OUR PARIS LETTER

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 52, 29 August 1925, Page 13

OUR PARIS LETTER

THE GODS ARE KIND

SHOWER ROSES ON THE CITY

(WOK 001 OWN COKtIIPOHDINT.)

PARIS, Ist July,

How good it has been during these hot days to catch the sudden scent of roses. The gods in some compensation for these torrid days seem to have showered roses on the city. Never have ihe street vendors had auch stores of tiusm. Not only do they make lovely bowers of the stalls, but itinerant vendors seem to have found in them an exceptional market. You. will see them with armfuls of the blooms. One of them yesterday had the flowers displayed in a reversed umbrella. Another was advertising his fragrant wares by sticking them all round his hat. For a franc one could buy quite a pretty little bouquet of them. TO THE BOIS After the heat of the day,- Paris is turning in ita thousands to' tho Bois de Boulogne. Never have the crowds that throng into the bosky shades after 10 p.m. been greater than during the last tew days. Eleven, 12 o'clock, and still they are pouring along the Avenue dv Bois de Boulogne, and even at 1 a.m. some are still making for the cool of the wood. At 11 o'clock, motor-cars of alwl shapes and sizes jam at the entrances and along all tho avenues, and especially by the side of the lakes; the cars are lined up, while the owners ramble in the cool shades of the winding paths. Here and there a haze of starry light marks the garden of one of the restaurants all "lit with lanterns, and music* lends its charm to the sylvan scene. OLD MYSTERY REOPENED Not far from Chatenay, a village near Paris, is the hamlet of La Tombe, a perfect setting for a stark realistic story of the cruelty of peasant life. An old mystery has been reopened by a complaint of murder lodged with the police by the son-in-law of tho supposed victim. _ Since July, 1915, Edme-Henri Mercier had not been seen.

One July morning the harvester* of the village, the young boys and the old men, the war cripples, and the convalescents, were cutting rye in the field known as "Death Field." On the edge of this field the drama took place. Here, in .the shade of a spreading apple tree, the harvesters had set down their lunch-bread, cheese, fruit and wine. There also someone had left a pair of binoculars, a souvenir of the war. As the Angelus sounded, one of the harvesters wandered over to the tree to see how the food waa getting on. It was gone. It was found a few minutes later a. few hundred feet away, where Edme-Henri Merrier sat calmly eating at the expense of hia fellow-villagers. He was well known to the' harvesters, and believed to be a man of property. Some Bay he was killed by the angry harvesters. Certain it is that he has not been seen since that day. Mme. Mercier had not been happy with her husband for some time. She was content to let well alone, and to register a simple complaint of disappearance with the police. So many people were disappearing at that time that the matter attracted little attention. M Mercier had always written to his son atthe front, however, and the latter received no further mail after the fatal day on the "Field of Death." For this reason the police authorities believe that the man was killed, and an investigation is being pushed at the request of the son-in-law. RENOVATIONS AT FONTAINEBLEAU Fontainebleau's palace and park are to profit, with Versailles, by the magnificent Rockefeller donation, and in the course of the present year a couple of million francs will be laid out there. Some of the most urgent work is now being done. Repairs to the roof of the balene de Diane and that above the Grande Apartments are in hand for water has gone through in more than one place. Nothing had been done there since 1914 and rain had passed through into the library, where sheets of zinc had to be placed as a provisional measure above the books. The zinc is still in position, but the roofing is bein<r repaired. Certain points in the park are also in the hands of the workmen. Some of the rockeries at the Cascade have been put m order, the fountains and the bowl- ' ing greens have been repaired, and the statues have been cleansed of the moss that had grown over them. For the other work, needed in the park however, nothing will bo started till next year, when the beautiful property will be placed once more in its pre-war condition, HATS AND SPECTACLES One of the effects of tiie heat wavo which holds Paris in its fierce grip has been to cause men to lay aside the felt hat and adopt with ono ;tccord the practical straw. 'With their eailor hats and their sun spectacles, men defend their eyes and foreheads against the sun. The apectael» hawker is reaping a golden harvest. May the heat last, he says, looking (through his own dark glasses) toward the eky. As for the women, they have. besieged the milliners in quest of the wide-brimmed hats which they could not be induced to buy a month ago. It is true that with the whimsical independence of the Parisionne in matters of fashion, they have the gauzy crowns covered with felt, but even so they contrive to look cool and collected when the temperature is at its highest. INAUQI AND FLAMMARION The late M. Flammarion, the astronomer, is said to have discovered Inaudi, the lightning calculator known for his feats on the music-hall stage. Inaudi was brought before Flammarion when he was a little peasant of Piedmont. The astronomer himself, being in the habit of tackling mighty calculations, was struck at the child's facility in dealing with numbers and he presented Inaudi to some of his colleagues, who studied closely the method of the boy, who later went on the stage and toured the world with no baggage but his surpriaing talent. Inaudi was famous everywhere, and in Paris, as elsewhere, hia curious gift made a great impression, CHAUFFEUR'S HONESTY TEST Stepping into a taxicab yesterday, says the "Intransigeant," a fare discovered a package of chocolate lying on the seat. Without hesitation he put it in his pocket, paid the "chauffeur, adding a good "pourboire," and was about to depart when the driver called out; "What about my chocolate?" "Your chocolate?" queried the client, greatly taken aback. Then tho chauffeur explained that lie was testing tho honesty of his fares, and of eleven whom .he had carried that morning only two had informed him that a pnekaee of chocolate waa lying on the seat. The two honest folk were a sergeant from Morocco and a milliner's messeiisor girl. "Honest people are scarce," said the philosophic chauffeur.