The _Grand Prix_ dates from the reign of Napoleon III., who, at the suggestion of the great railway companies, inaugurated this race in 1862, in imitation of the English Derby, as a means of attracting people to Paris. The city and the railways each give half of the forty-thousand- dollar prize. It is the great official race of the year. The President occupies the central pavilion, surrounded by the members of the cabinet and the diplomatic corps. On the tribunes and lawn can be seen the _Tout Paris_--all the celebrities of the great and half-world who play such an important part in the life of France's capital. The whole colony of the _Rastaquoueres_, is sure to be there, "_Rastas_," as they are familiarly called by the Parisians, who make little if any distinction in their minds between a South American (blazing in diamonds and vulgar clothes) and our own select (?) colony. Apropos of this inability of the Europeans to appreciate our fine social distinctions, I have been told of a well-born New Yorker who took a French noblewoman rather to task for receiving an American she thought unworthy of notice, and said: "How can you receive her? Her husband keeps a hotel!" "Is that any reason?" asked the French-woman; "I thought all Americans kept hotels." For the _Grand Prix_, every woman not absolutely bankrupt has a new costume, her one idea being a _creation_ that will attract attention and eclipse her rivals. The dressmakers have had a busy time of it for weeks before.