OUR PARIS LETTER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17170, 13 October 1923, Page 12

OUR PARIS LETTER.

SPORT, BOOKS AND POLITICS. PARIS, September 6. Last Sunday witnessed that historic “ouverture tie la chasse,” which is a part of Paris traditions. English ang ling stories of the most daring are simply nowhere in it compared with those tales of prowess with th gun that are told by our insoucicant Parisians; un.d retold, with trimmings, by the wits and satirist* of the gay periodicals. Since the preceding Saturday one has seen tiic familiar spectacle of thousands of Parisians, equipped as veritable Nimrods from head to foot, and accompanied by sceptical chiens de chasse. setting off to tease the wily hare or partridge from its covert. The wealthy fellows, with marvellous sartorial effects, are off to the terres reservees; the ordinary bourgeoisie to the village* not too far distant from Paris, where “la chasse est irf/re.” One encountered them in groups ami th# conversation had a familiarly enthusiastic ring. Bast shooting seasons were evoked, and the good sportsmen were at no pains to dissimulate their eagerness to equal, if not excel, the prowess of other, days. Alas! Game is rare this season: very, very’ rare. Ami it is also very, very dear to buy. . . And the wits and sutirists are asking to which of these two causes cue must attribute the forlornly light frag of the gallant chasse ui. PARIS IN SEPTEMBER. September sees Paris moie deserted than in August, in so far as the great world is concerned. The ravishing toilettes of beautiful women and the luxurious caravanserai of cars have disappeared from the circulation, a s the Parisian ha* it. The modish theatres, for the most part, are closed ; the few that remain open arc virtually deserted. The animated parade of the grand foyer with its fashion, its scandal, its intrigue, its intellectual passages arms, is no more. Almost entirely Paris is abandoned to the foreign occupation. It is tho eternal file past of Americans making their conscientious tour of tiff* boulevards and monuments according to plan; a veritable task, presumably, for American laughter is rare. Or it is the hot-blooded Italian element—exiled communists continuing their vendetta against the Fascists and assassinating them in out Parisian Streets. Or it is the German millionaire looking for work in our city, with fiv <k or six million marks in hi* pocket and, finding it impossible to change them for the few francs they 1 are worth, is arrested as a vagabond without visible means of support. . . Or it is the inevitable cosmopolitan ciuua. element, notably represented by the Berk Rosenmann, pursued bv the English Scotland Yard and arrested by a Parisian .detective who had saved his life at a dangerous traffic point two days before, capturing him after the receipt of the “ necessary documents of arrest,” when he hud time to spend—o/ lose— his ill-gotten gain* in Paris or Trouvillo.

PRACTICAL POLITICS. We are practical, here in Paris. Let strangers contemplating a visit to the City of Light be reassured. The proposed tax to counterbalance the rates of exchange has little chance of becoming firench law. Hotel proprietors and tradespeople are strongly and indignantly opposed to ic. “ One must encourago foreigner to spend their money here,” is their candid dictum. And after all, as the English, proverb reminds us, “ there are more wavs Of killing a cat—■ —’ One is not indiscreet to say so. Indubitably tho lor«ign<Sr knows it. Even the placid, blue-eyed English flapper school nns s is improving her knowledge of French in prolonged financial encounters with tho old woman at the flower stall in the market place. THifl WORLD OF ART. The cjhiei topic of discussion in artistic circles i s tile Da Vinci masterpiece, --Da Belle Ferronniere.” It is the usual question: which of the two pictures known is the veritable orieinal; that in the Louvre, or that in the possession of the American lady, Mrs Hahn ? It would seem that a new method of detection is to play an im portant role in establishing the authenticity of a Di Vinci canvas. It was • Ua Vincis custom to use his thumb to spread his colours; a fact evident apparently, in nearly all of his works! As tins characteristic mark appears on both the paintings under discussion, the only conclusion i s that both are genuine. I his is not so improbable as soim*.; lor another habit of Da mu s nas to paint his pictures in duplicate, notable examples being the famous “ La Joconde,” the subject of a similar histoire some years ago. Jean Baptiste ’ ’and •* La Vie rue uu Rocher.”

ACCEPTING THE CENSORSHIP.

Are the I’reach becoming less J'rondeiir r There was a time when the . 1 enc " psychology would have instinctively and vigorously rebelled against incessant intervention of the censor, making a point of protest. Now, apparqptly, u makes a point of docile and un,questioning acceptance. General approval has greeted the latest censorial action in regard to the much discussd film version of “ l, a Gar ' ©une, the most talked of novel of D ESPITE EXP CJ RG ATKIN. 1 The censor lias taken this action doi spite the drastic expurgation of tho : \ ictor Marguerite story. The great j objection put forward is that the re : puCation of the Frenchwoman in genera) would suffer; above a.ll in a foreign country. In essence, the ban has been placed on “LaOarconne” in film lorm a.y the official gesture of a movement of definite reaction against tho deplorable impression made abroad by a big section of French fiction. The new France, conscious of a new strength and a new growth, is revolting against the constant cry: “ i. a France est en decadence.” This same spirit, indubitably, was behind the Marguerite attack, as venomous as the anti-Zola rampalgn at its height--when the book first shocked Paris to it s foundations. Who knows? This latest protest may be the harbinger of a new era in French novel writing. And in the foreign schools and colleges, when tutuors are approached bv adolescent students for a list of French novels, the number of “ possible ” ro- ! manors will not be s o woefully small as in the long, long past, with its uninterrupted flow of franltlv “sen” novels, to the exclusion of all else fine is tempted to the conclusion j that of all the -war-participating connI tries France will see ilio biggest postI" ar change; for it will be a change j profoundly and nationallv psvcholoi giealv. I‘ARCOVREI 11.