"SAME OLD PARIS"

Waikato Times, Volume 89, Issue 13813, 18 July 1918, Page 6

"SAME OLD PARIS"

NO MOPING AROUND <) PETER. HUT STILL UNDAUNTED W iiii: i !u' lolloping at - i uiiL u..s .iispatched to the New York Herald, the" Germans were driving hard for \■.■ •: To-day. of Course, the menace is nearer and greater —'nut- i'ans, we feel certain, maintains her stoic calm. I

Strangers who expect to find Paris a cit v ot sadness and mourning fret a most delightful surprise on arriving here. Although the war has struck a staggering blow to the nation of whirh this city is the heart, and although the sounds of the guns may now be heaid in the boulevards, Palis is the same old Paris. Perhaps some of the gaieties which once flaunted themselves before the gaze of the visitors have been toned down, but the spirit of Paris has survived the tragedies and the years of suffering. It is the life that one does not see which has lieen transformed. T lift re are no grand receptions in the mansions. There are no evening clothes in the restaurants. The places which had their doors flung wide open from sunset to dawn are darkened or closed, and the streets are more like cata. combs at night than the brilliant thoroughfares which in former years cast their splendour upon the people cf all the world.

But during the daylight hour 3 there is nothing to suggest the horrors of the war. There is not the least indication of the impoverishment and paralisation which has been hinted at abroad. The streets are crowded. The jewellery shops along the Rue de la Pai have just as gorgeous window displays as ever. The modiste and millinery shops have lost none of their alluring daintiness, and the street traffic goes tooting by in an endless stream, much as it does in Fifrn Avenue at Forty-second street or Michigan Avenue at Jackson Boulevard.

The restaurants are crowded. Persons desiring to be served usually find it necesarv to engage tables in advance. Food is by no means so plentiful as it was a year ago, hut French culinary versatility compensates largely for scarcity of meats and sweets, and one may dine almost as sumptuously here as in Now York. The prices are very high. Dinner for two without wine in any of 30 of the prominent restaurants will cost a couple, with ordinary tastes about f'O francs—lOdol. In a few places this will easily be swelled to 150 francs. Stoic Mourners.,

But for the presence in the streets and in the restaurants of tens o! thousands of uniformed men, one' would hardly suspect that he was in the chief city of the nation which has been hardest hit by the war and which has borne the brunt of the casualties. Women in mourning are seen everywhere, and crippled men, but there is no evidence that the nation is cast down. On the contrary, its spirit is as buoyant as ever. The people are wenrv of the war, as are the people of all the rest of the world, but this weariness has by no means reached a stage which will even consider sacrificing any of the principles for which France and her Allies have been at war.

One may hear in England stories | that France is a stricken nation; that she lost so many men and so much money that she is merely groping her way toward the end. I have found none of this. In the same way one may hear here that in England the people are getting ready to lay down their burden and make peace. I found none of that feeling in London. No one is speculating- ■here as to when the war will end. Everyone hopes it will end this year. Mo«t French people believe the end will not come this year. But everyone is confident that the end will bring victory to France and the nations fighting with her. In a walk from the Place de la Con. corde, through Rue Royal, Boulevarde Madeleine, Capucines, and to the Place de 1' Opera—one would probably met on any afternoon 100 American soldiers in uniform. These khaki-clad stalwart "Yanks" are to be seen everywhere in Paris, and the folks back home may well be proud of them. As the saying is out in the Middle West, they "mind their business." They may lie seen drnking light wine or beer in the street cafes, hut I haveyet to hear of a single one being seen who had drunk to excess. Their decorous behavious has delighted the Frenchmen some of whom had an idea that the Americans from the West and Middle West are a wild and woolly set, wearing sheepskin leggings and carry, ing a pistol in every pocket. . The scale on which the United States is doing everything in France lias astonished the French people. American authorities have taken over great buildings and in a few days made beehives of activity of them, l'reight terminals, piers, storage war?.. houses and temporary structures ha<e ben constructed 011 a gigantic scale. It has become convincingly evident to the French people that Uncle Sam has come into the war with both feet, and that he is preparing for a siege of five years if necessary. The picture of peaceful and magnanimous Uncle Sam lv=ing transformed overnight into a military giant has rather amazed France

Ford to the Rescue. I have talked with prominent French officials, who say that in a year the United States will have the greatest war machine the world has ever known. There was disappointment among the French people six months ago that the United States was not. able to come into full strength immediately, but this disappointment has now given place to a feeling of complete confidence than in another year the United States will be able to deliver a crushing blow to Prussian rnilit.r, :sm. Sometimes one has to go far Irani home to ascertain tiie news. [

have hoard here many times that the a\tu;;l smews for defeat in Germany will be furnished by Henry Ford. The belief liere is that in a very short time he will lie turning out 100 airplanes a day. It is a good feeling for the Germans to have, anyhow. Iho difference in temperament between the French and the English is weli illustrated hv the behaviour of the two peoples during air raids. I have been in both cities when Gothns were dropping bombs, and have l>een in tiie worst raids each city has expericncd. Here there is no fear, nor is there any likelihood that the German bombers can terrify the French into a state which will accept a German i)e:v-'.'. Hut when the "alert" is jiivea in Paris there is much more excitement than in London, and there is a much more marked tendency on the part of women and children to become hysteri. leal when the bombs shake the citv. 1/tti'ior. the phlegmatic, stolid Hrit-

islier s:ts :;;iiftly in his home or in it's i reste.urant and "takes chances." i,on- ! cloi: has been bombed a d' /en tioies I w >: :s been aHetkod .si c, I ;.::f .i ti:e raids ctutte everv night !.o.u ! dor, would im)t crv for a c.-ssaron of the v::-r. N< .ther would Paris. Both I cities are unset which, is inevitable, I but 1 J " "■ s hows mere phiinlv th'in 1.0l)l'o!|. ! Paris is prepared f° - (nuinued i iainons statuary :rr.e.-p, i aiioiii ts;>■ ciiv hew h,-imi o!t.- wed with I s-:t'dbag<. i'ei si ;w |.l fK -ed i about tie citv. and raw i f ■warning i!t. ion ere 1 • iij... ' wiu.nles :;t;ac!!cd to !iu engines v.v»t>

lif*: 1 iiv •> I iiese eiaugn.g velv"l.>s dashed .ill almut the city crying •.iiH ic v :r uiami. Now (hurcli in-il-are rung. In London warning is given when tin* I'liuiiiy machines cross the I'll'. l : -!i st. Thai >■: 1 • s | «•<>j•!.■ a hali.iiour to get to cover. in Paris the warning cannot Ik> jri vt'ii till the hostile airerati, is practically on r 1110 city, ami there is therefore a wild scurrying of people ior five or ten minutes.

i'ii'ly "di-Is from the I"^ifed Mates lound it difficult to convince people here that the Americans are indeed idealists, and that when the war is end 'd she will find her reward merely in ih< knowledge that autocracy and barbarism have been rebuked and that Uncle Sam helped to do it. Statesmen in Franco fully understand it. An Information Committee from the United Slates is here now to drill the sat.ie tiling into the minds of others and to lot the neutrals know that in the United States they have not alone a powerful, but a true, friend.