OUR PARIS LETTER

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 26, 30 July 1927, Page 17

OUR PARIS LETTER

KING OF SWEDEN

GUSTAV'S ANCESTRY

(From "The Post's" Representative.) PAEIS, Bth June.

The King of Sweden, who has been spending a few pleasant days in Paris, is particularly attached to France, seeing that he descends from one of her most illustrious sons. It was in ISIS that his ancestor, Bernadotte, mounted the throne of Sweden, after a distinguished military career, which dated from the battle of Fleurus of 1794, to Austerlitz in 1805. But it was chiefly for his administrative ability that Bernadotte endeared himself to the Swedes. King Gustav is the fifth king of the Bernadotte dynasty. His ties with France may be said to be very close, seeing that he is also the grandson of the daughter of Prince Eugene de Beauharnais. His ancestors have, most of them, loved to visit the pleasant resorts of France, Nice, Biarritz, and Pau being their favourite haunts. THE VALUE OF A PICTURE. Art experts were given a rare opportunity of airing their taste and discernment at the Paris Appeal Court, when the claim for payment of 300,000 francs (about £2418) for a painting, the work of M. Boldini, was made by that wellknown artist against Senor Edwards, a Chilian banker. The painting, a portrait group of the banker and his family, was ordered in 1922 and figured in the Salon of that year. The price agreed upon, according to Senor Edwards, was 60,000 francs (about £491), and on the case gomg before the Ist Tribunal, and after the hearing of expert opinions, the value of the picture was fixed at 50,000 francs. The tribunal ordered it to be delivered to Senor Edwards. It was against this judgment that the artist appealed, and so the experts were given another innings. The banker's side again won, however. THE SOMBRE MALE. Dress reform, in so far as it may concern mere man, continues to exercise the minds of a number of fashionable people, but it must be confessed that even those who plead for more picturesque attire are reluctant to come out into the open, decked out in their "convictions." The one or two men who have been seen in flamboyant plus-fours and fancy stockings have faded away. M. Georges Carpentier, who always cuts a well-dressed figure, takes a sober view of the question, and says he prefers wearing dark suits. He holds that men's costumes should vary according to the types of their wearers, but while athletes may indulge in knickers, he favours the modern trousers which conceal many imperfections, including the over-developed muscles of the legs. Change from day to evening dress, he considers, should be de rigeur. SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD ORATOR. In view of the importance attached in France to public speaking, it is surprising that a championship of eloquence has only lately been organised. It was confined to students, and the final took place in Paris on Sunday. There were eight candidates, who were called upon to speak on the following them: "As a young Catholic, what reasons have you for claiming the right to freedom in religious instruction?" The winner was M. Leonce Bonduellc, who comes from Boubaix, and is 16J years old. When &sked yesterday by an interviewer to give the names of the orators whom he specially admired, he said he had never heard any. When he has finished his school studies, he will follow a course of law, his ambition being to plead worthy causes. He did not repudiate a suggestion that he might ultimately 'go in for politics. NOT TO BE BEATEN. Lack of money has never "stumped" M. Briand, the French Foreign Minister, who completes 25 years of public political life to-day. In this connection an excellent story of him is told in a special number of "Le Cri de Paris," devoted to appreciations and anecdotes of the man who has been Premier a record number of times. When a young lawyer at Saint-Nazaire, he founded a newspaper—still in .existence—with a capital of 2500 francs (£IOO at that ;time), in 5 francs and 20 francs subscriptions. He did everything himself, from writing the articles, to prepaying subscription bands and doing office boy's message work, and, to keep down expenses, even learnt the business of type-setting. Wanting to turn tho paper into daily, he came to Paris, and at a sale of bankrupt's stock purchased a flat-bed machine for 900 francs. But that exhausted his capital, and M. Briand and a co-enthusiast took down tho machine itself, noted and numbered its parts, sent them off by slow goods train, and getting back to Saint-Nazaire, succeeded, after many struggles, and more fears, in reassembling the machine—which is still running. OBSERVATORY CHIEF RETIRES. M. Baillaud, who is retiring from the post of Director of the Observatory of Paris at the age of 79, has seen a greatmany changes in the practico of astronomy. The popular idea of an astronomer is an old gentlemen who spends his timo peering through a telescope at the stars, but nowadays the camera has almost entirely replaced direct observation, and the astronomer's calculations are made from photographic plates. Although the Paris Observatory cannot compete, either in instruments or climatic advantages, with more modern astronomical institutions in the United States and elsewhere, it possesses a vast stock of documentary wealth which is indispensable for the checking and co-ordination of observations. M. Bailland proposes to take advantage of his new leisure to finish a book on astronomy, on which he has been engaged fifteen years. A PHILOSOPHER'S REPLY. Professor Frend has sent a charming reply ;to a letter which Mme. Yvette Guilbert wrote to congratulate him on tho attainment, of his 70th birthday. "It is very nice of you," the celebrated Viennese philosopher writes, "to say that seventy years make no difference to a savant, because he is sure to be remembered to eternity. You will excuse me if I contradict you on this point,A man of science cannot count on immortality. There have been cases in which it turned out to be limited to ten or twenty years. Moreover, it has no subjective value, as he cannot feel it. Personally, I think I am as old as my age. As for, you, the gods seem to have endowed you with eternal youth and imperishable art." HARD FARE. Parisian street showmen are among the most resourceful in the world, and, with the advent of favourable out-of-door conditions, you may meet tho swcffd-swallower, or the fire-eater at any street corner, seizing a few minutes during the absence of a policeman, to pick up a few francs from wondering onlookers. But'the man who occupied a pitch yesterday afternoon on the Boulevard dcs Capueines, and took big bites out of a hard stone and, with a seemingly genuine effort, made a meal of the pieces, deserved the financial support ho received.

The Fire Brigade acknowledges donations of £5 5s and £3 3s to the ocreation fund from Warden Brothers, Willis street, and Mr. H. A. Gold, both for services rendered in recent [fires. . . . - - .._..'