FRENCH LOVERS’ ADVERTISEMENTS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 215, 23 October 1875, Page 22

FRENCH LOVERS’ ADVERTISEMENTS.

(From the Pull Mall Gazette.) The “ Petitcs Annonces” have for sometime been a special feature in the Sunday number of the Paris Figaro, and are surprisingly tame when the national reputation for wit is considered. Absolute freedom is apparently allowed to advertisers. The “ Petite Correspondance,” intended for lovers, is almost entirely appropriated to tradesmen’s puffs, which cannot compare in originality with the brilliant effusions called forth on this side the Channel by Ozokerit or .Floriline. Thus “ T.L.” is informed that “ since he has left off off absinthe the captain is gaining ground ; the marriage will take place as soon as Blanche is well, which will be soon, for anemia and stomach-ache disappear rapidly under the influence of Mariani wine.” Another advertisement, though not of a strictly commercial nature, is eminently business-like :—“Sign of the Crown. I had rather be the wife of a joiner than the slave of a prince. But I keep tho bracelet all the same.” There are eight offers of marriage in the last number, one being from a lady described as of age, and possessed of a downy of 5,000,000 f. She is careful to remind would-be suitors to pay the postage on their letters. Indeed, whatever may be said of the degeneracy of modern Frenchmen, they unquestionably retain the ancient virtue of thrift. The cost of the special advertisements in the Ficjaro is a franc and a half the line of thirty letters, and the desire to obtain money’s worth leads to orthographic puzzles of this description ;—“M. L. de 1!., 33 a. qual. mor. et phys. brill, aven. polit., d’une vicille fam. vendeen., 150,000 f., aven., 500,000, dcs. deni, ou v. jolie. apport. iinmed. 1 million. 11. 11. 75 p. rest. Paris.” From the above it is perfectly clear that M. L. de R. has a limited fortune and considerable expectations, and that he is willing to marry a young lady or a pretty widow -with a pretty fortune, while the skilful manner in which he has inserted the word “ brilliant” between “ physical and moral qualities” on the one side and “political future” on the other, leaving it to apply to either, or, as is possible, to neither, is calculated to convey no mean impression of his diplomatic abilities. “A young man of twenty-eight” would also like to marry a “ Frenchwoman of Alsace-Lorraine.” As no intelligible address is appended to this announcement, it may be regarded in the light of a patriotic affirmation of the eternal union between France and her lost provinces. It seems childish, and yet the sentiment must be a strong one for which the writer was induced to pay half-a-crown.