OUR PARIS LETTER.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2757, 15 March 1890, Page 5 (Supplement)

OUR PARIS LETTER.

[PBOM 008 PARIS OOUBKBfONMNT,] Park, January TtIBRK only necrology in the air, from influenza down to the departing year. •'Strictly speaking," observes Montaigne "a man when he witnessed the four 8»»son«, can disp'O-e with.livlntr longer than it twelvemonth'' And 1889 has seen enough in her 305 dayn of age. Bho did not oomeinto the world enveloped in influenza, like her sphinx snoeegsor 1890, yet her birth was shadowed by alarm* hut, frilled with hopes. She wa« born for plea-tare, and if she oonld not compel opponents to embrace, >he prevailed upon them to maintain a truce, by her magia wand—The Eiffel Tower. It was the Exhibition that maintained order in France and peace in Europe during the past year. It did mora to secure tranquility than ministerial speeches. diplomatic note*), royal voyage*, and imperial fraternisations. The 1889 Exhibition surpassed its predecessors of 1867 and 1878; it gave not only art and industry, bnt tbe picturesque and the' fantastical; the Central Dome was dazzling; Maohinery Hall imposing, tho Eiffel Tower phenomenal, and everywhere the prodigious, as Dominie Sampson would exclaim. It despised. '.Mrs Grundy, and took gaiety for a keynote. There wero Japanese, that amazea, true gypsies, whose fnndant<oei were,r^4<ulatc<l hy Old Nick, and Altnees, iw.bpaeTerpgichorean talent was centred in their stomach. Bach new day, ushered in its fresh fete ; discords were forgotten in the rejoicings, the amnsed crowds caught; the contagion of pence and repose, and at the general elections voted for the Eiffel Tower, the Liberal Arts, and the Luminous Fountain'. A cartoon, just published, represents Hnmi< Minister Coristans, dressed in a Bcarlat coat, presenting as a New Year'it gift t» President Carnot, tho heads of tli- burning and shining lights of Boulaugism on a salver. To him reverts the honours of that hunt, from start to finish. The ladies fell away from the General the moment lie bolted. Women nr>; capricious proverbially, hut they had formed a high estimate <>f his pluck till their hero rallied to tho side of prudence. Now prudence, they felt, was not the rule for the man whoever appeared to their eyes, on a prancing black charger, with his hand on an avenging sword. This explains wny the ladies rapidly selected monchoirs with the pattern of Eiffel Tower, instead of the •• brav' gen'ral " in j the corners; it explain* why the chapjeI nots did not go off involuntarily when the High Court of Justice extinguished Boulanger, and why the eleotors of j FVanoe voted straight, and solid against I its idol divested of tbe gilding. Par from til" eye, far from the heart. Tho fear 1889 made irplv as the Huguenot Sitrneur did to Henri 111., who bantered bin. 11 Sire, wh»n I vi-w myself I feel small, hut when I compare myself with others, I oatimate myself highly." The vear is dead—wive Fannuel But 1890 cannot; bo interviewed on account of her young ago; he-idea, she is muffled up, lives on tisanes and soothing syrnp9, claims the privilege of professional secrecy io remain dumb, and leaves us in that uncert linty of the morrow which sustains the freshness of life Tho holiday season has not been gay ; apart from the suddenly cold and crtielisb weather, the endemic has left deep traces on the population, streaked with nob a little moumitu:. In the last week of IBBS the number of deaths were 982, and for the corresponding period of 1889 2,334. That fully explains where we arc now. Not only have the marriages decreased, but stranger still, the number of births. However, the women of Franco are proverbially famous for tact in the presence of difficulties. Hospitals and hospices are over-crowded. Doctors are struck down as if thev were simple patients. All public services are driven into a topsy-tiiry condition. Theatres arc closed, not only because the artistes are on the sick list, but the public decline to rim the risk of catching the influeuz* from neighbouring spectators. Iu tho churches the members of the congregation have the air to survey each other with a "stand-a-sidc.-I-anvhealthier-thau-thou-look." The Postmaster-General appeals to (he public for indulgence iu the case of delay in the distribution of the letters, the employes being ill. Happily the soldiers escaped the malady ; but they are young, robust, well-fed, and warmly clad. l)r. Proust the Inspector-General of Sanitation, has handed in his report on th« epedemic. He states it is nn influenza, similar to what raged in 1733 34, and 1702. In itself it is not very deadly, causing not inore than an increase of o:;o per 1,000 over thr ordinary death rate. It is verv dangerous for the aged and those infirm from other diseases, by inducing complications. They are precautions, not remedies, that aro requisite to proscribe. Avoid cold, hy remaining warmly clad, live generously, if attacked take to bed «t once, and keep warm, moderating diet accordingly. After a, few days conva'escence will set in; this is the dangerous stage. as if the invalid goes out too soon, or thinly clad, so as t» catch f.nld, inflamation of the luogs may be • xpe -ted for a certain'y. buriiii! t'i" lost night of the year, and throughout N-w Year's Dav, Paris was literally i vad d, not so much by vagrants, as by werikvi'ius indigence. VVholo families, in raps, many bare-headed, never bire-fsoted, with haggard features deep-lined by hunger and disease, traversed the Boulevards, stopping before every p'ica where there wai light and life It was uniaxnee.'edlv painful, and clearly show*, that the clumsy, complicated and middle ases system of relievina; the no ir in P 1 wi re, »adlv w»nts reform The French like to 'mast that they have no paupers as other nations have; this is the ostrich view, and that deceives none but themselves. In promiscuous iI-hs jiving, hu nani' V is alike. " Give 'o all who ask if yon can, don't examine if you be imposed noon.' 1 was the advico of'Pharles Lamb. The French ought to put their sentimentalism in their pocket, and revivo the poor-law system, the work-house, as organised by the First Vapoleon. but which fell through, bacause dovonred by official expenses. Only three of Napoleon's work houses exist |at Verpailles. Lyona, and Bordeaux. In the existing augmentation of inturmsrits, a writer demand a that oar* should be taken to avoid prematura barialf, and Hiiif'.'AHU that the Gorman plan of having mortuaries in eemeteries where the dead c m remain some timo in their unclosed <r ffi'is before being bnri«l or incinerated, b > adopted " Help !" from the grave it appear* U nn a-jtuaMtv. as grave-diggers have heard that appeal, but arrived too late t.o rescue. When Victor Emmanuel visited Paris, h" was oaotivat.rd by a nrettv actress ; in due course he pen«ionod her off. .Sh« became famous, not by her liiisim with the Nte Kin/ of Italy, but some time after her death it was necessary to chansT" her romains into another coffin, to suit her new tomb. The appalling fact was then discovered, that klii had bitten through the winding sheet iuto her shoulder. Tho doctor who certifies a person to be dead, wh«u aliv", mid so sent, to prem 'turo burial, ought to h-> condemned to replace his vietim io th* e'.ffi'i. The Academy of Medicine has «t la-t d-finiti-ly asjreed that an Individual 1 (bounng under tuberc ilar co'e-uinntion can O'dv "ouimunicste t-h» dl-ea'e bv i qpxuiS <4 tifeo f tiwfc

invalids ought to expectorate solely in a vessel containing water, never in a pooket-handkerchief or on the jjpruuud, its "when the matter dries it a disease germs are wnfted about. Professor' Sdo questions if the milk of phthisical cow s he. dangerous, and asserts that the nurahor or #ucb cows in vory small. Ho denies that it i- dangerous to oat underdonp Bitot, StftfjißSßitß ttatiWcbMti.Cvc proof is wanting ot fa uilies having a predisposition for consumption. No warn or rumours of wars, Deople commence to think, that the boat counter oheok'to•-bloated armaments, are international exhibitions: and international influouzas. t>mce.tho Czar haa been inJtuenze, Iluasia has no time, save for a Siberian massacre, to koop hor hand in to make Europe uneasy. As for Princo Bisuiarck, he is hibernating 1 . The French in the matter of augmented armaments, are to have packs of dogs specially trained for vedotte and courier dutios, these and the pigeons,. with the gymnoto electric' eel, submersible gun boat to sail beneath iron olads ought to make her.intelligence department very complete. The English are considered to bo really in earnest about quitting Egypt, the road they'intend to_ select for departure, is that by Zanzibar, via Kartoum. It is Stanley who is credited with this 'solntio'i, if go, in case he comes to' Putin, he may expect as much quarter as ho received from thi undersized uieti of Aruwhimi. 1 As for the; Anglo-Portuguese agrarian dispute, the King ought to at once firmly call upon, the English Cabinet, to observe the Treaty of Windsor, of 9th May, 1380 by which Portugal and England, were to bo allies together in every transaction. Henry the IV, V/. and VI 'ratified, this treaty, so thfere must, be something in it, as the old woman observed when she put her foot ip.b'er stocking. One member of the Portugese dynasty, Dotn S'lucho, haovor been hold in high estimation by the Frenoh extremists, hq'. insisted on the', clergy' accompanying ' .their flocks to battlo.