LITERARY NOTES. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Paris, September 11.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2236, 6 November 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

LITERARY NOTES. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Paris, September 11.

Everyone admiX and th© French themselves tho first, that Franco is not the gay and witty nation of by-gone times, Accoidingto M. Ulbiioli, tho people are dull and joyless, because they are silly and stupid — the men want viiility, and the women life. The trashy novel* have hrgely contributed to thm state of inannoiH, and politicians of every shade are also as stupid. There ar» no more salons ; clubs have become gambling dona, and taverns drug whops, having waiters competing with circus, clown*. Not only is literatim 1 invaded liy thp lowest stages of social life, but beer .mil absinthe are degrading the nation il cli \r icter. Germany is undermining the I'Veneh intellect by inundating the country with salvcilioUed beer. Only French wines can counteract the evil. But then the phylloxera disease has destroyed one-third of the vineyards of tho country. Respecting virtuous women, M. Ulbacli deploiea they aie wanting in wit and lifeare positively wont isoine. It is their deficiency in the art of int»!ligeufc entertaining which diives many husbands to seek refuge in that homo away from home, the club. Now, there can be no real and durable love with stupidity. There may be appetites, instincts, and sensualisms. In a corrupt society nothing commands po much admiration as an intelligent, virtuous lady, radiating around her animation, wit, and winning manners. Then, honest women can courageously mix with the external world, and even be no longer compelled to make vvav for vico. While Professor Horsley is curing epilepsy by extracting a portion of the diseased brain — pruning away its dead tissue, and Succi la expeiimcntine: on himself at Milan with an elexir vitne to prove the possibility of out-n vailing Tanner in fa»tmg, Dr. Ollivier a«ks the pertinent question, " Why we are ho cautious about catching diphteria, typhoid foyer, scarlatina, &c., and so indifferent to the danger — just as great— from tubercular consumption, but which is popularly viewed as noncontagions? Phthisis at present makes annually its 10.000 \ictims in Paris; ten yeais ago the deaths were but 8000 from the a i me malady. In 1884 they were as high as 10,(51'), or 20 p»r cent, of tli^ total death rate. The inoitality is peculiar to no cla-s ; while misery, exposure, and bad ventilation produce their hecatombs, ex ce-ses of every kind are equally as prolific. Public hygiene can prescribe nothing to ward off hereditary consumption, save to recommend families and their medical advisers to discourage marriages between persons having the seeds of the disease. Of all consanguinities that tainted with phthisis is the most fatal. It is by the respiratory organs and the alimentary canal that the contagion works its way. Hence avoid breathing air vitiated by the consumptive or employing the milk of affected cow*, or meat derived from pulmonically diseased cattle. Whenever suspected, boil and cook well the milk and the meat. In schools and colleges, every phthisical pupil or student ouzht to be excluded from the class rooms with the same rigour as ia applied to measles. Schools, no more than bai racks, should be overcrowded. The latter is one of the chief causes why, among the French soldier^, the percentage of deaths from consumption in higher than among the civil population. It is not right to apply the term, " Blue Stocking," to a lady, whose profession is literature, or whose cultivation lemoves her from the reproach of having only a sin ottering of such knowledge. Blue Stocking nppioaches more to the Molioies precieuses — those members of the fair sex who pose as learned Thehian-, and who have not drunk deep of the Fieri m spiing. Really cultivated ladies, liks-eiious intellects, are modest and unpretentious. M ulaino Yon Itoskow-k.i htates there are 600 Gerrr.an lady authors and writers throughout Europe. Formerly Diosdon, that France of the E'be, hud 300 Mich ladies ; it has now but [\d. Bteslau contains about a like number, which is supeuir to the total of Munich, though possessing neither the natural beauties nor the aitistic treasures of the Bavarian capital. Leip&ic, the headcentro of tho German book trade, has only twenty literal y ladies, and Stutt^ard about tho same. Grand cities, a.s Vienna and Berlin, are great attractions, and claim 50 and 80, respectively. Rarely cities given to commerce and industry—as Hamburg, Bienien, Kot'ingsberg, &c, are seductive for the lettred fair sex. Climate plays a part in this distribution. Pans and St. Petersburg haze but few, while they are very nnmetous in Itxly, and along the shores of Bosphorus. Many of the ladies ie«-ide in their own castles and villa. It must not be concluded such ladies are in their fir«t lustres. At least the moiety have passed tho canonical age ; about 100 are between 40 and 50 ; another 100 between 50 and GO ; thiee literary celebrities aie over DO. May they hvvj to be honoured with a centennial fete, as has j list been given M. Chevrenil. Only seven of this lady corps have less than 25 years of age. Perhaps the youthful members would be greater, only one fourth of the total formally refusod to state their age. However, it is not the less a curious fact, that 4")0 did supply "guesses at truth," respecting the number of their summers. A l.idy can always appear younger by her writings ; find as it were in literature a perennial — a jouvence— fountain of perpetual youth. Sappho for example; her heart remained young, despite her years. And a proverb say?, "an old, is more pi eciotis than a young cook." Tonramo h the garden of France. It is a favourite region for permanent residence with English and American families whose incomes are measured and who have children to rear and instruct. The French .spoken in Touraine is the .softest, the purest in the whole realm ; it poaaea-es no putois, no strong accent, and has an agideable lo iv on of sixteenth century words. With the ruial population tliere ia neither religions nor political f mat'ci.stn ; the peasantry may be obstinate, slightly malicious, and gently obstinate, but they are neither passionate nor vivacious i>i any marked dogrje. They plead indifference in niatt'.'is of religion, Ivit disdain to be irreligious. They apply the Decalogu" ntfoiously. Before the flovolution tno peasant was proverbially la/y ; bccoinii> t ? possosvH 1 of land men and women vvoio liansf<»rm i d m to workers, who despised i»t. As a Pan'sian shopki>ep"r hves m his 1; mtique, so the Touranian peasai't 1 bou sand In es under his own vine or b\us t.r h \it and burden of Mie whole day in hu own grain field or market-,; irdcn. He never fn'ij'ients the village puoUc-house. Alcoholism has made no lavag-'n in the leg ion of Tours, and it is jupidly losing its reputation of b'ing amoiig the ino^t illiterate paits of b'ranc- 1 . It is becoming less the fashion to look down on an industrial occupation as low or not genteel. In Italy such a view was never entertained by any section of society. Tho Gmori, the Cappnni, the Med^cis themselves — ye«, tho Medeci that gave two queen- to France, and whose pride was such that they lefiwd the title of baron because that would make them feudatories, and so b und to render homage to their king; well the Medeci kept a modest Kncir'i j-hop, .smaller than that of Gambetta's father ;it Cahors, and it was thp oldest shop of its kind in Forence. Along side it they had a druggist's *.hop, with a laboratory, whero they prepared their famous anti-toxio oil, which was famous throughout the world. Theso humble buildings had to give way when CJoino 111, Medoci, transformed them into the Piwti palace. The Medeci, however, 'were more famous still as bankers, and Lorenzi the Magnificent, raised the house to be without a rival. Nor wore kings themselves above engaging in commercial transactions. Ferdinand, king of Naples, and his son traded in oils and saffrons, and utilised their diplomatic agents— not a bid employment— to keep them posted on the state of the markets. Again, the Due do Lnynos, though \ery rich and of noble ancestry was one of the few aristocratic families that did not quit Franco during the Reign of Terror. Ho retired to his castla at Dimpiaire, with his wife and daughter. The Dudiesse, who was a lady in waiting to Mane Antoinette did not hosif ite when the Republican Government called upon all citizens to take part in some navvy work on the Champs de Mars for tho Federation Fete, to attend with her little shovel and mahogany wheelbarrow and execute her allottod task. She was one of the best educated ladhs of the. day ; she knew English like a native, and had an enorsnou-, appetite for reading. She wrote books, and printed them herself with her private presses. One day she accompanied tho famous beauty, Madame Recaivner, to visit tho printing office of the Messrs Ballanche ; she listened attentively to the explanations about the machinery and typo, then went to a case, tucked up her robo, and then and there composod several " sticks " with the ca^e of an old hand, indulging too in the professional

"swing" from side to side of the printers! of the day. Her private press of 1707 existed down to IS 10, when Napoleon de creed all such to be suppressed. JPiinting m'Oiiih to run iv tho de Luynes' family, as tho Lite duke, killed in the 1870 71 war, was .»n excellent printer, and turned out with his own hands several volumes, nut only in French hut in Kngliih. Comte ltost'>pehmt) is generally supposed to h.ixt written U"thmg, save his justification lliit ho never advertised the burning of Moscow, to ruDol the Fieuch invasi m. His " memoir",'* have been found in tho pMsst'^i-m of the Pnh~.li Gahtzin f.iimly. They nr<* a model in their wav, and do not extend beyond four piinting pages octa\o bi/,e. They are divided into thirteen chap- j ters ; "-uvui.tl ot the litter coiiMit of only nine lme-t ; otheis bit of two or thiocs ThiH is uli ipter fi\o: "at 30 I gave up dancing ; at 40, the f.ui -ex ; at 50, public opinion ; nt'lO, 1 ceased to tiling tint which j nude mo p,i-» for philoh >pher— or an' egoist, for both are synonymum." There | were el«»ven clauses in his will ; he named ' Kmsmmi his executor in this world, and | H.uidel iv the ne\t. He bequeathed his mind to the first peivm who had none ; his soul to the «elh-h ; hi-. h'*ait to a. millionaire ; hi-, eyes t> wgliciej young ladies; his tjetn to the ugliest woman to nuke her more frightful ; hio warrhobe to the naked ; his look* to place beggars, and Ins e.irthern jiig out of which he dunk tho miri"ml waters of Carlsbad, to tb.3 first monaich who came to the «prmg«. Current pro\ erb» it is said, are the be«t aids to comprehend tho mind and manners of a people. M. Pengeot has gleaned about twelve hundred circulating in Germany ; many are common to all nations. "God aids the strong" h akin to, "Providence is on the side of the big battalions." However, it reflects also Biamarck's political programme— might i-. right. "Tho mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small, ".is translated in Longfellow** Retribution ; the original comes from the Greek. The sausage naturally does good illustrating service ; thus ' a sausage tied to the tail of a dog, will be sooner detached thin an old saucepan. ' — "A short t>erm<>n, but a lon^ sansigo." As commentaries on foreigners : The c >\v licks no strange calf. The hiiail bniKji it-> house with ir, because it h.»s n<>t confidence in its neighbours— At home let all the secrets ; the French .say. don't wa>h the family linen in public. H seeing " the dog-, of noblos aie al.so nobles. ' The clergy, but ab>\o all the Jesuits, come in for plaguy knocks : '' Piii'-.ts bless tln'm»ehes hrht," is only a variation of, tlie pne.st christens his own child fimt— "Agaiti&t the Je^its and the tooth ache theift is no perfect cuie," It appear^, a lawyer and acait-uheel require to be well greased. The duvil plays n l.nge role in German proverbs. Here is a marriage counsel. "If you wish to take a wife, consult not your eyes, but your ears." The following m.iy bear on current politics : — "If you have three enemies, make friends with two of them, and screw your courage up for tho thud." It is generally .supposed that after the execution of Louis XVI, his body v»a.s tians,x>rt"d to the Madeleine coinetery, and uc once mt' v i icd with quick lime. M. de F.illoux attests tii.it 'ilthough tho Convention voted the king-, death, and had him execute,*! in Mght of l v is palace of the Tuilf'nes, it ordered the celebration of n. religious ber\ice befoio the mliuin ition of tlie iemain->. Tlie loyal coip-e was h aided o\it to tlio cieigy of the Madeleine, who accompanied tie proce^ion to the grave, reciting tho prayeis for the d»ad. The grave was ton feet d j ep ; tlie b >tti'ii> cont lined a layer of quick lrri". find another, two feet thick, was filled in, o\er the body. The latter was clad m a white eu.broidered vest; grey silk breeches, and "<t >ekings to in itch. The crowd, which yelled during 1 the execution, was hilent and respectful pending the funeral .ser\ ice.

Dirty oil-paintings can be cleaned without taking from the frame, and using half a raw potato to rub th-^in with. The rubbing should be circular, gentle, and firm, not hard. When ck-an, wipo with a clean sponge and pure water. A real gentleman. Wainright, a prisoner in Newgate informed a visitor that he had been determined through life to "hold the position of a gentleman. '* "I hold it still," he said. "It is the custom of this p'acc th.it each oi the inmates of a cell shall take his morning's turn of sweeping it out. I occupy a cell with a bricklayer and a sweep. But they never offer me the broom 1" Thus we "*ee that even a* theie were great men before Agamemnon, there were refined and gentlemanly prisoners befoie Hall. — "Cm*." Most of us, says Mr Sala, know the story of thn American who, visiting seme provincial museum on the Continent, was shown a rusty blade which, he was assurred, was the identical knife used by the brave Charlotte when she finished the blood-thirty Jean Paul. " Where's the fork ?" asked the American. He must have been the twin-brother to, if not the self-same A.neiican globe-trotter of whom I heard lately at Candy, in Ceylon. He was visiting a Buddhist temple, and the priest showed him a lamp in which burned a sacred fire, which, they said, had not been extinguished for 2,000 years. "Is that so ?' asked the American. "It is," replied the priests. Then the American stooped down, pursed his lips together, and, with one vigorous pull, extinguished the (ire. "I guess it's out now," he remarked, quietly, as he walked away. The following plan is stated to have been pursued by some officials at the late Worcester sessions to hasten a decision of a refnetory jury who wore locked up to consider their verdict: —It was past supper time, and the Court Officials had no relish to pass the night in waiting upon the twelve good men who wore so excessively conscientious. A large dish of beefsteaks, fried with onions civing off a body of aroma sufficient to fill the largest hall in Kngland, was brought into the passage close to the door of the unhappy jurymen's prison. The balilF, who wished the '• stand -outs" at.JiU'icho, opened the door ; the cover was taKen off the dish ; the aroma of the steaks and onions floated in : it invaded and pervaded every square iiich of the black hole ; and the jury's nasal organs were violently effected. Mere mortal Englishmen couldn't long stand out against such a remembrance of supper. A second opening of the door and advancement ('( the dish enabled the jury to find a verdict. Thk following is one of Raskin's gems, and describes a \ lew on the Sommo, in one of the most drli^htfa 1 spots of the " pleasant land of France :" — You stopped at the brow of the hill to put the diag on, and looked up to see where jou were ; and there lay beneath you, as far as the eye could reach on either side, this wonderful valley of the Sommc, with lm p on line of tufted a^pen and tall poplar, making the blue distmces more exquisite in bloom by the gleam of their leaves. And in the midst of it, by the glittering of the divided streams of its river, lay the clustered mossy roofs of Abbeville, like a purple flike of cloud, wirh the precipitous mass of the cathedral towers rising mountainous through them, spaces of garden clo^e set with pure grcMi tioes, bossy and perfect. So you trottsd down the hill between bright chalk banks with a cottage or two nestled into their recesses, and little round children rolling about like apples lvfore the doors : and at the bottom you cirn^iuto a sp ie» of opi'ii park ground, divided by stately avenues of chestnut and acioia — with long banks of outwork, and invasive walls of tuition seen beyond; then came the hollow thunder of the driwbridure and &hddow of tho gite, and in an iustmt you were in the gay street of a populous yeh peaceful city — <v fellowship of ancient houses sut beside each other, with all tho active, companionship of business and .sociableness of old fiionds, and yet each with tho staid «nd s"lf- possessed look of country houses surrounded by hereditary fields — or country cottages nestled in forgotten irlen«, each with its own ch-iraeter and feailessly indej endent ways, its owu steep ir.ible, narrow or wide ; its special little peaked windows, set this way find that, as the fancy took them ; its most particularly odd corneis, and outs and ins of wall to make, the most of the ground and strishino ; its own turret staircase, in the inner angle of the courtyard ; its own design* and fancies in carving bracket and beim ; its own only bridge ov j r the clear bmnehlot of the Somme that rippled at its gardon gate.