OUR PARIS LETTER

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 9, 12 January 1932, Page 16

OUR PARIS LETTER

TO A-YOUNG PAINTEE,

THE KINGLY CHEESE

'From "The Post's" Representative) PARIS, 25th November. ■ At the little town of Creil, not far from Paris, there is to be inaugurated on Sunday at tho Municipal Muaeuin a room in memory oE Eugene Emmanuel Lemercier. He was a young painter of great talent, ono of tho legion of youth in its flovrcr who died on the field of battle between 1014 and 1918. He may claim a particular place in the memory of British people. His mother, was of Irish descent, for his grandmother was Harriet O'Hagan Osborne, an accomplished arti.st, who, born in Dublin in 1830, died in Paris in 1921. Many British people, too, will remember for its fmo idealism the book "Letters of a SoJdier." The letters were written by Eugene Emmanuel Lcmorcior to his mother, and they woro published in book form after the death of tho writer in April, 1015. For many, then, the room in the Museum at Creil, with its pictures by Lemercier, will have a deep and poignant, interest. HAIRPINS 5000 YEARS OLD. Feminine ornaments five thousand years old were described by M. do Genouiliac at the last sitting of the Academic dcs Inscriptions. They were found at Tello, where archaeological explorations have been carried out for about sixty years. More fortunate than most of his predecessors, M. de Gcnouillae found a treasure comprising 71 white pearls and 41 ornaments, principally copper hairpins, the heads of which are figures of dancing girls, with their arms raised above the head in very graceful attitudes. In other earthenware vases were mirrors, pots for face-paint, babies' rattles, manicure implements, and a great variety of tools. The skeletons of the owners were lying on their sides, with bent kuces. THE PRESIDENTIAL EQUIPAGE. French horse-breeders have made> an enterprising move in an effort to help their industry. They have approached the President of tho Eepublic to urge him to return to the days when the ceremonial conveyance of the Chief of State was a landau driven by four horses mounted by postillions. This picturesque equipage was once the glory of the presidential procession to the review at Longchamp on tho fourteenth of •Tuly, and was seen on other big State occasions. A writer in a Paris paper points to the example of Kiiig George, who still drives in a horse-drawn State coach to op?n Parliament. Breeders believe that if M. Duumer were to return to the old custom there would be a revival in the popularity of the horse. It cannot compete with the motor-car for speed, but it has its advantages. It is pointed out that it is a more economic means of locomotion, and that it invests ceremonial pageants with more dignity than docs the motorcar. PAMOUS MEN'S LETTERS. It seems that the thief who recently stole a bundle of Victor Hugo's letters from the museum devoted to tho poet in the Place dcs Vosgos is not Hlcely to make much out of his spoil. After all, the monetary value of the letters even of famous men is very much regulated by the law of supply and demand. Victor Hugo was a voluminous letter writer, and so many of his letters are in existence that it is estimated that one of his epistles would at the most fetch only lOOfrs. One of the best sellers in the epistolary line is the poet £omeille. Ono of his letters will bring the owner 40,000 francs, while Racine also finds a "ood market at 25,000fr5.- a missive^ betters of the revolutionary period also fetch a good price. A Camilla Desmouiuis not long ago brought 10,000frs, while a Danton will fetch from 7000 to SOOOtrs. Pew letters, however, will fetch more than one from the pen of Chopin. ■The composer hated writing letters, and left very few behind him. Any epistle irom him existing to-day is almost priceless. CHEESE STIRS LEGAL ELOQUENCE The piquant odour of that highly flavoured, blue moulded king of cheese —Roquefort— permeated every nook and cranny of the Correctional Chamber here yesterday until even the Judges forgot their dignity and became conscious of it. On the table in front of the Judces' mahogany bench was the object responsible for these pungent smells—a bi«ake of Roquefort. And around that table sat three men. n-P ie 6 W:f- re cheese merchants on trial ihe Syndicate of Genuine Roquefort accused these men'of having—Oh! horrors—made Roquefort cheese 'from C°^, milk,, ana sold !t a« the real stuff •Niero,' said the attorney repreCwV h% S^dicate <* Genuine Uieese Manufacturers, "There is a real Roquefort cheese. Made .of sWs m.lk sheep of the Larzac which g ra P ze :L"r eTr-cour? o S nXT ted *• »l at it, gentlemen! That creamy ewe's milk is coagulated by pressure: the curd separated Irom the whey, the curd mixed with bread, and placed in earthen pots, in the heart of the cheese ia developed a fungus, penicillum glaucum the cheese 13 pierced'with long needles' and iinally is placed in the caverns and grottos of Mount Courbalou. It is a work to be admired. Every momont of "The humid air currents passing over the rubbish of Mount Courbalou cure that great invention of man. The temperature of the grottos varies between four and eight degrees centigrade. And at tho end of 40 days the cheese is ready for sale." The attorney then cited royal'letters un l e\i£' aiKl Charlea VIL ' d*tod f +T,an 1 d- 14? 1' rofc"*«- to the making of the kingly cheese. ' _ All the Court, after sniffing and sniffing, levied upon each false merchant 25 irancs fine, and 50 franca damages