CHARMS AGAINST BIG GUNS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16305, 31 August 1918, Page 7

CHARMS AGAINST BIG GUNS.

A PARISIAN FANCY.

The new offensive upon Pom k° r . na cheerfullx, thapka to Nenette and Rintintin (writes a Paris corespondent of the "Westminster Gazette ). It is thd craze of the day to wear two Jttle dangling dolls which bear these .grotesque names; and, as it is,a crdae whichis designed to lighten the menaco from tho air, it has more nuson d of the passing fashions of other times. Paris hVs ofi this sort, but it is good to.faiow | thati Paris knows how to make.profitaple use of the most.stupid, foibles, There ard very few young Parisians whom ona sees without the and Rintintin pinned on- their •blopses. e 3| are miniature representations in wool ot a boy and girl, and'they ; are,to be hnxliin ail the colours of the rainbow—the. favourite, however, being the-patriotic tricolour, i When tho bijg gun-:sounds, xu every corner of Paris the wearer of thesa fetishes can venture safely, into the street, men tho terrifying wa.il of tho syren which. nnnounpea tiie advent) of tho Gothas is heard', the little dolls are carefully.attacheid' to tho.nightgowtt before the descent to\tai©, cellar,, is made. With them the Parisian pretends to ai complete security. • In this-i way_ Gotha and the gun are turnedHto a joke, and the efficacy of the cliarmof Nenette and Rintintin is discussed with a moclc seriousness that drives away, all dismal speculations on the power- of- mischief op the Hun. . ~ . Silly? Yes, if you please,, but the cult-has its real utility, and it-is not to be mocked at in these troubled days. Certainly,' trivial as it may- sound, no historian will ever bo able .to write tho story of 1918 in Paris without a reference to the craze .which dominated Grosso Bertha and the Gothas, andl which made thousands of timid girls / bold, and brought morriment into every salon, and into every cafe. It is on little things like this that historyhas a> . knack of turning, and while Jxenettd • and Rintintin keep up the moral of Paris they are .doing good work. _ A padre tells ,me (says another writer on the same subject) that there -is one soldier's mascot always in great demand. among our British troops. It is a pocketi copy of the New -Testament, and it) must be a complete copy. A penny v pocket edition of one'of the Gospels,' such as we find largely circulated by gome of our religious, societies, is of no avail according to the men who believe in the charm. And the strange thing is that most of them who put in a request for one hare no intention at all - of reading it—at ( any rfte, in the common way of things, "up' the line." It) is used and cherished simply aS a talisman.