approved in Paris and London. [Illustration: CARD. Design by Guillaume.] Much as in the present day, English tastes were followed in many things, not all of them feminine. The _Tableau de Paris_, published by Sébastien Mercier, lamented that "it is to-day the fashion among the youth to copy the English in their clothes." The large stores, the _magasins_, called themselves _anglais_; and the sport of horse-racing, which was beginning to be popular, and which was largely a matter of importation, naturally brought in alien words to shock the purists. The _jockei_ was sweated down to his proper weight to mount the _bête de sang_ [blooded animal]; _cheval de race_ was antiquated, and bad form. In the present day, there is a _Ligue d'honnêtes gens préoccupés de maintenir le bon français_, and who quote Béranger: "_Redoutons l'Anglomanie, Elle a déjà gâté tout._" [Beware of Anglomania, it has already spoiled everything.] These "worthy people" admit that for such words as "jockey," "lawn-tennis," and "sport," for which there are no equivalents in the French language, there is some excuse, but why, they ask, is "turf" better than _pelouse_; "flirter," meaning "to flirt," than _fleureter_ (_conter fleurette_, to say pretty, gallant things); "garden-party" than _une partie de jardin_; "five o'clock" than _cinq heures_? Is "boarding-house" any more euphonious than _hôtel meublé_, or "tub" than _bassin_? Scarcely! Nevertheless, the English fashions, especially in men's garments, continue to enjoy great favor in Paris; and it may be noted, for the gratification of our national pride, that in some minor matters, such as shoes and ladies' stockings, the American articles are to be preferred to the Parisian ones. All these futile and minor things, _toilettes_, _brimborions_, take on, a hundred years later, the importance of historic documents. "One would not go so far as to say," observes M. Bouchot, "that Napoleon was dethroned because it was found that the _fleur-de-lis_ made an adorable ornament for a _parure_ of crape, but is it such an absurd idea?" Under the reign of Louis XVI, it was proposed, more than once, to establish an _Académie de la Mode_, and an _Académie de la Coiffure_. A certain _citoyen amateur de sexe_, Lucas Rochemont, invented a concours, or competition, of new modes among the real _élégantes_ of France. It was the custom then to put forth small jokes against the Académie, just as it is now; it was declared that men of letters should renounce it and all its works, and that it preserved no better the purity of the language than it did that of taste. Nevertheless, it retained a certain respect, and the title, _Académie de Coiffure_, with which certain hair-dressers and wig-makers provided themselves, was forbidden.