OUR PARIS LETTER.

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1835, 23 June 1874, Page 2

OUR PARIS LETTER.

[from our own correspondent.] (Ctinti/nued.) Paris, April 18. With the return of the fine weather, Parisians have resumed their weekly promenades. This year, secular pilgrimages instead of being to the usual suburban villages, will extend as far as the proposed new fortifications, destined to convert Paris into the strongest entrenched camp in the world, having defensive frontier forts around her,comprised within a radius of twenty miles. The French do not yet understand the constitution of a pic-uic j the idea of transporting the contents of the pantry some miles into the country, to be spread out on the grass, strikes them as absurd. They never rise higher in this respect than to bring a package of meat and poultry, purchasing bread and wine, convenient to the 'site of their alfresco repast. Their idea of going into the country to dine, is confined to bauquetting a la carte, in the little groves of the wine gardens— a place that has much to recommend it. This season the suburbs of the city will nearly be as gheer-r f ul looking as they were before the invasion. The devastations, if not repaired, ' are concealed from afflicting the eye. The number of villas to be sold, rather than to be let, indicates that many families cannot afford the luxury of a residence in the country as heretofore, and yet prices have not much diminished in the ray of rents. Hotel-keepers in these little towns hitherto proved so extortionate in their charges, that they have driven away customers, which compulsory reduced tariffs . fail to attract back. Burnt people dread the fire. Ever ingenious, a French family rents an apartment of five or six rooms, and then sub-lets the chambers to his immediate relatives or friends, who board in common. Keeping up appearances never trouble them for a moment ; they will relate their domestic affairs to you if at all interested, with all the glibness of children, and your own in addition as a proof of their universal knowledge. The pilgrimages, which formed so con. spicuous a feature in the political propagandism — lost rumor— do not promise to be what they were this season. The religious persons who directed the pious caravans seem inclined to concentrate their energies towards securing for the church the complete control of the higher educational institutions of the nation. This has been the object of the recent congress of the Catholic committees. Thus all chance of a convenio, as the Spaniards say, being arrived at, between the clergy' and laity, is at' an end. The clerical party insist upon all or nothing; the laity, are

willing to accord a share to the church, at presem; later if the agitation waxes warm, the sectlarists may not be so pliable. The Cardinal of Paris has protested against he new city cemetery, situated sixteen niles from the metropolis, aa being toodistant, and so likely to destroy that beautful affection which the French have for tfe dead. The Municipality has bound itsell to purchase nearly 2000 acres, after discussing the project for seven years,. and lis Eminence does-nofcTseri-ously calculate upon his letter breaking the bond. A pastoral recommending the faithful to intensify their love for lost ones under lesa convenient— perhaps — circumstances foi visiting their remains, would be more \n reason. It will be as easy to reach the new cemetery as several of those in the viunity of the city, and since the mortuarj pilgrimages are only exigent every All Saints Day, the drawback is not insurmountable. In exchange, living citizens will escape pestilence, as their is 'no doubt \be neighborhood/ of Pere La Chaise and Montmartre were poisoned. In the way of cremation projects, there is nothing new, save discussions as to which Frenchman first recommended the plan. A suggestion has been made, with the view of popularising; the process, the remains of such personages as the First Napoleen, &c., ought to be exhumed and solemnly iacinerated, : the ashes to be then placed in an urn and deposited in the corridors of the Arch de Triomphe. The application of the idea would be better than converting us into gas and ammonical salts, and selling our ashes to raise sugar beet and cattle turnips. To what base uses may we come. Even the dust of Alexander was considered capable of stopping a beer-barrel. Could industry not turn our skin to account ? The Greeks, the Romans, and the Parthians, were excellent, tanners! "of human skin. In the museum of Nantes, there is a remarkably well-preserved 1 Bkin of a Republican soldier killed in 1793, and a famous warrior had his prepared to form a drum, and so still terrify his enemies. ' ' A bust has been placed in the library, of St. Geneviere to the. memory; of Gering, who in 1470 founded the first printing office in Paris. . After •■; four centuries, honor is rendered where honor, is .due. The Minister of Public Instruction, in his short address, did not, touch upon the perils of the printing trade in past r times. It was a king invited Gering .to Paris to establish his art, and it was reserved for succeeding kings to all but extirpate it, printing being included among the damnable heresies. Francois I. having protected' the printer Le Fevre and his companions, abandoned them to the executioner. On ■ the 21st January, 1635, Francois and his Court assistedat the burning of condemned printers : a lighted taper was given to the king, who passed "it to the; Cardinal de Guise, who handed it to the executioner. The procession then reformed, attended a Tc Dcum at the Church of St. Geneviere, and then retired to a banquet in the Episcopal Chapel. The same monarch prohibited the printing of any book in the kingdom, under penalty of being hung. Dolet, the friend of Rabelais and the publisher of his works, was hanged, and then burned with his books. And yet Francois, who decreed these horrors was called the " Father of Letters" j ' Our Guild of Literature and (Dramatic) Art has fallen upon evil days. It never examined the politics of the members., no. _ more than their religion. To be an author, to produce in a word a book — for "a book's a book, although there's nothing in it " — was the sole qualification of member. : ship. It is thus that Felix Pyat, Valles, Rochefort, &c., are on the rolls. The Government declines continuing a subsidy of 12,000 f a year to a society that includes, distinguished Communists.. The Guild does not wish to lose the grant, nor yet to violate its own constitution. People behind the scenes assert that the Society would confer the greatest •benefits upon j literature and the drama by dissolving,' and leaving not a wreck of itself behind. Pending thai Rochefort arrives to recount his strange eventful history, the Bonapartist journals concentrate their attacks against him. This would indicate that Imperialism counts him as a power still. It is now whispered that fes'thia uniting of the. personal his.to.ry of the Second Empire Roohefort has valuable private papers in safe keeping, and which ■. the Commune and the sack of the Tuileries^* placed in his possession. He becomes thus an object of curiosity still, but as for possessing any political importance, no one accords him that. Parisians would, have no objection to pay well f on his stinging epigrams on the manners, and customs of the. day. To hear from him when exiled at Brussels, quite a rage set in to purchase the piaster busts of Napoleon 111. imported from Brussels, because . they contained copies of the proscribed/^ Lantenie. " ' The youn,g man who swallowed the table fork writes, to. the papers declaring that he cannot reply to the numerousletters he receives, requesting a description of how he accomplished the feat— much against his w|U, and that he objects going to the Provinces or elsewhere to, show himself. Evidently the subject has - seized the nation ; the doctors are divided as to the propriety of an operation, and Y\ the journals team with " authentic" cases . of knives, forks, and spoons having heeii swallowed with impunity, as well as of. a. priest who, in a state of mental alienation, swallowed his string of beads and its pendant cross. The book was recently sold with other volumes, asserted to have been the. property of Henry IV., containing his cypher and crest, It was , the funeral V oration on Maria-Theraw— an event which only took place some 73 years after his death. The purcbasor was delighted with his find. Henry TV. supplied mauy curiosities. In I.BQS, when the P-ourtales collection wag sold, a part of that monarch's moustache, saved when the populace desecrated the royal tombs Lot, St, Denis, brought a high price ; as -algov 4 fragments of Moliere's bone 3, and a portion of Turenne's winding sheet. When the royal tombs were rifled, the remains ; of Henry IV. were found in a most perfect state of preservation ; even the mark where Rayaillac stabbed him with .-, the knife. The wreckers placed the monarch ; against a pillar, where he remained for aC: night, and next day a fresh band of madmen arrived and hacked him to pieces. Goutanche, who was present in disguise, then seized a part of his Majesty's beard asasouvehir. . . . / A poor work girl complained of sometimes not haying enough to eat— u^tis harder," replied a Jttk do joU, "to be, v compelled. to eat when one is, n<$ J hungry." ■ •--■'•«:■'..,

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