OUR PARIS LETTER

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 83, 4 October 1924, Page 13

OUR PARIS LETTER

FRENCH HQUSlifeßiLlj

EVERY MAN-A LANDLORD

(mom' our. own cobeespokbint:)

- - PARIS, 20th' August.: "Every man his "own-landlord,"-mighl be the motto for a private ;-;Bili, which is backed by .aL large number; of members of the .Chamber .of. Deputies,..and haj» been laidon the table.of. that lAssembly.. The preamble puts'fdrward"the"startling proposition that it would ;be:'qiiite prac-i ticable to provide every •-French, family] with 200 square-metres of." land.- Tha idea is to extend the scope.of the RiboS Act, which enables responsible person! to obtain "money" advances .'at'low/rate* of interest, so as. to; invest ..in.. reaLSstata for purposes .of habitation. .". Tha authors, of the Bill propose - that rtha State should set aside eich year" a "sura which would begin at" 5OT,O0O,O00" francs, . and would be slightly larger in subseque?,fc 7^ re- Thii V they say,, would enable 100,000 families a year to borrow - money from the State, and become "tha owners of the houses in""' which.'"'they dwell. It is. calculated that in, ibout " 30 years there would, scarcely be a French family paying rent. "■ Such" a state of affairs would react" .very, strongly against anarchism and " "communism, and the other "isms,"- and would have social effects of"a"faf-re'ac--mg nature. ' ....'r/.;,"""; ■" ""'" A TRAITORS-HOARD:; ,:;;;:•;;. Seven years after the execution-o! Pierre' Lenoir, the young ' Frenchman . who was shot, for communicating 'with the enemy, a safe-compartment-rented bJ-_""■ in a.Paris bank-has been opened by the authorities. ;: After. Lehoir.'s . arrest seals were placed "oh the - safe, ' but its existence, seems -to have been forgotten until recently, when a'mention of it was noticed.by.:an official'of the State-Demain Department, who was going through, the papers.:, -.-As • Lenoir was executed by order oiZa, court, martial, the Department' had -to apply -to the War Office for permission to-open the safe to;, take possession.of .the-con-tonts. The formalities having been com-, pletod, the safe was opened in the presence of several officials. In it -were found 851,000. franc notes, and .several accepted - - bills, representing between 40,000 francs and '50,000 francs.- - All-thia money, which Lenoir i 3 supposed to have - received from the enemy, is confiscated by the State. ; ... ...:. . ... M, HERRIOrs MONOGRAPH^ 7l ' M. Harriot's book on Mme. Hecamier, which has been long-out of print, has just.had .the honours .-of a new .edi-i tion, and has thus been invested with actuality, more on account of the author, than of the subject, though, of course,the story of a very beautiful" woman can never'_ be considered untimely. - Mme.Recamier seems to -have "fascinated everyone who has written about her,and M. Herriot cheerfully submits ta' her posthumous influence. It is not generally known that the famous beauty of a century ago was born at Lyons, the city of which M. Herriot was al-' ready Mayor (as he still.is), when ha wrote his monograph. Her husband, '__ Recamier, who was 25 years her senior, was also s Lyonnais. FRENCH FULFIL GERMAN VOW. ■ In October, 1918, when ths Allies had begun to break the enemy's lines, Mgr. Benzler, German Bishop of Metz, anda great number of the women' of the city, took ,a vow to dedicate a statue to. the Virgin if Metz should escape bombardment. The German Municipal Council gave its authorisation. Tha French bishop wanted to keep ths promise of his predecessor, .and the newcouncil readily ratified the decision of the old one. Six years after the taking, of the vow, the statue has been set on an 8-metre column in the Place Saint Jacques. On Friday next it will be dedicated. The 100,000 francs necessary to fulfil the vow were raised by sub-, scription. •'..,.• ENGLISH SCHOOLBOYS IN PARISConsiderable interest was evinced by Parisians in .a party of 16 English schoolboys as they promenaded tha Boulevard dcs Italiens. - Wearing- navy; blue blazers with scarlet binding, an attractive pocket badge,..and scarlet.andi navy caps, they added a touch of colour to the scene. They were frequently engaged in conversation by the passers-bjv and seemed to appreciate the- courtesy of the policeman on point duty at-the-Place de l'Opera, who piloted . .them, across this crowded square, Shortly afterwards -they had ices at one-of tha fashionable'cafes.'and one .of::their, number photographed the group, people considerately standing by while this was accomplished. The boys, are" staying, for a, month in Paris, combining;. a holiday with a course of instruction in tha French language at the Liternational College de la Guilde. LONELY WORLD CRUISE. Three years is the time that ,: Alain Gerbault. the French lawn tennis player, expects to take in his solitary: cruise round the world in his little * 30-fdofc craft the Firecrest. Last year he created- a record by crossing -the "-Atlantic alone in the "same boat." He will spend some time, at New York fitting"out his yacht, and then some time in October will sail "to the Caribbean Sea, where ho intends to cruise for sonie_time,.visit-ins; the islands which were once-famous as the resort of buccaneers. Passing through the Panama Canal;' Gerbault intends to call at the Galapagos Islands, tlie Marquesas, and Tahiti,.:and then-to ' spend some time exploring- the:" littlpknown northern coast of Australia. After a rest, if his health holds out, - and'ho meets with no accident," he means to follow the route of "the 17th-century traders by India, the Cape of Good- Hope., Brazil, and thence back to Europe." " SPORTSMEN AND THE CAMERA. • Among the hard-worked officials . wh_. were not sorry to se the~end -of -tho' Olympic.Games, must be reckoned tha head photographer, M. Mathieu;who is also art editor of the "Matin." So'a» not to have too many operators insidq the track at Colombes, the French Olympic Committee decided to establish1 a photographic service pf their own-and to supply prints to the newspapers. Be* tween 25th January, when the winter sports competitions began at Chamonix, and 27th July, when the Stadium, closed its doors, M. Mathieu arid his assistant* took nearly 4000 "pictures:". '■"__"_[ rule, says M. -Matnieu, "the athlete* raised ho difficulties about being: photo, graphed. The English Were' charming, - tho Italians anxious to oblige, and th_' Americans distant.- Paddock, the sprinter, showed complete Jndifference fcTlha; photographers, and Mrs.-Mallory,--tha tennis player, had them -sent- off tha court, alleging that they put' her offli'ep game. The Finns ab?<i_iely re'fused'ta let themselves be "taiJS*' before their> events. They said it would bring' theia bad luck. It was impossible to get'a time exposure of Nurmi.