PARIS IN WARTIME.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 156, 1 July 1916, Page 13

PARIS IN WARTIME.

COOBtSEOOS FKEItaSWOWHt I CHtEUT. (B»acM c .*o-«the"lStsn^ 'Exnamate -of-every olaee make light of their sufferings' indeed, the coinage of'the Eaneienne of "the educated classes is iilJiiiiii. and afgwals to one's love of bnwe and gallant attitudes- She makes light of iier owb soffariagß, and prides lieraeif in realising that life can. never be the same .again. If eho is young enough, ehe Ims 'hope for the future, neverthtelese; if she has beard many -reaming bells in. the thirties, ehe tell* yon with that toudh of delicate oynaciam which is so- essentially Parisian, "Poor none, tout est fini" Many such womenJire doing quite-useful if not-very ttrenuoua work in "the hospitals and "ouvroitß," others are economising at home; a certain few (and every country can show them) are falling back on their former frivolous existences, so that we hear of bridge parties and other gaieties again. The dresemakers-are fairly busy once- more, and the crowds in the shops every afternoon are stupendous. Very rarely is there any grumbling or repining, for such is not the Frenchwoman's way; but just now there is a good deal of criticism and intelligent comment on the situation in general. It is always interesting to hear the Parisiennes talk about anything, for they are as neat in their criticisms as they are in their dresa, although not always just or kind. One particular little group of Frenchwomen, all of them Parisiennes, of whom I am thinking, expresses very fairly the opinions of the middle classes. One ie the wife of an officer of superior rank, a man whio had been in the field since the beginning of the war; anothefe, has her only son preparing for the front, almost on the front itself; a third is the quite young wife of a young officer, with practically all the men of her family in the very dangerous parts of the line. Another is in deep mourning; and one. who has no one nearer than nephews on the front, has aged perceptibly since this time last year, in an all-pervading anxiety and love for her country. There is also in the group a grandmother, a true bourgeoise, of solid build and emotional expressions. She had been to meet her grandson at the station, as ehe had heard he was to have leave. She had spent five hours of her day, waiting for Mm, and he had not come. "I met every train, no matter from where it came," said the dear old lady. "I have seen men from every front, I believe, but not my boy. And now I hear he is to come next week, so I must begin all over again. This time I v shall take some food and a mattress, for lam very tired." She laughed and cried together, for her grandson is the light of her eyes. The younger women of the group touch on the war and its effects "with a light, but definite touch. They never get the lines of it muddled, and toe salient points, as far as thc(y are concerned, are France and thear own particular part in the struggle. Very rarely does the Frenchwoman show a vague point of view, and that is why she seldom gets led away into doing more than she can perform. It is the triumph of reason over impulse, and it is a very marked characteristic of the educated Frenchwoman. THE WHINING- HUNS. "I was a baby in France during the Franco-Prussian war," said a. native of Lorraine the other day. "When Germany asks for milk for her starving babies it would be well to remember the babies that she starved in besieged Paris in the winter of 1870-71. My mother fed her babies on soup cooked out of a horse hoof, and there woe not too much of the soup either. We used the hoof as often as four times over again. These German hausfcauen cry for milk. I would suggest that some of them try fhe horse-hoof soup for their babies. What was good enough for the French ba-bies in 1870 ought to be relished by German babies in 1916. "I was an infant at that time—l think I was not more than two and a-half yeans old. Wβ lived in quaint little Rahaling for generations. One night the Bavarians came marching into our' village. Mother never forgot that night, and many years after she would tell mc of how they came to out house and ehook ue out of bed. They dragged my mother's brothers oat; one wae 17, the other 19, and they etood them against the garden fence and then they shot them. Then we went to Pans. We had relatives there, and we were supposed to K»e with them. They helped ue all they couJd- Bat there wae nothing to eat. Sor hours and hours the long line of pale, weary women wonld stand on their feet before a little hole in the well, waiting for their little portion of black bread. Then there would be a deafening skriek as a aixtll swept through the street* and mowed down the waiting women. Tlafe what those Germans did, and are they any better to-day? "Whf. <io yon know that when a shell . fcfled a home on the streets of Pare in those day*, the people wonld crowd abot* the carcase, the fiesh. i C*ta end d °£ s were ™ longer to be fsmxtd, and at the time we came to Paris rate weye sold at the high price of 4/ ■apiece. Is it any wonder that more than 70 per cent of the babies in Paris died? And the Germane plead that the cruel AHks efeonH not blockade them a few hundred miles *way, for fear they can- :•*«*. get- milk for their .babies!" BO MORE RAETKEKEB. Amid the arrangements that we being made for the 'resumption o f business' *fter the war, it was important to include come designed to safeguard the intewete of touriets, one of tne eources of European wealth. After fire war the» wiH be an American and English awaaioa of France and Belgium. But teeorts ami guide-books go together, •Before-.tne war a tourist -without a. Bae(feker TOiB like a sailor without a jackknife. The war, however, is likely to. 3>K»e as destructive for Baedeker a a it bas been for cathedrals. Baedeker, iv fact, IB another of the Kaiser's victims What civilised being could take a Bae-deker-in futnre without shuddering' The •_oW Baedeker wtil be useless for France ;tor Belgium, for Austria-Hungary, for Serbia, Montenegro and' the Balkan Peninsula. So step are being taken to -provide the tourist with a substitute. A limited conrpany ha* just been incorporated in England to publish a series of ;gtmle-books to the continent. These ■guide books are to be published in EngJSeh and French, not in German. Evidently the publishers realise that for ycai3 to come Germans -win not he numerous or- popular outeide their own Country.