OUR PARIS LETTER

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 124, 28 May 1930, Page 19

OUR PARIS LETTER

MODERN WOMEN

AN INDICTMENT OF EVE

PARIS, 2ml April,

Monsigaor Dion, Iho distinguished churchman, ' who yesterday afternoon opened 'his series of Lenten lectures for women and girls at .the church of St. Eoclvis not. likely to offer his fair congregations many compliments. This, at least ..one gathers from liis viows of the .motfoni woman and her daughter expressed yesterday. The reverend gentleman declared that many women to-day inado him think of savages who. had too soon received their liberty. Ho was shocked at their behaviour in church. ; Even at Communion he had seen; a man about to kneel down when two women pushed themselves in front'"ot him and nearly knocked him over.' It women acted like that in church, "What," asked Monsignor Dien, "must their conduct bo like outside?" With regard to the, daughters, he was of opinion that they were suffering from the lack of paternal control during the war years. "For," he said, "it is as necessary for a girl as a'boy to bb trained by ■ the., father as well as the mother. The father is the representative of force and of good sense." "■ . . One thing of which he was certain, however, was that1 women should be in the homo and not out of it. TRICKS WITH TRESSES. ■ Women's tresses, it seems, may before long be once again, her charm, if not her .glory.-For the Parisienne, at any rate, tired of the streotyped flatness of recent fashions, has started to be whimsical in her headdress, has indeed begun to .play' tricks with curls. The coiffure, in fact, is taking a more prominent part in a woman's toilette than it has for years. The smooth head she hides beneath her smart toque on her morning walk presents a very different aspect -when she is dressed for an important evening function. Growing hair, which is not allowed as a rule to grow beyond a certain length, may be -curled' 'in a roll above the neck with the .ends resting softly on the cheeks. If the toilette demands additional importance a single braid of hair may be laid across the head. The other evening a rolled curl over each ear was worn by one fashionable woman, although her hair at the- back was straight. Flat curls, too, may slightly accentuate the shape of a beautiful head or bo skilfully used to hide some defect. The essential thing is that the coiffure shall be suited to tho woman's personality. There is even a prospect of jewelled headdresses coming intofavour once' more, for several smart women have been wearing flexible gemmed circlets of late. "NINI-PATTES-EN-L' AIR." , Memories of a gay Paris that passed away a long time ago are revived with a touch of irony by the death which has just occurred in the Hopital de la Charite of one of its prominent, lightfooted entertainers.' She was a partner of La Goulue in the "can-can" dance, and other such terpskhorean sensations which were in vogue about forty years ago at the old Moulin-Rouge. Like La Goulue, she fell from comparative opulence to poverty, and almost to obscurity. Paris in .those days was more prone to give its favourites nicknames than now, and it called her Nini-Pattes-en-1' Air,; an appellation which, distinct from the primitive temperament suggested in that of La Goulue, was a tribute to her'agility. Other examples were- Grille d 'Egout, who died many years-ago, and Valentin-le-Desosse and Pomme d-'Or, who, according to ParisMidi, is still alive and, unliko her partners, has avoided poverty. ' Nini-Pattes-en-I'. Air enjoyed considerable prosperity after her retirement from the music-hall, and until some years ago used to take walks in Montmarte accompanied by a number of prize dogs, but few people were aware.of her identity. She-figures, -with La Goulue, in a number of paintings and drawings by Toulouse-Lautrec, which have been purchased by the State. HOW SAILORS ARE MADE. Two hundred years ago would-be sailors learned their profession, on. the spot, that is to say, they joined their ships'l'often utterly ignorant of the sea., and gained their knowledge in the hard school of experience. To-day potential sailors may receive a large part of thoir training.hundreds of miles from", the sea, as is the case of the French cadets-nt the fine Bchool of navigation, which is rather surprisingly situated in the Avenue do Wagram. Their practical, education, howover, will in future be given them oh a large and up-to-date sailing ship which 13 now being, built,-and which is to be equipped with motors and wireless. . It is curious to remember that as far back as tho Restoration thero was a similar school, but in this caso the cadets received their "sea" training on an old frigate which, had been reconstructed in the garden. The masts and rigging towered high above the wall, no doubt a soufco of groat curiosity to passers-by^, but probably many a fine sailor received his first lesson on tho old timbers of the ancient .ship. MAGNETIC HEALING. There was a lively scene at the Sallo Ployel. following the lecture given by Dr. Sehterm.anu. on the treatment of ailments by magnetic influence. When it was announced that M. Joanny Gaillard, who is described as a "magnetiseur," would give demonstrations a number of people protested, but their voices were drowned in a counter demonstration, by some hundreds of other members, of the audionco, and it was not until the police made their appearance in. .the hall that silence reigned again. As soon as, M. Gaillard announced his readiness to treat cases on , the spot thero was a wild rush of some 100 persons to the platform, which beeamo overcrowded. One after another the "healer" passed his hands over tho eyes, heads, shoulders, backs, and knees of patients according to the location of tho complaints. A man suffering from sciatica said after this simple treatment that ho felt no better, a girl who suffered from pains in her head conceded she felt, partly relieved, and so the experiments, continued until a late hour with varying evidence. M. Schtermann, in explanation of M. Gaillarfl's failure to cure a number of cases, informed the audience that the- noisy demonstration had deprived him of much of his power. Tho attitude of tho vast majority of- the assembly however, was quite sympathetic to both the lecturer and the "magnetiseur. "■ , /