sugar-loaf, tho head wink into tlie shoulders, the p.ir< were pointed like a deer's, anus long and knotty, but strong as a gorilla's — he. fought seveial duels fimrers covered with thick hair (a sign of strength), \oice piciuing and ••oreechy. Hut the head of this zig-zag body was intelligent, and possessed an eye that da/./.led like a basiliaVs. His lips were tho»e of a cynical gamin. Strange, his appearance inspired neither raillery nor pleasantry, and further, it was dangerous to indulge in either. He was ten years editor of the Gazette de France— the oldest established journal in the realm — and m ideas to boot. He was everything : his activity and fecundity were extraordinary : his faculties of assimilation were astonishing, He had enormous '" go " and power of work ; invaluable as a collaborator, though not an amiable confrere. Ho was ai sober as a camel ; he arrived the first in tho morning at his office, breakfasted on a cup o. choaolate, eat nothing till he left— and, he was thn last to depart in tho evening, No subject ever disconcerted him. He would ptoduce "copy" | by the yard, and boasted to be able to ■trike off an article on the intricacies of the Eastom question, or upon the manufacture of luoifer matches, with equal readiness And it was perfectly true. No article ever displayed incompetency. Cerberus might be three gentlemen in one, but he was in encyclopaedist. At a table, where his head seemed scarcely to rise above the edge, he would write incessantly during twenty-four hours. If by some fnta'ity when going to press, three columns were required to stop a gap, he would stand beside the foreman, dash oil copy, and. when told enough— h,e stqpped, sh»rtj and the last uhra'so w.a,s. d.u,ly \t\ its place, Like Thiera, tie wished, to do all sho felt offended if requested to take an assistant. It was neither gejehrity nor fortune he coveted, bus he ha/4 simply the passion for writing as others have for gambling. The odour of printers' ink intoxicated) him. He had nostalgia for the editorial room. And when he left the office he commenced anathematising his profession, and suspecting that ho would there "leave his bones." But he not the less brought hoq\e wifch him an armful of the afternoon papers and passed his even.jn.g- pe^sing them. Ne\t morning he was at his post before nine o'clock, with the punctuality of a king. Eacande held the theory that & newspaper was nftt ; made for subsQiibors, but the ja.tte,r for the. qqupnaj, He would keen ing for m.onths ajttout a. subject, and if a " constant reader" threatened to atop the paper, on aooount of tou much of the good thing, he would continue writing on the subject with greater frenzy, to get rid of the heretic Escande was as amiable as a bulldog ; occasionally he had sallies of formidable fun — like Gainbotta, and often he exploded like a- cannnter of mitraille—sweeping all before it. He always wrote with his hat on his head, as tightly screwed down ai if a coffin lid. He explained that his deformity was d.ue to an attack of rheumatism a baby, and of rickets when a boy. He never left the last word to an adversary. Escande died, in fu.ll combat on the fieW of tattle, at the age of 75 : " Here reposes, —might truly be written over his grave, for it was said, he died in order to " rest, 1 ' and suddenly too— so as not to lose a single hour in his daily work. Escinde, like the Jacobites, might well have for motto—" Semper fidelis." George Sand only became acquainted with Balzac in 1.531, after »he scored her first success with Indiana. He was then poor, wearing himself out, like Scott, to pay off publishing debts. Herecei\e.l her in, ln> villa, a rented summer house, in a largo garden,, &\\<\ bvointHe light, as though \% wa* now-day, Balzao, like de Quincy, had paroxysms of omr.position, and closing sluUtera, wrote ae\eral days and nights in NUQoeHsion. He confessed to George Sand, ideas oanvj to him more rapidly than he could pen them. He was a tree overladen with fmit. He promised to interpret Ralu lais for her, but the result was &h« ordered him off before half an l\n\\v, They bee line friends again, t\x\i\ ha gave a dinner of recon,ci)iati'U~«, when he wore hi» gaudy silk dressing-gown, and lit her part of the way home with a taper and a silver candlestick, his head bare. In 1844, when Balzac published his Beatrice, the artistic and intelligent heroine therein wurirayed had for n)o,d.el $he authoress of Indiana. He said <if ihejr reaficotive talents: "You seek umn as ho ought to be : I take him as he is. Both of us are right ; the two roada lead to the same end. I idealise my coarse creations, their ugliness and idiocies. I impart to their deformities frightful and grotesque proportions. You cani\Qt know »ueh things. Continue to idealise the lovely, the beautiful and the aiinple— that's woman's, rftlO Tho followers of Balzac, the Vs<>las, Vlaubeits, and even Datidet*, the modern novelists, are faithful to idealising the hideous and the filthy.