Homepage
Login
Profile
BookClubs
dmBox
Read this ebook for free! No credit card needed, absolutely nothing to pay.
Words: 73897 in 21 pages
This is an ebook sharing website. You can read the uploaded ebooks for free here. No credit cards needed, nothing to pay. If you want to own a digital copy of the ebook, or want to read offline with your favorite ebook-reader, then you can choose to buy and download the ebook.
PREFACE 7
Looking through the list of subjects dealt with in these chapters, it will be seen that the criticism of French life carried through by John F. Macdonald covered, from 1907 to 1913, nearly all events in every domain of Parisian life during this critical period.
"It has been repeatedly and persistently asserted, in hastily written articles and books, that the war has created an entirely 'new' Paris. Journalists and novelists have proclaimed themselves astonished at the 'calm' and the 'seriousness' of the Parisians, and at the 'composed' and 'solemn' aspect of every street, corner and stone in the city; and how elaborately, how melodramatically have they expatiated upon the abolition of absinthe, the closing of night-restaurants, the disappearance of elegant dresses, the silence of the Apaches, the hush in the demi-monde, and the increased congregations in the churches!
"'A new, reformed Paris,' our critics reiterate. 'The flippancy has vanished, the danger of decadence has passed--and in place of extravagance and hilarity we find economy, earnestness and dignity.'
"the Land beloved by every soul that loves and serves its kind."
FREDERIKA MACDONALD.
IN THE STREET
In my almost daily perambulations through the brilliant, through the drab, and through the ambiguous quarters of Paris, I constantly come upon street scenes that bring me inquisitively to a standstill. Not that they are particularly novel or startling. Indeed, to the Parisian they are such banal, everyday spectacles that he passes them by without so much as a glance. But for me, familiar though I am with the physiognomy of the Amazing City, these street scenes, amusing or pathetic, sentimental or grim, possess an indefinable, a never-failing charm.
For instance, I dote on a certain ragged, weather-beaten old fellow who is always and always to be discovered, on a boulevard bench, under a dim gas-lamp, at the precise hour of eleven. Across his knees--unfolded--a newspaper. And spread forth on the newspaper, scores and scores of cigarette ends and cigar stumps, which have been industriously amassed in the streets, and on the terraces of caf?s, during the day. Every night, on this same boulevard bench, at the same hour of eleven, the old fellow counteth up his spoil.
"Fifty-five, fifty-six, fifty-seven," he mutters.
"Eh bien, le vieux, how are affairs?" asks a policeman. But the old fellow, bent in half over the newspaper, hears him not. When--O joy!--he comes upon a particularly fine bit of cigar, he holds it up to the gas-lamp, measures it closely with his eye, then packs it carefully away in his waistcoat pocket. But when--O gloom!--he has a long run of bad luck in the way of wretched, almost tobaccoless cigarette ends, he breaks out into guttural expressions of indignation and disgust.
The night wears on. Up go the shutters of the little wine-shop opposite. Rarely a passer-by. Scarcely a sound.
Free books android app tbrJar TBR JAR Read Free books online gutenberg
(0)More posts by @FreeBooks
