OUR PARIS LETTER

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 123, 26 May 1928, Page 17

OUR PARIS LETTER

THE CITY IN 50 YEARS . 8,000,000 PEOPLE (From "The Post's" Representative.) PAttlS, 21st, March. M. LqiiiVc, who was tor many yc:irs •Prefect'-of Polite and who* can safely bo said to know Paris-as well as any man living, has just read a paper before the Academy'of Moral and Political Science .on. (he growth of the city in the.past and its probable development in the future. After mentioning that the population has doubled in 05 years, ho prophesied that" in about 40 or 00 years from now the citr'and its suburbs would, have some .8,000,000 habitants, and that, street traffic would become impossible, unless practical measures were taken:, to relievo the congestion. Underground garages' 5 for motor-ears and bridges over the principal thoroughfares seemed to, him to be unavoidable, but,".'though ho. criticised various plans^ he produced no comprehensive schemeof his own. M. CLEMENCEAU AS JOURNALIST. M.. Georges Clemeuceau, the veteran French statesman, whoso work as wartime Premier- contributed so largely to the victory, once acted, as an occasional New York correspondent for the "Temps," the, leading -French evening paper, for £6 a month, states an article to bo published shortly by a French literary review. It was in 15(35 that M. Clemenceau, then-'a young medical man, went, to New York. He soon became a prominent figure in the French colony, and was a regular frequenter of the literary^ and artistic coteries which met in Greenwich village, the Latin Quarter, or Chelsea, of New York. He soon ventured into journalism, ami his contributions to the "Temps," which were, not signed, but. appeared as extracts from correspondence, were a prominent feature of that newspaper us far back as 186 a. He was paid linage for those contributions, and a reference, 'to his account in the "Temps" ledger shows that his earnings during the years 18(58 and 1860 averaged iSO francs a month, or £6 in those. days. . . AN IMMORTAL BIRD. A blackbird'is likely to achieve imI mortality, by being incorporated in the design of the ifcw badge of the Saint--Germain Golf.Club. No fame for virtue, however, will be immortalised in the badge, but rather infamy, for this bird is nothing short of/ a bold, bad bandit. It is an'incorrigible thief of golf, balls. ■ Some measure of" its deprcj da'tions niay be gathered-from the fact that not long ago the ground-keeper,-in passing through a copse close to the course, kicked against a mound covered with leaves and twigs, and disclosed a dutch of twenty to thirty balls. This apparently was the'treasure trove of the black marauder. The temerity of the bird is amazing. It lies in wait at a certain favourite bunker, and .when, the ball drops it swoops down, and, under the very noses of the players,, picks it up .in, its beak and vanishes. COUNCIL OF WAR. Just recently the members held a council of war." : Something had to be done to stem this steady loss of golf balls. A plan of action was agreed upon. One line morning two members sullied out to play, and at the same, time the ground-keeper,-armed with a gun, stole' into a nearby copse and waited events., The game proceeded and- nothing-happened. The blackbird was nowhere to be seen. The pla.yer.s got tired, and so did the man with the. gun. ...lie burst out of liis hiding-place and said, hard things in an explosive fashion about blackbirds. At that moment, no great way from the "nose of the man with the gun, a dark bird darted earthwards, picked up a golf ball, and sped to its woodland fastness. And it was by this last bold adventure that .the blackbird won- its way into the golf ■club-biulgo. -', ......... CONTRAST IN FOOTWEAR. from London to Paris, one is struck by the different appearance of female feet. Miss ■ Londoner rarely sacrifices comfort when it comes to* choosing footwear for bad weather. Not for her are high-heeled patent shoos showing a length of delicate silk stocking—not, at-least,-on'a wet day. She prefers-well-fitting," knee-length leather boots, with. li. zip fastener running up the centre," gaiters, or oven long goloshboots, or transparent rubber, which fit tightly .-over.her shoes and prevent her stockings^ from being ruined. The Parisicuno,' on the other hand, would apparently rather walk about with wet feet all day than spoil the appearance of her ankles and hide her stockings beneath spats. Her fight for elegance must cost her a" pretty penny in stockings and;doetor's fees: TOO LATE. Too late, the City Fathers have expressed their disapproval of tho Statue of St. Genevieve that will soon adorn tho tall pedestal erected at tho southern end of the new bridge of La Tournelle. Solemnly they have just passed a resolution recording "very lively regret that an historic site should lose its character owing to a construction so extraordinary and so out of keeping with the. surrounding scene." Alas, however, the worlrhas gone too far for any serious modification to be made. St. Genevieve from her high perch will soon survey the city, which, according to legend, site saved from tho invading Huns. Many of us may not like the statue at first. We resent such intrusions into familiar scenes. But time, the great blender, will work its charm, and in years to come, when St. Genevieve and .the .bridge, she guards are weather-stained and grey, we shall perhaps find, some subtle harmony between them and Notre Dainc on the other side of the RiVcr. Seine.' •■ .