PARIS LETTER.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2230, 23 October 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

PARIS LETTER.

Paris, September 8. SrocKhS justifies the end. 80 far Russia is triumphant along the whole line. In acquiring the Bulgaria she is a (lay's march nearer her long desired home — Constmtinoplo. G<;i many cuts a lamentable figure in the Knout-diplomacy of the Czar in Bulgaria. The unity of fatherland depends upon the smiles of the Muscovite ; if he leans to France the Teuton views his empire endangered. Alexander 111. has only to name France, and Bismarck's diplomacy is checkmated. "Ii his ear I'll holla Mortimer!*' Frenchmen natutally feel proud of all this ; they have at last found the weak point in the cuirass of the Chancellor. T.'iere is also a section of French opinion delighted at the triumph of Russia, because she is kept in the triple alliance and England barred out. Thus the isolation of England, like France, for the benefit of the Emperors is an advantage for thuinstitutionsand the liberties the first two countries represent. As at present accepted there is nothing to prevent the march of Russia on Constantinople, and AustiicV on Salonica. In a time, and that relatively short — as appetite comos in eating— the other ephemeral powers and principalities in the Danubian teiritory will be duly gobbled up. Bismarck has never yet worked for nothing. What will be his commission for aiding the cosharers of Poland, in the co-dismember-ment of Turkey, and the absorption of Ron mania and Servia — for Bulgaria is henceforth Russian? The "Protectorates " of Holland, Denmark, and Belgium. Naturally these brave little nations will protest, but unlike the chickens and the cook they will not even be asked with whit sauce they would like to bo served up. The lovers of right, &c , on a pur with the lovers of the ti tie and the beautiful, may threaten that the Dutch will open the dykes, etc. All poetry. After a severe front Germany would inundate Holland with her Uhlans, and capture eveu any ironclads lying- about, as the French cavalry formeily compelled the successors of Van Trotnp to haul down their flag and run up the tricolor. Austria, which, as an empire, exists by a fiction, will fall to pieces at the lir«t crack that arrives. Her thirteen nationalities will j-plifc up into ea,rthi; u<i ke- icn t-\ Tin million Gci mans will agirregato to Fathciland — the strony attracts the wrik, an 1 the rcm under of tho debits wi'l bj submitted to ,1 Bui. g.m-an indcpe'idjuc^. A<li'>u ! lh<-n France, vend.tiig<_.s sont faitcs. England on tho whole cannot be sorry to sco Russia returning Eurojnnv.irds JifVr the Continental powers congr.it u! ituii? themselves, they had rejected her towards ludi 1 and Chinii, to be taken charge of by Johu Bull. The lattor, in the coming scramble for tho hick man's good", will keep what she has, Euypt, till he be restored to health. And tho better to secure Egypt will help herself to vSnda Bay, and will bo trusted with the keys of the Daidonelles till Germany, Austria and Russia agree about the D inube and the Black S >n. Professor Skvaptsof is a well-known Muscovite authoiity on economic questions, and hi.s opinions rank in weight alongside tho-e of Professor Arnaudo, of Turin. He states that Russia is in a very critical situation, and one thatimporiously reclaim- a .solution. Liberty would be the tno.it efficacious of remedies, but tho imperial censure interdicts cvou ita expression. Russian industry remains still in its infancy, all efforts converge towaids auriCHltuie. In the country distiLt", misery is profound, and if remoJies be not at once found, all must end in a so:;ifil cataclysm. Tho nobility, despite the artificial measures — a. noble's bank — to aid to maintain them, ai'e in a fair way to ruin, as. w»?ll as to corrupt them. Tho riches of tho country have passed almost wholly into the hands of the uew-born middle classes of tho towns — clashes illiterate, ignorant, and superstitious, and that it will require generations to purify. From time immemorial, a conflict between the civil and military power*, hrs ever beeu tho bine of the local government of the colonies of Franco. It is then not surprising, that the old ovil is at its height in New CaleuVrri 1, and in connection with the expedition to tlio Hebiide-J. Tho governor recently sent out to Noumea, has requested to be recalled. Respecting the evacuation of tho New Ilobrulo-', no date has yet been ii\od hy France for withdrawing, and lt\i\iu^ tho natives to manage their own ait'airs, fo'lowing the agreement with Englaud. There is a Mispcusion in tho .shipping of convicts to Now Caledonia. One journal announc s that England is occupied making- her Australian possessions the b. sis of her future war tactics in the P.u ific. Iv Madajr.is .'ir all appears to be wrong again : the French Rosidcmt has demanded moro troop, and which

will bo doHpitched. Thus the do Froyrinet treaty has only proved a truce, an th* war 1-* to rc-commpneo. The .strikes at Vierzon, as at Dccazcville, have bronght to light a strange condition of affairs. In both of these towns, the retail dealers took the part of the striker*, beeauso tho employers had organised 00-operativo societies, m order to ameliorate the condition of th'-ir hand". The retailers gave tho nvn out of work extensive credit, and so proloi god tho struggle- . The co operative movement in Franco has liad several ups and downs ; tho French have not patience to wait for the results. The newest phrso of tho principle h, to buy all necessaries at wholesale prices, but to sell at retail rates, and divide the difference every six month", between the members of tho association. The Daly Tioupe was well supported by the American and English wsideutsof Pans, anxious to indulge in a few broad gnna evoked in their own \einacular. The troupe acquitted itselt well. The Parisians did not accord it that suppott whicli French aitistcs leceivd in London and New York. The idea of presuming to appear before a Parisian audience was something not far removed from audacity. Perhaps M. Augustin Daly let himself down in stating he wished his company to have the hall mark of Paris. The French have no liking for any foreign troupes or troops ; they do not understand their language, and deaf people can neither laugh nor weep. Charles Matthews failed, so did R0331 and Salvini, and so did also the Kstudiantina. This reception is general on the part of Parisians to all strangers ; they are, in their exolusiveness, veritable Chinese ; the stranger has want of him ; he wants not the 3tranger. The latter will require years of acclimatisation before he can aspire to the welcome extended to those who form part as it were of the nsphaltum of tho Boulevards between the rue Drouot and the place dc I'Opera. It a stranger wishes to succeed in France, he has only two couises before him, to become naturalised or die. English and Americans never do the first, and try to avoid the second as long as the French themselves. Rossini lived in the capital and composed for the Parisians, so they rondescended to accept him ; all his previous work in Itily does not count. The same remark applies to Meyerbeer. When a stranger is recommended to a Parisian he is generally regarded as an intruder, to be got rid of as speedily as possible. During two hours the visitor will receive the warmest assurances of friendship, and will then be ignored. He will be told where to go to, but none will accompany him. He will be asked did he enjoy himself at such a theatre, or such a spectacle, but no one will make amusement for him. Perhaps there are not ten Parisians capable of showing Paris to a stranger, hence why the " guides ' are so numerous. In other capitals you would, under such circumstances, be next to boied to death with attentions, and btrange, once from the capital, your Parisian will stop at no sacrifice to make himself entertaining and amu-sing, a necessity not so much fioni vanity a^> to pose. The Pansiat. feels he is a hippy mortal in not having any need of strangers, and does not care if they return the feeling He thinks it the most natural and legit'mate circumstance in the world that the English, Amctieans, Italians, &c. , should speak French. What, then, is the use of his learning their tongues since they know his 'r Not more thin S percent, of the French C jnsuls abioad speak the language of the country to which they are accredited, while all Consuls delegated to France sp -ak French. IStill French hospitality ought not to be wholly limited to allowing you every facility to spend yo'ir money, and pay taxes w ithout the light to vote for a municipal councillor, plus the piivile^e to be expelled fioiri the country at '24 hours' notice if the Home Minister feels that way inclined. Dr. Eluard, does 'not actually propose tint Franco should reconquer h^r ancient colony of Haiti, but in these days of earthquakes and land grabbing^, an eye should be kept on th.it lone star. Any eh mire mu^t be for the benefit of tho Black ltcpublK Tho island will be of gre it importance on thr> opening of the Panama canal. The Haitians have forgotten all their ancient feuds with France : p rhaps they are too busy changing- their constitutions, whteh they do like their . shirts. Quite an Homeric cat ilogue could be made of all the new regimes they havo had sineo ISOI. 80 f.ir they have a touoh of nature with the Frenoh, as also, in their love for pension, post and place. But what would the profession of politics be, if it had not the spoils of ofhrc for objective, similarly .is the Turkish soldier sees paradise at the mu/zle of his rifle. The Oyster seas m promises to be good for the cheaper kind I',1 ', such as the Portuguese which are decidedly being improved by cultivation. All oysters increise in price two sous the dozen, at the opening of each new season. This is ouly an illustration of the 1 iw, that in Paris prices like t.ix?a never come down. The sliding so.ilo in iy be applied to imported corn, but never to the cost of living. Oysters are ripidly becoming a necessity of life, A workm m will starve one day to ho able to indulge in the biv lives the next, Paris consumes at leist five million fr.uics of oysters during the sei^on of eiuht months Happily, the oyster is prolific : lays 0') to GO, OOO eg^s annually. It is not a foolish fish exactly, we know that it Ctti be crossed in love, if it falls off its bane, it man itjos to paddle ba ( ;k again : it is endowed with forethought, as anticipating drought, it always lays up a store of water inside its shell. It never hurts ui)b>ly, never goes into harm's way. The crab is repotted to watch the moment when the oyster oprns its shell, then to plifo a pebble \y tweon tlio valves to prevent their closiug-, aud next, claw out the fish. Oysters do not form a supper dish in France as in other countiic-*, or as they did with the Greeks and Romam at the overture of their evening meal, and the hour for amiable conversation, when oysters developed appetite and induc°d gaiety, hence why they were called the "Ears of Venus." Cicero was never forgiven for preferring a di«*h of beet, mushrooms, and a macedoino of other vegetables to oyster*. No wonder his head was chopped olf and exhibited on the rostrum at Rome. Odd, that the earliest record about oysters in France is a decreo prohibiting them, but as Mrs jNlaliprop says " f° l " & Listing liking it is be^t to commence with a littlo aversion," For tho FiMich, the lasting liking dit'M from the cloio of the seventeenth centuiy, the epoch of tho prohibited fruit. A wrinkle for bhu> ribbonists. In 1S?O the duty on alcohol in France was tin 00 times Jess than it is to-day, while p?ople drink at present three times more alcohol than they did in IS3O. I)r Iv irl is a friend in need. He {-oiipLuns that tho big meals of o'lier d ivs have disippe ired, and with them tlia vigour of tho rice-. Men are to-d.iy anemeic and dyspeptic, all desirous to hold (lovernmcat Mmvnro. " When 1 man," continues tho doctor, "has not the strength to digest, ho\v can he giiu hi> broad save by filling" an uilice where he will have nothing to do :" The nun dor ami suicide li>t has been veiy high the;.e few da>s. No doubt the intense 1 heat that caps the city like a cupola o f hot ii on has much to do with the fcliooti'if,', sticking, and haioheting of felloe civatmeb. Tli.s in.iyexplun the fiuioe attitude oi citizens, who not omW go ft bo at in their shiit bleeves Irit hive tli' 11 .sleeves rolled up to the shoulder. It 13 to bo hoped lVisina.'ck will nut inisooustiii'O this attitude of self defence At Biianeon a clergyman ariived at a hotel, and gave outer* to be called in the morning at an early hour. When the waiter arrived to cail him he received no i answer; entering the roo.n, the cletgyman was found on Ins kneps, in the atti- ! tnde of prayer. Efforts were, useless to j awaken him, an 1 ho remains in tho hospital ia the same cataleptic comlitiou.

Palis is at present exhibiting a veritable I'rotou", who disavows all connection with politicians. He can command his muscles at will. Sometimes thpy lme the rigidity of marble, and the cadaverous expression of deith ; his ptoinach is so hard that it cm be beaten upon like a drum ; he can collect all hia internal organs into the shape of a ball, and t oil them from one side to another, or up and dow n ; lie can also cause his bio >d to flow all to one side, or contract its circulation ; and express also the agonising death contortions of a man hanged, or bioken on a wheel. Louise Michel's novel has appeared. It is called " Human Microbes," and is dedicated to the rich and the governing clpssr-"*. Complimentary. Mdllo (i , the famous dansense of the opera, 11 thinner than S.irah Bernhard t. Rccntly, while dancing with two & wains on the stige, a comrade said, "Look at the two dogs disputing for a bone.' 1