PARIS WAKING UP

Waikato Independent, Volume XXII, Issue 2492, 10 January 1922, Page 3

PARIS WAKING UP

EVENING DRESS AT OPERA

DOWDINESS DISAPPEARING

From a Correspondent. .PARIS, Nov. IG.

Paris is beginning to recover much of its pre-war brilliancy at society functions.

During the war a Government decree prohibited the wearing of full evening dress in theatres. The management of the Opera has now announced that evening dress is obligatory in the boxes and orchestra stalls and is desirable in every other part of the house, except, of course, the cheap seats. This sets an official stamp on the movement started recently to tighten up a slack society that was in danger of becoming distinctly dowdy. Another sign of this renaissance is the keen interest taken in a controversy as to which arm a man ought to give to a woman whom he is accompanying. Andre de Fouquieres, the recognised leader of elegance in Paris, asserts without hesitation that it must be the right arm, • ■ Chivalry in the Streets That is because of the custom in the old days of chivalry, when men carried swords and .necessarily had to offer their right arm to their fair lacWs, whom otherwise the trailing weapon would seriously inconvenience. As a matter of fact, however, according to Andre, it is incorrect to give a woman one's arm in the street, because it implies certain rights over her which a gallant gentleman should at?, all costs avoid flaunting in public. The proper way is to place the hand just under the woman's elbow. <

Fortunately, it would not occur to many people to enter a drug store and ask for "five francs' worth of cholera germs, please," but a recent poisoning case in Paris has revealed that there is nothing in French legislation to. prevent a person from setting up a complete laboratory of cultivated bacilli of every known disease. The Paris municipality has become alarmed at this discovered gap in the poison laws and the appalling and unlimited possibilities it opens to crime.

At present one might be suffering agonies from toothache, yet no Paris druggist would sell the smallest quantity of opium to the sufferer without a doctor's prescription. Nor would he consent to deliver a little tincture of aconite wherewith to gargle a sore or tired throat unless ordered by a doctor. Roger de Lisle 's Tomb.

In the war fever of 1915 the French Government decided to transfer the remains of the immortal composer of the "Marseillaise," Eouget de Lisle, to tho Pantheon, where they would bo among the tombs of the greatest men France has produced. The casket was taken from the suburban cemetery of Choisy-le-Koi and carried with great pomp and ceremony to the Invalides. But it got no further.

The authorities of the Invalides are beginning to complain that Eouget de Lisle is occupying space that was reserved by Louis XIV. for Field Marshals and Governors. Eouget de Lisle was only a Captain, so he has no right to remain there eternally. Unfortunately, he cannot be taken to the Pantheon until a special bill passes Parliament authorising the transfer. But both Government and Parliament have forgotten all about the decision taken amid scenes of enthusiasm six years ago, so Eouget de Lisle, like many among the still living in these times of house shortage, has to content himself with a temporary home.