Our Paris Letter.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2113, 12 October 1875, Page 3

Our Paris Letter.

(BY OUE OWN CORBESPONDENT.) Paeis, August 24. i Social. Existence in Paris during the recent Senegalian temperature was as eccentric ap it vfp.s pavrful. Peopie flocked just like the fish in the river to every spot where they could gasp a mouthful of cool air. No one thought of remaining in doors ; ( all descended into the street, and from J time to time threw buckets of water on the pavement, or the asphalte, that had become like india-rubber. After quitting ~~bome, ihe next stage was to quit clothes, and shirt and pantaloon became the fashionable attire; Indeed the question of. "Nothing to wear" was being seriously debated, and it was quite possible had the heat continued, modern Athenians might have appeared, as "when wild in woods the noble savage ra,n." There was a general dissent from the ,gfltik>ctrine of Ecclesiastes, that it was <14a thing for the oyes to beho'd the sun." The bridges were covered with people as the deck of an excursion steamer; the banks of the river were black with the sovereign people, many of whom sat dangling their feet in the water; round about the squares and crossings, the aged were sqatted like Indiana, and others roamed about with chairs and stools in their hands, seeking a haven of rest..'-. The establishments famous for ices vvere.besieged like a fortress ; no Eiot Act would have been able to disperse the parched souls, who appeared to perspire, the more ice-they consumed. The Wallace drinking fountaius were unapproachable, and , bottles were passed over heads to be filed, much to the indignation of the hundreds who formed the steaming queue. .Blessings on the man who invented sleep, said Sancho Panza ; crowds invoked the same on the man who endowed Paris with free big drinks ",The sea side is a shade cooler, but life there is something like sardines in a box. At some .of the hotels in Dieppe, and rising Boulogne - tiur • Mer, customers would not go away. Where there was room for their baggage, there was, they alleged, place for the, owners. In not a few instances the Box and Cox principle of occupying apartments was adopted And nobody complained ; the sight of the sea and of a green field subdued rebellious thoughts; then roughing life is not without its advantages. At Dieppe bathing parties of both sexes are not rare; there are circumstances where the parts of the beach reserved for each sex are allowed to be encroached upon- Also there are some curious people who believe * themselves to be models for sculptors and desire to display their forms gratuitously. It is a vanity as well as othsrs, and finds often its own punishment in the negative admiration of the. galleries. AdelinaPatti has her little yilla at Dieppe and enjoys all the quiet that friends, admirers, and the curious will . allow her. She receives strangers at first somewhat coldly, but soon warms up ; she speaks French, English, German, Spanish and Italian with great fluency, and better Still, writes them accurately. She attributes her facility to her musical aptitudes, and a special, memory for sounds. She only studies her parts in as many hours as others do weeks, and knows perfectly thirty-four r6les, in which she can sing at a minnte's notice. In learning a new role she but hums it, executing it aloud only when surely acquired. She partakes of three meals daily, has an excellent appetite, drinks but claret and iced champagne. The latter, strange to gayy does not affect her voico as cold drinks so generally do. She sups between midnight and one in the morning, but the days on which she sings she dines at four, devoting half an hour to reading her part before going on the stage. Never were so many game licenses issued to Parisians as this year. There seems to be a passion for blazing away in proportion as the game is becoming scarce, and were it not for the markets many a sportsman would return with an empty bag. No shop-keeper, schoolboy, or- clerk believes life worth supporting were they deprived of the pleasure of appearing once or twice during the season with a dog, a gun, a game bag, untanned leggings and a canvass costume. The next eccentricity is to be photographed in this Nimrod character. There is gunpowder in the air; farmers are groaning for their root crops, and dogs look the belief that their days are numbered. Like other evidences of civilisation, the true disciples of St. Hubert are becoming smaller by degrees. And respecting dogs — which some philosophers say represent the best trait in man, they have suffered truly of late; their misery might be estimated by the length of their exposed tongues. Nearly seventy per day of erring dogs were taken up by special police appointed for that duty, and who possess ability in throwing a lasso ; similar to their confreres toid off for their expertness inHihe coup de filet for the jilles dejoie. The dogs are conveyed the knacker's yard, receive a biscuit and an unlimited supply of water. They are classed, in respect to value, and if not claimed or purchased within three days, are hanged to pay expenses, as '.veil as to be got rid of. The executions take place at break of day; there are two Marwoods, who tie the fore and hind feet of the dogs, i adding a weight thereto; the noose around their neck is attached to a beam; the animals are then swung off iii* batches of ten. Some of the dogs express gratitude for being freed from a life of misery; others "lick the hand upraised to shed its blood." After a suspension of thirty minutes, the animals are lowered into a truck, and then skinned while warm, such telling on the value of the skin for glovemaking. The carcasses are trundled into a dustrcart.'and conveyed to Bondy, where they are deposited in a reservoir, with dead horses, &c, and are immediately dissolved ; later, mixed, up with charcoal powder, the compound is sold to florists sad market gardeners as poudrette, a valuable fertiliser. Thus nothing is lost: " Imperial Cajsar, dead, and turned to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away." Any valuables found on a dog, such as collar with a name, are pi'eserved for two months, and then sold, the total proceeds going to the municipal fund, which pays the interest on the debt left by Baron Haussman for beautifying Paris. Many owner* arrive to claim their lost pets, but too late, and then there are " shrieks as when lapd.Qgs and husbands breathe their last/ ; .■«,-■■'■ ; Items. , No respectable French family would keep any other but an English coachman, and every such domestic is called "John." Brighain Young has one of his sous

| —'ought riot liis nrime to be Legion ?;-just' j entered the Paris School of Medicine, fc-'ome journals advise the grisetten of the j Latin Quarter to be on their guard. I M. Klaczko, among other unpublished j letters of Prince Bismarck's, gives one, ' where the Chancellor, on the eve of the battle of Sadowa, wrote to his wife to ) send him "some French novels, but not more than one at a time." The Duchesse de Choiseul observed of Voltaire, that he merited to be incensed and despised at the same time, which, in ) addition, is the fate reserved for all objects ot worship.. Paris journals teem with advertisements for making persons either fat or thin. Cassius will be able in the course of a week to exchange his lean and hungry looks for those of a Falstaff, for whom the grave yawned three times wider than for ordinary men. The Bourse is the most central and animated part of Paris at 3 p.m. It is also becoming the most dangerous, as a stock-broker has just chosen the quarter to fire five chambers of a revolver at an ex-friend, in return for a cow-hiding. An odd place to select for " settling day." A passing porter received one of the balls in his leg, and -a. bank clerk another in a bundle of bank notes. ' The King of Portugal's brother finds the mechanical feeding machine for fattening poultry among the first sights of Paris. A reporter has been nearly kissed'to death. He entered the wrong.apartment to seek, particulars of a murder, and was welcomed by an old couple, as their expected son, after an absence of twenty years.