NOTES FROM PARIS

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 March 1933, Page 4

NOTES FROM PARIS

FAT MEN SCARCE r *M» France has few men of weight. This disturbing discovery has been made by a Parisian film producer when engaged in adapting for the screen M. Henri Beraud’s book “The Martyrdom of Obesity.” It was necessary to show half-a-dozen men of goodly girth enjoying a fine dinner, and the producer had taken it for granted that he would experience no difficulty in findingsuch men in Paris. To his intense surprise he had to hunt high and low for the desired rotundity. Does this mean, people are asking, that less attention is being paid to the table as a fine art, nowadays? Inquiries amongst leading experts in gastronomy seem to indicate that it does. In the past year or two all the epicurean clubs, from the glorious Academy of Gourmets down to I he humble “Single Dish Club,” have been compelled by financial difficulties to mefd less often. Members of these organisations, which have an important influence on the standard of cookery, are affected by trade depression in two ways. While, on the one hand, many of them have less money to spend on rare and . costly dishes, on the other, the restaurateurs of the capital cannot, afford to invite them to sit as judges at their tables free of charge as often as they could formerly. Fewer Weddings; More Divorces. Statistics of marriages, births and divorces in Prance .iust published reflect. in a remarkable fashion the econ- . omic. troubles to which the population has been subjected in the last, two] years. i During 19;’,1 the number of marriages was IG.tffiu below that of the pre Hou.--. '.’'.ear—-a. decline of 5 per rent. During the same period the number of divorces had increased ( froni ?<», |n9 to 21.21?. The birth-rate <

showed a. fall of 18,000 in the year. It is pointed out that the decline in the marriage and birth rates and the increase in divorces have a common source in Hie trade crisis. People no longer marry so early as their forefathers did, principally because youngpeople nowadays find it more difficult to balance a household budget. Moreover, people who have ventured on the wedded state and set up house freequently find that life has become nothing better than a continual fight to make ends meet. Persistent worry leads to loss of patience -with one- another, to quarrels and to divorce. Melancholy a Disease, The view that a. state of melancholy is not natural to man and is therefore a disease is under discussion. The question has arisen from the marked increase in the number of suicides reported in French newspapers recently. Prof. Claude, a leading French menial expert, has expressed the opinion ihat many people lake their lives because they are .suffering from intense inelam hoiy induced by some unhappy circumstance in their lives. He considers that melancholy is a disease * that, can be cured. Holding that at present no proper provision is made to treat, its victims before they have destroyed themselves or have been classified as "of unsound mind," ho has suggested the creation of a "medico-legal" commission for the purpose. It would consist of three doctors, a. magistrate. an official ami a. barrister. This body would examine the cases of potential suicides or madmen, and prescribe treatment for them. The r proposal has received the almost u tmnimous approval of I Im Academy of M ed ici ne. ■