Nasby in Exile: or, Six Months of Travel in England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium, with many things not of travel — John Locke — John Shaqi
Nasby in Exile: or, Six Months of Travel in England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium, with many things not of travel
John Locke · en
it in great quantities at all hours, and intoxication does not ensue.
Outdoor sitting is made possible by the harmlessness of their accustomed
drinks. The climate of New York is well adapted to this sort of thing,
but were Broadway lined with these cafés, with the public sitting at
the small tables, how long would it be before a gang of ruffians, filled
with the frightful whisky of the country, would swoop down upon them and
scatter tables and people. A gang from the Bowery, filled with the
fighting whisky of America, or the soul-searing brandy of the British
land, turned loose upon the Boulevard des Italiens, or any other
boulevard in Paris, would occasion as much terror as a Communist
insurrection. But with the light wines of France, and the quiet
pleasure-seeking and pleasure-enjoying disposition of the Parisian,
everything is as quiet and orderly as could be desired.
[Illustration: A COSTUME BY WORTH--THAT COSTS.]
There cannot be in city life any sight so bewilderingly gorgeous or so
delightful as the boulevards, either by day or night. The streets are
lined with beautiful trees, and then the shops and cafés are exquisitely
beautiful, as are their contents. As I said, the shops are almost
entirely devoted to the sale of articles of luxury, for the Frenchman,
acute being that he is, discovered thousands of years ago, that a profit
of five hundred per cent. may be made upon articles of fancy; while the
dealer in things essential, which may not be dispensed with--articles of
prime necessity--obtains a beggarly ten or twenty. He learned centuries
since that Madame will pay any price for a hat that pleases her taste,
and do it without question, while she will haggle an hour over the price
of twenty pounds of sugar or a cut of beef. He who deals in necessities
must find his reward in the consciousness of honesty. His customers will
not let him be anything else.
[Illustration: A MAGAZINE ON THE BOULEVARD.]
[Sidenote: THOMPSON, OF TERRE HAUTE.]
You shall see shop windows filled with jewels that might well hang about
the neck of royalty--indeed, so costly that only he or she who has an
empire to tax can afford them--shops devoted to the sale of pipes, the
price of which, some of them, go up into thousands of francs; galleries
of pictures, magazines of bronzes, and all kinds and descriptions of
statuary, and the thousands upon thousands of costly nothings with
which rich people adorn their homes. Artistic paper hangings, ornamental
work in leathers, and every other material; shops for the sale of
everything that is ornamental in women's wear, and, in a word,
everything that delights the eye, but which humanity, but for its vanity
and longing for the beautiful, could do without as well as not.
And an enormous trade these caterers to the non-useful carry on. The
whole world comes to Paris for these things, and they bring their money
with them for this purpose and expect to spend it.