THE NEW PARISIAN BUNDAY.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 12002, 20 October 1906, Page 4

THE NEW PARISIAN BUNDAY.

When the last mail left Etagland, the hew law enforcing Sunday closing was about to come into operation in France, for while tho English Sunday is being more and more devoted to recreation and amusement, France, having just disestablished her Church, has adopted a legal day of rest. The new law meant little less than a social revolution in Pariß, and yet the public were not at all excited about it, perhaps because they did not realise the extent of the change. The closing of the restaurant© was expected to cause the greatest inconvenience, for according to a correspondent, nine Parisians out of ten have been accustomed to give their servants a holiday and go and dine at restaurants. "All places, where one feeds, from these where * bouilion costs twopence-halfpenny to those where no peach is to be had under four shillings, are crammed on the Sabbath, and no one who can help it, and who wants to dine decently, dines elsewhere but at a restaurant on Sunday." This correspondent regarded the universal closing of restaurants as almost unthinkable, and prophesied a revolution if it were carried into effect. TJp to the time of going to press, however, the revolution had not arrived, so one may conclude that the Parisians have settled down resignedly to the new order of things. Interesting evidence was supplied by the employers themselves of the need for the law. They admitted that they preferred to shut up once a week rather than to give their employees a holiday and keep open, for they could not possibly find capable substitutes. "If substitutes for these servants are not to be had," it is remarked pertinently; "when do the latter unfortunates ever get a holiday at all? Apparently they are given half-a-dozen days in the off season out of the three hundred and sixty-five. 7 " Parisians were also threatened with the abolition of Sunday theatres, a blow only less severe than the closing of their restaurants. The question was how to carry out the law. "The managers of theatres presently may find themselves in a quandary, having to decide between closing one day a week or giving the company and hands one day off weekly all round \n rotation. The former course might irritate the public. The latter, besides costing money, might vex the actors. One manager ingeniously asks whether stars will like to be replaced once a week by inadequate understudies, and whether the public will like it either. On the other hand, suppose the understudy, instead of proving inadequate, makes a hit? The star will probably be no better pleased, says the manager, who knows histrionic human nature." Wealthy Parisians were thinking of running up to Brussels for their Sundays, for there no such law is. in force days, for -there no such law is in force.