OUR PARIS LETTER

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 90, 13 October 1923, Page 13

OUR PARIS LETTER

PARISIAN SHOPS

CLOSED UNTIL SEPTEMBER

(FROit OVR OIVK COEMBKniDENT.)

PARIS, 15th August.

With holiday time, a subtle change is very noticeable now in the physiognomy of Paris. Many shops are putting up their shutters and showing a neat placard announcing that they are carrying on their business in Deauville or Cabourg or Biarritz until the end of September. The manicures are packing up their neat little instruments and making, in their turn, for some fashionable resort, and as for the milliners, they seem to be departing in a body in pursuit of : their smart clients now by the sea or in some lovely resort, in the Auvergne. Even the bootmakers have joined in the movement and announce that their exclusive models will be found throughout August at some sandy shore where many fine shoes are needed. On ferme. In residential quarters the shutters are closed before the windows, and no more entertaining will be done until autumn is here.. The absence of private cars leaves the central thoroughfares relatively calm, and Paris is taking on' the reserved and sober aspect that it always assumes after loth August.

AIR HELP FOR MAP-MAKERS.

Ever since 1889 there has been talk in France of preparing a new' map of the country. In that, year, the Academy of Sciences passed a resolution to that effect, and obtained the approval of the Ministry of War, but the Treasury could never spare sufficient funds to put the scheme into executions. The war showed that there was need of a new map on a scale of 1-20.000 (over three miles to an inch) instead of the present one, which is on a scale of 1-80.000 (less than a imlo to an inch), while sincethewar engineers, particularly of gas, electric supply, and water companies, have urged the preparation of the larger-scale map. Now the question has again been raised by the Geographical Service, which is appealing for the new map on the ground that it is urgently needed, in the intoresU of the country's defence. If the new map is undertaken, General Bourgeois, in the "Figaro," points out that photographs of the ground taken from aeroplanes will be of great use to tho topographers, particularly in the North of. France, where the former triangulation points—the village church towers have for the most part been destroyed.

FORGOT HER BABY!

Passengers in a full motor-omnibus running down the Boulevards in the middlo of the afternoon witnessed a curious episode. A young woman stepped off the car at the halt in the Boulevard Bonne Nouvelle, but had. scarcely walked a yard when she suddenly started to rush after the omnibus making frantic signs to the conductor to'stop. This lie finally'did, and the woman, panting and breathless, managed to explain that she had-forgotten her baby! The child,- a boy of four, was, in fact, asleep on one of the benches, and as his mother took possession of him, she remarked, to the dumbfounded spectators: "That is just like him; he never, pays any attention."

SHELL "DUMPING" DANGER.

In spite of official warning; the Parisians who have kept shells and othei dangerous souvenirs of the war persist in getting rid of them by means involving great risk to fellow citizens. Some have been simply thrown into the -sewers, with sublime disregard' ■•;for the safety of the men who work in these underground regions ; others are deposited in out-of-the-way comers. under cover of darkness. On Sunday, the stationmaster of the Opera "tube" station discovered a three-inch shell in one of the small telephone offices adjoining- a platform. As these stations are always well-light-ed and never deserted during the hours of service, it is surprising that the owner of the shell was not caught in the act of disposing of it.

THE UNBIDDEN GUEST.

Before he had been half an hour in Paris, whither he had come with the object of doing business in bananas, Christopher da Cugna, a Spaniard, made the acquaintance of an affable stranger who displayed the friendliest intentions. The pair lunched together, and then the stranger. offered to take his new friend to a fashionable reception. As it would obviously riot be the thing to wear an overcoat, he suggested that the visitor should leave the garment.at the restaurant. This idea was acted upon. At the last moment the stranger absented himself—to send an urgent' telephone message, he explained. ■ The Spaniard went on to the reception, whero his presence at first attracted no attention, but as he was still there at 6 o'clock he was asked for. an explanation. The police wero sent for, but it did not take long to . conyice the ' commissary that the Spaniard had been victimised ■by a swindler. He advised him to go to the restaurant without loss of time and rescue his overcoat, in the pocket of which he had left notes to the value of £200. Needless to aay, both the garment and the notes had disappeared. I DEARTH OF GLIB. TONGUES. For the street orator with something to sell, Parisians have invented the name of " bonisseur." At the moment there are several of them whose talent: is the marvel of the Montmartre Fair. One, with a wild crop of; hair, is selling a shampoo powder, and- for four hours on end ho keeps his flow- of rhetoric, interlading his specious little' bits of science with topical jokea, and keeping a crowd round him throughout the evening. It appears that this kind of j talent is becoming rare, or elj>J its owners prefer to apply it to some more exalted use, and the fair people are offering 70 francs a day to men who can pour forth sallies and enticing statements at the door of the menagerie or theatre, keeping' an audience continually at hand for' : successive performances.. Some of the stands employ women for the purpose, because of the absence of male candidates, for a job that requires a special temperament, a. special voice, and a fertile imagination. A STREET TRAGICOMEDY. ' The story of the political personality ■who always fingered the lowest button of his waistcoat when speaking was called to mind the other hot afternoon, when an elegantly dressed Parisienne was seen crossing the street near the Trinite, nervously, insistently toying with her necklace of amber beads. But politics never knew such a tragedy as that of that young Parisienne, for while standing, swaying, and undecided, in the roadwiy, with Paris traffic raging round her frailty, tho siring of that necklace of amber tieads broke in two, snd blobs of yellow fell like big rose petals. A cry, and tears sprang to her ey,?». But no sooner had ihe swiftly boiit to recover her treasures than a rhnrming street «cen9 was witnet-sed. Taxicab kUMiui tiicir caba ajidc, tail,

with other men, and even children, eighteen or twenty ir. all, rushed, and in a few lODmeute recovered, the gold-colour-ed beads. One of the women helpers, more far-seeing . than her sistera, "euggested ta the now smiling Parisienne that it would be wise to re-thread the beads on a stronger string.