The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, October, 1913: Vol. LXXXVI. New Series: Vol. LXIV. May to October, 1913Various
General
The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, October, 1913: Vol. LXXXVI. New Series: Vol. LXIV. May to October, 1913
Various
Periodicals
As in the Café de Paris, I noticed that it was not so much the quality
of the furnishings as the spirit of the place which was important.
This latter was compounded of various elements, success being the
first one, perfection of service another, absolute individuality of
cooking another, and lastly the subtlety and magnetism of sex, which
is capitalized and used in Paris as it is nowhere else in the world.
Until I stepped into this restaurant I never actually realized what it
is that draws a certain moneyed element to Paris. The tomb of Napoleon,
the Panthéon, and the Louvre are not the significant attractions of
that important city. Those things have their value and constitute
an historical and artistic element that is imposing, romantic, and
forceful; but over and above that there is something else, and that
is sex. I did not learn until later what I am going to say now, but
it might as well be said here, for it illustrates the point exactly.
A little experience and inquiry in Paris quickly taught me that the
owners and managers of the more successful restaurants encourage and
help to sustain a certain type of woman whose presence is desirable.
She must be young, beautiful, or attractive, and, above all things,
possessed of temperament. A woman can rise in the café and restaurant
world of Paris quite as she can on the stage, and she can easily be
graduated from the Abbaye Thélème and Maxim’s to the stage; and, on the
other hand, the stage contributes freely to the atmosphere of Maxim’s,
the Abbaye Thélème, and other similar resorts. A large number of the
figures seen here and at the Folies-Bergère and at other places of
the same type are interchangeable. They are in the restaurants when
they are not on the stage, and they are on the stage when they are not
in the restaurants. They rise or fall by a world of strange devices,
and you can hear brilliant or ghastly stories illustrating either
conclusion. Paris--this aspect of it--is a perfect maelstrom of sex,
and it is sustained by the wealth and the curiosity of the stranger, as
well as of the Frenchman.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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