OUR PARIS LETTER

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 73, 30 March 1929, Page 5

OUR PARIS LETTER

CHOPIN'S GRAVE

REMOVAL OF REMAINS

(From "The Post's" Representative) PARIS, 10th January.

There is a movement in favour of removing tho remains of Chopin from their resting place iii Pcre-Lachaise, to Cracow, the idea being that the ashes of the great composer should repose beBide other illustrious Poles in tho land of his birth. The movement is largely duo to tho efforts of the Bociote Frederic Chopin in Paris, and it has the support of a number of distinguished Poles, but 'there can bo no doubt that sentiment in France, the land in which he worked, loved, and lived so long, will bo loth to separate itself from even the formal tribute to Ms-memory as represented by the tomb embellished by Ciesingcr's Muse in the Paris cemetery. Much has been written around Chopin's origin, and some people are of the opinion ho was French at least by descent. This is a minor matter, however. Chopin belongs to the world, and if one were to make an inquiry of one of the watchmen at Pcre-Lachaise, it would be found that no grave there is visited by more pilgrims f'roni all parts of the world than is Chopin's.

LAWS ABOUT FIREAEMS,

The frequency of dramas in which somebody's career is suddenly ended by a. bullet led n Parisian to make some inquiries at an armourer's shop. Ho discovered a curious state of things resulting from the two laws bearing on the question, one of them dating back to tho First .Republic and tho other to ISSS. A citizen is entitled to have a revolver or pistol in his house, but not to carry it about tho streets, aud therefore, if he buys one at a shop, which anyono can do, he must not put it into his pocket loose, but must have it wrapped in paper and tied up with string. This process transforms the weapon into a parcel, the law is respected, and nothing can be said. It is perhaps fortunate that armourers' assistants are endowed with a certain amount of psychology. If, for instance, the customer happens to bo a young woman in a state of suppressed agitation, they sell the revolver just tho same, but do not hand it over. They take the customer's name and address, and promise to deliver the purchase at her residence. The period f,£ delivery is supposed to give time fojc reflection.

MISS EUEOPE THIS TIME

Changes are to be made in the European end of the annual competition for the beauty prizes offered by tho progressive city of Galvcston, Texas. Hitherto each country in Europe- has selected its own representatives, and Kent them, all together, to Galvcston, where, incidentally, the American jury always gave the first prize to an American girl. Two of the leading Paris papers, tho "Journal" and tho "Intransigeant," have decided to change all that. The twenty European countries will select their candidates as before, but theso beauties, instead of going straight to the other side of the Atlantic, will undergo a further process of selection in Paris in February. They •will pass before a jury of artists, each of whom will be a native of one of the twenty countries, whoso duty will be to select the most lovely of tho twenty candidates. She alone, bearing the proud title of Miss Europe, will be sent to Galvcston, to appear before a jury, half of Americans and half of Europeans, with a disinterested export, possibly a Japanese artist, as president.

"BIG BUSINESS" AT AGE OF 7.

Two "salesmen," aged respectively seven and six, are raking in money hand over fist at one of the great Parisian department stores visited daily by thousands of children. On the sixth floor of its premises, tho store has fitted up a racing, track upon which wouldbe customers can try out pedal-driven toy motor-cars, tricycles, scooters, and Iho like. A dense crowd of eager boys and girls holding their parents by the hand breathlessly and enviously watch the. proceedings, aiid say, "Oh, Daddy, do buy me a motor-car,'.' but when it comes to trying out the vehicle they hesitate to risk themselves among the medley of traffic on tho 50 yard-long track. It is then that Roger Dclaporte, aged seven, or Henri, aged six, steps in. Koger, ivho won a motor-car race on the real track at Montihery, the BrookIfinds of Paris, jumps into a toy racing car and pedals round at lightning speed. Then lie stops, takes the prospective customer by the hand and, putting him in tho seat he has vacated, launches him on the track. In 99 cases out of 100, Papa has to pay for the particular toy his offspring has selected. Boger, the seven-year-old "salesman," says that when he grows up, he is .going to be either a racing motorist or an air]Jian,.or both. ' Meantime ho is getting rich quick.

CAKVED EMEKALDS,

Some time ago, a well-known jeweller held a very interesting exhibition of carved emeralds, and it is obvious that this fashion of treating these gems is likely to bo popular now with those women who possess them. Carving makes a stone appear less ostentatious than cutting, and it gives it a quaint and delicate beauty, which is probably derived from the fact that in nine cases itut of ton the work has to be done by Indian craftsmen. The exquisite tracery on somo of tho brooches and pendants must be seen to bo believed, and when emeralds, carved like bigjbeads, arc introduced into ropes of pearls, tho effect is like a blend of something very old and very now.-

RECKLESSNESS AT THE WHEEL.

Most people when alluding to taxicab drivers do so in a general way, cither praising or confounding them, but oftener than not assuming Ihe latter attitude. While it is true that sooner or later a young driver will develop a professional mentality, distinctive of his class, they may be divided into various categories—the polite, the gruff, the cautious, and the reckless. The client, especially if he (or she) is only an occasional taxicab user, will be most apprchen'sive of the venturesome type, and it must be admitted that there is often good ground for alarm in this- respect. A Parisian experienced a case in point yesterday while crossing the city. His driver only once pulled up to givo way to a vehicle emerging from a side street, and this was when the latter, evidently piloted by a man as enterprising and stubborn as himself, drove on. A collision was only narrowly averted, but this, it is only fair to concede, was duo to the two being excellent drivers.