LADIES' LETTER.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 128, 28 October 1874, Page 3

LADIES' LETTER.

Paeis, September 5. The prospect of all political parties gaining the day in 1880, is only eclipsed in interest and happiness by the solemn opening of the sporting season, where again brethren can be seen dwelling together in unity. At the several railway termini there reigns much animation and picturesqueness, and if the fair sex be in a minority, the canine race does not want" representatives ; indeed, it would seem that dogs of every species, of high and low degree, whether puppy, whelp, or mongrel, are good for the sporting service ; the animals, like their masters, understand their epoch, and both are eager for the fray; some of the animals, however, have a downcast look, feeling that they are at the mercy of inexperienced shots, for whom all is fish that comes into their net, man's faithful friend included. During the run by rail, the most noisy and familiar conversation takes place between the dogs and their masters, they understand each other so well, that one is tempted to believe that they belong to the same family, and that no missing link after all separates them. What a concert of voices for ears polite, or otherwise; bark • ings, whistling, upbraidings, imprecations, and appeals. " Castor," is as disobedient as "Pollux," and "Diane" as unruly as "Acton." The dinners, which take place on the occasion of the opening of the sporting season, have a peculiar character, there being no ceremony and a great deal of gaiety; the ladies do not appear in grand toilette, their role is effaced by that of the heroes of the day—the " bagmen," so any display in the way of dress would be a sheer loss; man for the moment has returned to his primitive nature when he lived by hunting, his eyes and his ears are only for his kindred nimrods, and their triumph, whether real or romantic, equally please. There are sportswomen who here also . make known their claims, and have their claims allowed ; they are made up in character, so as to follow to the field some warlike lord without inconvenience ; their costume is in cloth ; gaiters, high boots, and short jupons; they have men's collars and steel belts, the collars and cuffs being of different colors ; ferryman's hat; a tiny game bag is slung across the back with fowling piece on shoulder; no wonder they are more dangerous for the disciples of St Hubert than for partridges, quails, rabbits and timid hares, such strong minded sisters are rarely unmarried, and if so, are not long left to pine on the stem. The peculiarity about going to the sea side is this : you leave the city expecting to enjoy a little blest retirement, and find you are but in the centre of your circle of friends and acquaintances; there has been really more serious bathing done this season than flirtation, so that ladies have a truly healthful look, and with such a good flow of spirits ; in addition quite a change has set in on the part of gentlemen in search of wives ; they are opposed to candidates who are pale and bony, as indicative of special rearing, to speedily fall sick, with a tendency to early death, £; hence, ladies are renouncing Banting, and are graduating to become robust without being full, to patronize the dietary of their mothers and grandmothers, rather than ambrosia in the form of sweet-meats, and nectar in the shape of cordials, for lips though rosy must be fed. It seems but as yesterday the fashionable world left Paris in one of its swallow flights, and it is now lon the wing back, following the early chills of autumn, and the capital puts forth all her seductions to entice the wandering sheep into the fold; the theatres offer

their broadest farces, their wittiest comedies, and their most tender melodramas ; the restaurants, their snuggest cabinets, their most appetizing mets ; the shops are full of marvels in silks, velvets, cashmeres, and merinoes, of every shade of blue, brown, and green, and at ridiculously low prices for plethione purses ; the new bonnets are not the less ducks because they recall our grandmothers', who wished sensible women to have something on their head palpable to feeling as to sight; the booksellers remind us to lay in our stock of literature now for the winter, as we would our supply of firewood and screened coal, and the persons who count upon an annual gratuity for serving, neglecting, or tormenting you, feel as interested in your longevity—till New Year's Day at least—as the insurance company with which you have effected a heavy policy, with or without participation in profits. After all, there is no place like Paris ; to feel this truism, pitch your tents elsewhere for a time, if only to experience the delightful sensation of being carried back to old Virgina. The suppression of the betting-offices is really a boon to Parisian society, as the extensive nature of their organisation, and their propagandism, were eating upwards through all classes ; the hardworking population, waiters, barbers, tradesmen, apprentices, schoolboys, clerks, and shop-assistants, have since some seasons worshipped the golden calf, being at once the victims as well as the adorers of—to the French —the new idolatry ; and people of easy position were commencing to mix with the crowd, being drawn by the current to try their luck for once, certain to return to take their revenge; but saddest of all was the spectacle of women being proprietors of such offices, and of foolish sisters treading in the same fatal path as men; the Government has done right to decree the excision of this cancer; the people directly affected will be most benefitted, "it will mend their morals—never mind the pain." There is another class of dens that ought to be taken in hand, namely, the hotels of seaside towns; here the visitor is unmercifully plucked, and has not even, as in rouge et noir, the ghost even of a chance on his side ; each summer the observation is too well-founded, that hotel prices have increased, are increasing, and ought to be diminished. A number of fleeced tourists are publicly soliciting the receipted bills furnished by the proprietors of the sinning hotels, intending to publish them in the form of a handy book. But travellers, unless officials and the followers of Mr Mould, never do preserve their hotel bills; they are not agreeable souvenirs, those which recall the Quart d'heure de liabelais ; one cannot but throw in imagination an old slipper after the idea for good luck ; it resembles the Septennate, that so many wish to support, without the slightest belief in its durability. Parents have been brought to consider the question of punishment in public schools by the notorious case of pupil-flagellation in a neighbouring nation. The rod is not used in French collegiate institutions, as a rule ; it has been found to demoralise the scholar, to fail in its object, for all chastisement which does not go to the heart, which does not conduct to salutary repentance, is injurious, and defeats its end. There are two school holidays weekly in this country, Sunday and Thursday, in part; and this rule is in uniform vigor from Calais to Bayonne; by preventing the pupils' enjoyment of these holidays, by compelling him to write interminable lessons from dictation, or to commit to memory so many lines of Latin, &c, poetry, constitute the general mode of punishment. Under this routine of narrow discipline, without counterweight, the mildest character becomes soured and sulky, and the germs of indiscipline and hypocrisy take root, for it is a maxim, painful to record, among the youth of the universities in France, " the worst of enemies is our master." The authorities hesitate to touch this system of discipline; prefer to consider a boy only as a machine to learn a little Latin and. less Greek, hence it is not surprising that so many parents—mothers above all, ever quick to detect an alteration in the temperament of their boys —prefer to send their sons to be educated outside France, till at least they have accomplished their tender years. What a loss to the catalogue of noble and devoted women is Mme. Bazaine. We believed, on her own statement, that she rowed her husband across the dark and stormy water the evening of his escape, dressed in white, all in white, as delivering angels are supposed to be so clad ; well, it seems the lady's part was played by a daring young man—oneDoinean —half sailor, half militaire. Mme. Bazaine's fantastical account is now unanimously rejected; she holds undoubtedly everything to be fair in war ; then she may be pardoned, as she loved much ; the most romantic history of the evasion will be the account of trial of the disloyal guardians of the prison, and the influences brought to bear on them to open the doors ; it is difficult to blind French authorities with concocted stories, and more so, to expect the nation to believe them. Another ex-commander, but of a different kind is Garibaldi, for whom a Kobinson Crusoe life may have charms, but is certainly not productive of practical philosophy. In his book just published on 'the Marchings of his celebrated "Thousand Volunteers " in the liberation of Italy, Garibaldi employs the preface to ventilate his political views; one can guess in advance what these are respecting the clergy, against whom he was not always so rabid ; he harmonised with them at Palermo, and duly at tended mass as chief of the State. Perhaps next in his contempt is the government of Italy; in this, the Romans while escaping the rule of the priests, have but fallen under the equally bad administration of the King ; it is out of the frying pan into the fire. Leaving home politics, recommending young Romans to profoundly study them as the one thing needful, Garibaldi proceeds to deal with the evils of society at large; to cure all the ills that political flesh is heir to, and to make the world a paradise, nothing it seems is required from us but to eat exactly one-half less than we do, thus the starving half of our race will be fed as good as ourselves ; this peiiacea of short commons will have the merit of being iicav—the characteristic alone of all similar elixirs, not that the sincerity of the old general is to be questioned, his absteniousness being on a par with his poverty; it seems so odd that he Avho could have been all but King, and declined more than Vice-regal recompenses, should have no other money of his bankers than the 12000 fr expected to be realised by the subscriptions to his book; there is where he shines, as patriots generally keep an eye to the main chance, commencing by feathering their nests. September is the month for anniversaries and pilgrimages in France, and were the

almanac regularly followed, not an hour could be spared to attend the fete of St. Cloud, which is a correctly-conducted Donnybrook Fair, and that every true Parisian worth his salt is expected to visit and perform his share of tomfoolery—for a little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men. Then the distractions of St. Cloud have the advantage of neither offending nor favoring any style of politician; they recall the good old times when the '' whole duty of man" in France was to eat, drink, and be merry, when the monarch had no fear for his head being whipped off, nor his subjects being compelled to undergo the same unpleasantness. Revolutionary terrors, monarchial reactions, imperial quietism, had better be interred for ever ; indeed a national, not an international, league of peace, is very much required, where apostles could practise, not preach, toleration—it is the preaching which kills—and so remove one of the chief evils of French social life. Some good-natured people, not going the length of believing in the millennium, did expect that the endemic of pilgrimages which burst forth like a political campaign last summer would have effected an important change for the better. In this respect we have but to mourn the hopes that leave us ; the pious mania has not completely died out, the pilgrimages are being modestly resumed in numbers, as well as in appearance : they are fewer, but the devotees have less the air of excursionists and holidaymakers ; their appearance is business-like, severe, and ascetic, and there is a disposition to practise mortification, as second class carriages are only now patronised, an alteration that does not at all please such heretical gentlemen as railway directors, who test the progress of practical religion by the weekly receipts of the lines. French ladies, who have ever a great deal of spare time on their hands, despite their ability to peruse all the novels as they appear, are more and more forming societies, to provide clothing for the poor ; they either make up the share of materials alloted to them, or present articles fashioned and completed according to their own ideas, but the fundamental rule is, to work themselves, and so set a good example. Another excellent idea is, the volunteer services of many ladies of high rank to teach girls every kind of fancy work, other excellent persons afford gratuitous instruction in modern language. Madame de Macmahon is the moving spirit in these measures for the amelioration of her fellow countrywomen. Among other new lady plans, is the opening of a central depot, where ladies can consign their cast off wardrobes to be sold for their account, and so escape the ordinary clo'dealer ; these "rejected dresses," if their state permit, will be repaired and cleaned, dyed, if neeessary, before being put up for sale. A new purse has appeared, bearing a watch on one side, and the owner's crest, or initials, on the other; "time is money," is thus inculcated, and the pickpocket enabled to kill two birds with one stone.