A NEW ZEALANDER IN PARIS.

A IBATH A LA FRANGAIS

There, at home, if you feel you would like a hot bath, you simply go and take one; it is but a matter of turning on a. hot-water tap — in a few minutes your bath is ready. Here, I assure you, it is no such simple affair: it is a ceremony, an enterprise. To begin with, you will find very few Parisian appartements of the middle class that have a bathroom of any description. Such a thing is quite an luxury, to be found only in the most modern houses and in ihotels. They speak in a vague and airy way of having a bath next door. But where this mythical next door is where one may have a hot bath for a franc I have not yet found out. This is one of the best of the middle-class appartements, and in the most fashionable quarter of Paris. It has a bathroom. Certainly it serves also as a receptacle for coats and dresses, and as a general storeroom for such things as have no specified abiding place : space is too precious in Paris for even a small room to' contain nothing but a bath; but, when all is said and done, it is a bathroom.

Now, it is necessary to announce the night before if one wishes to have a .hot bath the following day. I proffered my request last night, and said I should like a bath as early as possible. They told me it might be ready by half-past 9 in the morning. So, armed) with two towels the size and the thickness of a table-napkin, at half-past 9 I prepared to take possession. But I was not suffered to go quietly on my way: the mi&tress of the house waylaid me, and insisted first on ascertaining if my bath were yet ready. Our little Breton maid said "Yes," and the three of us set solemnly forth for the bathroom. Mistress and maid felt the water, to see if its temperature were right, stirred it to the depths, to make sure that it was as hot below as above, closed the windows, brought out a little campstool — I don't know yet what that stool was for — and then left me, each bidding me "Au revoir." So you see it is no matter to be lightly undertaken : it requires much serious preparation. Then I turned to the bath. There, towards one end, was the most extraordinarylooking object — of iron, and in the shape of three upright cylinders, side by side. This was the charcoal heater which had converted the cold water into hot for my benefit. I was willing to acknowledge its services, but I didn't want it in the h b&side me, all the same ; although my friend had carefully explained that I might diepose my feet one at each side of it. But remembering the live coals within it, even science could not persuade me that its temperature would only be that of the water, and already I could fancy my feet blistered with burn?. But there was nothing for it : after eyeing it askance, I stepped in beside the creature. At the agitation of the water, and being already almost afloat, it rocked backwards and forwards in the most alarming way. It seemed to waddle, towards me" with the heavy gait of a well-fed goose: I could already feel its hot breath. Then, bravely taking it by the handle, I reinstated it at the end of the bath; but no sooner had I again begun to move than it bore down on ma a second time with this uncanny rolling gait. It was too much for me; I finished my bath with all precipitation, and_ got out, leaving "it" alone. Once again calm returned to the disturbed creature ; the thankful glance in my eye I could fancy was reflected with added fervour from its metal exterior— thankful to be rid of me, as lof it. Back safely in. the bosom of the family again, after my arduous enterprise, I am courteously asked on. all hands if I have "bathed well" : as '■

courteously I reply that I have bathed well,, I cannot explain to them that, if I have not, it is the fault of their strange machine. No; in a land of politeness I am polite. But, truly, it is not every day tSat one takes a hot bath in France.

G2MMA.