THE WICKEDEST CITY IN EUROPE.

Evening Star, Issue 10339, 12 June 1897, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE WICKEDEST CITY IN EUROPE.

» M. Beranger, who may be described as the guardian of public morality, has once more come forward in the French Senate to call the attention of the Government to the in- j crease which is taking place in the various ■ forms of immorality in France in general and Paris in particular, and the necessity of strong measures to remedy the evil. The subject, he said, was one of extreme gravity, especially to the rising generation, who were daily growing more and more corrupt. It was painful, no doubt, to show np the vices of one's own country, and he had hesitated for some time before doing so, but he felt it his duty to make a clean breast of the deplorable situation. Ho would view it from three standpoints—the newspapers, the streets, and the theatres. The chief danger was the newspaper. At one period immoral literature only appeared in book form, but now it was the papers which were the principal offenders. M. Beranger proceeded to give a few choice examples of the advertisements to be found in certain Parisian journals. The ordinary wants of elegant young gentlemen or desirable young ladies were bad enough, but the worthy Senator was horrified to think that "a delightful young widow should desire to make the acquaintance of an elderly gentleman who would lend her a thousand francs." He then turned towards the vile publications which were exposed on the Boulevards. Efforts had been made to stop the sale of them, but it went on all the same, for prospectuses were sent out by post like the books. The senator analysed some of them. The theatres were next attacked. M. Beranger said he knew it might be objected that people should stop away, but as a rule the title of the play or comedy did not suggest what the piece was really like. He was very severe on some of the productions, which he described as wicked and audacious. In one of them, he said, young actresses said things that would make the most hardened man blush. He quoted what M. Frauoisque Sarcey said of a pieoe, the performance of which he attended—namely, that he could not mention the plot, because it was too much of a polissonnerie. Another critic styled a pieoe as a " spectacle of debauchery." MaDy Paris produotions were forbidden in other cities of Europe, where they were oonsidered shocking. Then, said the Senator, in a solemn and indignant tone, "there are the oostumes," at which a member cried out, amid great laughter, " But they don't wear any." M. Beranger said that his colleague was quite right. The skirts had given place to tights of a natural color, and of such a diaphanous texture that they did not appear to exist. In some countries this would not be allowed, but Franoe was a moral country—at least so we are told—aud had a Censor, and yet what did he do? M. Beranger proposed various measures, foremost among which was the passing of a new law destined to fill up the gaps in the old one, which was powerless to deal with the abuses which he had signalised. M. Rimbaud, Minister of Public In struction, replying to M. Beranger, said it was now intended to bring the offending cabarets within the same police rules as the theatres, and subject them to censure. As to the theatres, they were for grown-up people. Doubtless there should be a respect for what was seemly at them. He feared, however, that Moliere and the dramatist of antiquity might have incurred the censure of M. Beranger, who forgot there was recently a movement in the Chamber to get rid of the licenser of plays. However, as there was serious ground for complaint, orders had been given to prevent any play being acted that was contrary to good manners. Steps had been taken to stop the sale of foul books and prints at railway stations. Paris was a dual capital. There was the Paris of the dissipated and pleasure-loving people from everywhere. It was a very bad Paris. The other was the French Paris, the Paris of laborious, serious people. A reaction against grossness was very apparent. Government favored it as far as they could. M. Trarieux, ex-Minister of Justice, thought M. Rambaud much too optimistic. The theatre was in a state of festering decay. In the seventeenth century dramatic authors believed in virtue, in the eighteenth century in reason, and in the early part of the nineteenth in romantic passion, and at its close in low and brutal instinct. A resolution proposed by M. Beranger was finally adopted. It expressed confidence in the firmness and vigilance of the Government.