OUR PARIS LETTER

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 156, 30 December 1925, Page 9

OUR PARIS LETTER

ROMANCE IN STONE

(From pur Own Correspondent.) PARIS, Uth November.

For the want of a gnarled oak the city Rosalind, it teeins, -will make do with a prosaic statue. Somewhere in Paris there is an effigy of a famous chemist. ■Around the pedestal from which the great man looks upon the passing world are tableaux in high relief, one of which represent* the savant at work in his laboratory. The other evening a dainty Parisienn« tripped up to the statue, glanced at little furtively up and down th« street to I see if the were observed, and then putting her hand into a little cavity behind one of the figures, drew therefrom a letter. This eh« perused with that eagerness that only romsace can awaken in maid. A NEW IDIOM. Parisian conversation has been enriched by a ,new idiom. It is not a scie, or "wheeze,"- like "En vonlez-vous des homards?" and such meaningless phrases of the past, but a picturesque expression with a modern flavour, when a friend or companion persists in discussing some object in which you 'are not interested, you no longer tell him to "go to the railway station," which rather implies that you have ceased to desire his presence; you politely ask him to "change his disc,." You thus delicately convey a sense of monotony'combined with the unerring accuracy of the gramophone.

' THE BIGHTS OF KAN. One has a certain amount of sympathy with an elderly man who boarded a motor-omnibus the other day and found the. only seat unoccupied by a passenger monopolised by a pet dog. He politely inquired of its fair owner whether he might be allowed to take the seat and tie dog.be F.ccotnmodated elsewhere. He met with the reply that the'faro of the. dbg had been.paid for, .and that the dog had as much right to the.seat as he had. This, seemed a new valuation of the respective .rights of human beings and animals, so the passenger without a seat appealed to the conductor. His reply was that the dog's owner was perfectly right, and that a place having, been paid for'the'dog, -the'latter was entitled io. it.' Further inquiries at the company's offices confirmed the statement. If dogs and humans are to have the same privileges, Uie iKxt passenger in the tame predicament might logically bring matters to a head by demanding that either the clog or he should bo accommodated on tjw owner's lap. ' THE PLANT MTSTBET. F«ri.» .flower markets have ah. excoptjona' number of male, customers- just now. Poi-plantir > are }n great-, demand.' Geraniums, "carnations', and dwarf rosetrees sell like hot cakes. One of the vendors, who knows the mentality of rier, customers only too ,well, explained the mystery yesterday. * "When msdame goes away to the country," she said, "she tells monsieur to look after the plants; and to be sure to water them every day. Monsiuer replies, 'Certainly, darling,' or words to that effect. When madame announces 1 that she is coming back, monsieur discovers that he has forgotten all about the plants, and that they have all died\of thirst. Then, of course, he has to. rush out and buy new plants as like the old ones as possible. Madame probably notices the difference, but, if she is a wise and tactful woman, «he will keep her knowledge to herself and thank monsieur for his attention to her wishes." "■'■ : , ; EABXBB NATXJEALIBATION! An interesting proposal is made in regard to ihe naturalisation of foreigners in France by M. Charles Lambert; Deputy for the Rhone. His object is to make up by easier naturalisation laws something oi! the deficiency in the natural'.' growth of France's population. There are livr ing in France, says M- Lambert, not fewer than 2,800,000 foreigners. This number is likely to be continually increased simply because the population of neighbouring countries is increasing rapidly, and France will have to take the overflow. Thus, he argues, why not take advantage of tho sitn; ation and make Frenchmen of those who would otherwise be .merely foreigners! To facilitate naturalisation hn suggests that the period of qualifying residence should be reduced from ten to three years. On.the foreign husband of a French woman he would confer' naturalisation at the time of marriage. ' He would dispense with any delay also in the case of any foreigner who had rendered important service to France, or who hat served in the. French army. He would also reduce to 100 francs the present 1276 francs naturalisation fee.

ANOTHEB FEMININE CONQUEST,

F ; or tho first time in the history of tho Paris Bar a woman barrister has been asked to speak at the reopening, after 'the vacation, of the barrister's conference. Two women had been nominated to sit in. conference*—Mile. Eospars, three years ago, and Mile. Tinayre, two years ago—but they were not allowed to speak there. Now Mile. Juliette Veillier has been nominated second secretary to the conference, and will be one of the speakers at the reopening, while Mile. Suzanne Blum will also take her scat there.. Mile. Veillier is a Doctor of Law,, and passed her law examinations in the United States. Mile. Blum works with Maitre Panl-Bon-cour, and it is said that when he is called to act again as Minister he will take his assistant with him into the political arena.

A man who leaped to some' prominence as a rdsnlt of watching the monkeys in the monkey house of the Jardin das Plantes in Paris sorely found one of the oddest roads to success. He is a Frenchman named • Jacques Lerner, who, after playing his role as the "Singe qui parle"in Paris, is now gaining equal success in. the London play, "The Monkey Talks." He has recently given an account of how he achieved the -remarkable imitation. For three. months before the first performance of the play he spent all his time in the monkey house watching the' shambling walk and other movements of the apes.' He spent fa month studying a monkey's skeleton, and then set to work to wist his face into the expression of a monkey, and to perfect himself in all their grimaces. That he attains all his effects without the aid of a mask is all dae to this first-hand study of his subject in the Paris Zoo.

THE AET OF BUYING.

According to the managing director of one of the big Paris department stores about 10 per cent, of the goods which are ordered to be sent to customers' homes arc returned. The proportion used to be much larger before the war. In those clays a customer could kave iii;-tkiug isat home,

keep it for a few days, 'and then send it back without incurring any liability, unless, of course, the article was soiled. Nowadays the goods are not left unless ths bill is paid on the spot. The money is refunded when they are brought back in good condition. In almost every case, the person who returns an article is a woman who has gone to the shop without any definite purpose, seen something that took her fancy, and ordered it, only to discover next day that she did not really want it. A man who goes shopping generally has a clear idea of what he needs', but should he afterwards discover that his purchase does not exactly meet, his wishes, he rarely takes the. trouble to go back and change it.