LADIES' LETTER.

Press, Volume XXII, Issue 2855, 2 October 1874, Page 3

LADIES' LETTER.

[FROM A CORRESPONDENT.] Paris, August 8. Happy the nation that has no history, but happier the people that has no Assembly, thus France is certain to be undisturbed for four months, owing to her Deputies having voted themselves that much vacation, and which makes every school lad iv France long to be a representative of the people. Other good news, the boys have come home, mothers are ever glad to see them though aware the house will be turned upside down, and papa's forty winks cut short; then no visits are expected to be made till October, save to the seaside, where all who can afford it repair at the present time, leaving a comfortable home for some humid den mayhap, cleared out for the birds of passage, who care for nothing provided it be told in Gatb, and published in the streets of Askelon, that they have passed the Indian summer at a watering place. There is not much difference anywhere between crowds at one part of the seaside more thau at another —there are shrimps at Ramsgate and the same at Boulogne 8. Mer, there is fashion at Dieppe and rank at Brighton. At a French watering place society is more mixed, and intercourse less restiaiued, and is thus agreeable as persons like easy manners; the habits and customs of the place also have a military severity and punctuality; the nomadic population, like the sun, rises and withdraws at fixed hours; even lovers, though they may meet by moon or comet light alone to exchange the telling of tales, fail to be poetical or romantic after 11 p.m., when not a soul is abroad but the night patrol. The bathers are generally divided into two classes, the A. M. and the P. M. —the former dip before breakfast aud the latter before dinner; in the way of new fashions gentlemen, as well as ladies, have adopted the blue veil to protect their manly features from the sun or a stiff sea breeze.

Parisians who cannot leave the capital— rari nautes in gurgite vasto t go to where

shade and cooling agents wait them ; not to t'iiatres—these perfected stoves just now— but to Bois de Boulogne and the open air conceits, and above all to ti.e swimming schools, ranged along " tbe flowered borders of tho Seine" ; these schools are taken by assault and battery by at least 60,000 persons on a Sunday of both sexes ; think of a a river occupied by 30,000 tritons and as many thousand naiads—an army of poissons with two feet, and as phenomenal as the woman with two heads, or the m:in with no hoad at all. Biarritz is still full of real bathers, mostly English and Spauish, but grand personages no longer take up their residence there, and at most only pass through the deserted place whose chief advantage consists perhaps in being able to see on the horizon a blue ridge called Spain, and thanks to Don Carlos the Pyrenees reexist; the ex-Imperial residence, as ugly as it is plain, is a banquet hall deserted, and opens its shutters but ouce a week to permit visitors to catch a glimpse of the days of old, before the Septenunte was invented, and France submitted to a five milliard franc test. However, in the vicinity, at Fontarabie, excursionists can assist at the civil war, and eas ; ly comprehend why it ought never to terminate. From time to time musket firing is kept up for hours, the cannons of the fortress taking part at intervals. The fight continues to be thus carried on in a very obstinate manner, each side accusing the other of abominable crueltie , and when the bugles sing truce, the Republicans find they have not a man either killed, missing or wounded, aud the Carlists on their side have the same clean bill of health. These petty fetes generally take place on Sundays, and after church as a matter of course, the god of battles is expected by each of the combatants to be then more propitious ; the con- j flict rages, and is as amusing as fireworks ; I the women and girls of the neighbourhood fluck iuto the market place to see the sport, the men seize the opportunity to discuss politics between th* spurts of white smoke in the distance, while the band of the Kursaal discourses a delicious polka by Strauss or j Weber's last waltz.

There have been some auctions of late not to be met with every day, as, for example, four unused postal balloous, all that remains in stock of the supply when Paris was besieged ; they were knocked down to the lowest bidder. The iron-clad locomotive, impartially used against the Prussians, aud then by the Communists against the French army, has been bought in. As some Siamese officials were present, it is iumored that modern engine of civilisation is to be exchanged for a pair of white elephants. Ladies who indulge in needlework on the sly, as if honest employment were a shame or a crime, having not found purchasers for their industry at the usual depot, disposed of their work at a half and half public sale. A good respectable central shop is sadly required in Paris to find customers for these products of taste and skill, and which are more profitable than an existence of novel reading, piano thumping, and a lotus life tempered with bonbons, as not a lady but now carries abont with her a fancy box of acidulated "sweet" meats, as gentlemen do their cigar case; it would be also desirable that such a shop be as secret as a matrimonial agency, and ready at all times to dispatch a trusted assistant to call on a lady, take away her executed work and remit the proceeds. Why not invite such agents just as well as the fashionable dealer in old wardrobes, who arrives for the despatch of business at the same morning hours as the milkman and the newsboy ? Nowadays an exhibition can be organised about anything, and is certain of success provided it be not held at Vienna or Nova Zembla, and takes care to announce itself as international. Thus the Fashion Show is expected to open in October, and will be a m?.rvel of models ; it will be the Longchamps promenade iv a salon, —not only will ready-made toilettes beexbibited, but beautiful dolls, exquisitively dressed in the newest materials and latest styles, will be nllowed compete, for the Parisian dressmaker and milliner deals very largely in the exportation of these models to foreign climes. The other exhibition is to be devoted to the history of from the earliest times, and will include royal and official wardrobes, theatrical costumes, kc, down to the peasants' toilette. Were Queen Bess alive, she could alone stock an exhibition in this respect; but it is consoling to find many ladies are not far behind her even at the present day : in any case these two attractions will put us over the chilly days of autumn till the Assembly returns to its Penelope-work and exciting negations. One grand source of gossip and scandal has, like all things human, come to an end — I mean the application of the Princess Bauffremont for a separation. For seven long years the contest has been carried on in inferior and superior courts with varying success, the impression being that so far as dispositions were concerned the fault was nearly balanced. It was only when driven Into a corner—and the " dear" at bay is a dangerous foe—that the Princess turned the scale by pleading her husband's immorality. She baa won, and was h rself the principal agent in getting up the evidence and securing the courage of her counsel to the sticking place. She thus secures to herself the reversionary interest in a colossal fortune, and remains the legal euardian of her two daughters. Possibly these class of separations pay, as a history of celebrated modern divorces and separations is to be brought out in serial parts.

When M. Bouchut first recommended the periodical weighing of babies as the best test of their health and development, he was "a"shed at. bnt, those, according to the proverb, ever laugh best who laugh last. The idea has, from its simple efficacy, made such way that ordinary medical practitioners condescend to timidly inquire, in case of baby being ill, does it seem to be heavier or lighter? When the infant is weighed in the balances and found wanting, be assured something is wrong. Books are sold now in which to record the dates when baby has been weighed, and the number of pound* to its credit, any falling off being a warning to a mother like a storm signal. From a document published by authority, a newborn child weighs from 6", to 8J lbs., and boys weigh at their birth a little more than girls. During the first three days of their life, the little strangers diminish in weight, after which they rapidly make np for lost time ; the seventh day they recover what they had lost in weight during the first three days of their existence ; for the space of five months they increase in weight, at the rate of three-quarters of an ounce daily, representing, at the expiratiou of this period, exactly double the weight they did at their birth ; the seven months following the infant increases from a quarter to half an ounce daily, bo that, at sixteen months, its weight ought to be the double of what it was at five ; a baby is not to be considered in bad health if its increase falls below the above rates ; but when well cared and fed, a departure from the standard figures ought to be inquired into, primarily to ascertain if the wet nurse does her duty. Iv the contemplated law for appointing medical inspectors for children, given out to nurse, and who must be visited impromptu, the weight of each nursling is to be registered.

Taking advantage, doubtless of the absence of a defined government, some email officials, and not a few of the public generally, have displayed a weakness for conferring on themselves a title of nobility ; stiff in Republican opinions possibly, these ninnies have concluded, that like a priuce they too could " make a belted knight, a marquis, duke, and a' that," the Government, alarmed at the

growth of such an aristocracy, has ordered that no person's title be ever recorded in a public document, unless the family papers

attest the possession of a patent of nobility ; this love for distinction is the more strange Bince titles go but a little way in France, and authorised owners of them are anything but rare, and far indeed from filling, under the circumstances, distinguished positions. The only movement in the w-iy of family changes is the receipt of applications from patriots, who, having the misfortune to be

called after the once "glorious B;iz*iue,"

demand permission to now take another name; as imitation is the best kind of flattery, the President of the Republic must be gratified in seeing so many members of

young France baptized " Macmahon ;" tha Saints in the Calendar will soon have cause to feel jealous.

Fashions never undergo any serious change in full season, and hence toilettes are mostly of a watering-place character ; if at the seaside, a linen material is in the ascendant, and perhaps next, the tunic-blouse, suited alike for general as for full dress ; the predominating note is to have the costume well made, and to show off the figure more by its own natural advantages than by artificial aids j a pretty toilette is not at all a robe which costs a fortune, but a toilette appropriate to the figure, stature, and age of the wearer, and also to the surroundings in which she lives ; the cut, the shade, and tbe choice of ornaments, impart tho distinction. Wou'd not the art to dress well and cheaply constitute a claim to found a chair in some Academy, where a course of free publio lectures could be delivered, and ladies affectionately invited to attend ; there have been courses of lectures given on physiology, law, philosophy, &c, kc, exclusively for ladies from time to time, why not on a plan to make our dear selves look beautiful for ever, and at the smallest outlay of money, to say nothing of anxiety of mind ;this is the more important, as the Assembly has awaiting its consideration, if ever it condescends to such a vulgar thing as business, 132 projects for national education ; that system is not bad which makes instruction gratuitous for pupils and obligatory for professors.

Marshal MacMahon as well as his ministers intend passing the v.ication months in Paris; no one can blame them for shaking off the dust of their'feet at Versailles—"A city retired into the country"—the sporting season will open iv another week, which is ever an event in France, not so much by adding to our food supplies,as tbe gaiety and natural mode of life people there lead.

Those English ladies who have been educated more or less in the well known Evangelical school of Versailles, a sort of caravansary for many foreigners to rest and get up their French, will bo glad to hear tho proprietress of the institution has been married to M. Jules Favre ; she fell in love with his talent, and sympathised with the terrible political abuse heaped upon him, and it is proverbially true that of all the! roads to a woman's heart, pity is the straightest. The theatres coutinue to be avoided unless they can change into refrigerators, several are on the point of re-opening, and will give halftime performances ; the persistent finebraoing evenings have made the garden concerts— private as well as public, very much a necessity, where one is sure to obtain some bouches of cool air and a head full of confused sounds. The examinations of the pupils intended for the theatrical and musical professions have been held, but our sex has not shone particularly brilliant this year in any department of the public competition, save in the case of playing the violincello and tho " first fiddle '* —the latter is truly our forte.