Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1880 — Through Paris Spectacles. [ARTICLE]

Through Paris Spectacles.

Indite had a wonderful appetite. He was aaharued of It, but wm compelled to aetidfv It. Hie fiirorite rest*urant was Brebsnt’s. Every fifteen days he would make his appearance ana Pali for Brubant. He would tay: / “My dear Bre bant, to-morrow eight gentlemen will dine with, me. (And he woald give their names.) You mow mem; all good fellows, who know what’e what. Very well, twenty franca ahead,not counting the wine, of courne. Get up for me one of your beat billa of fare —something that will do you honor. - We will »Tt down at six,* sharp, military time. I have warned them that we will wait fornobodv.” • The next day he urrivea a little before the hour. He examines the table, arranges the ornament* as he thinks will suit the tastes of Ifls friends, and he writes their names on cards whleh he places lieside the plates. He pulls out his watch. “What!” he savs, “six o’clock, jind nobody here?”

“You may be a little fast,” suggests ttubant. . Lsdjte resents this indignantly. “No, 1 compared with the Bourse as I came along. I said military time and I gave them warning. I will teach them u lesson.” Brebrant pleads for the laggards. “Well, five minutes grace, not another second.” He goes twenty times to the window, bat there Is no sign. The five minutes sre up. “1 will nave my j he cries, “those follows may j catch up if they can.” He attacks all alone this dinner for nine persons, and in four hours he has devoured It, washing it down It would be hard to sav with now many bottles of wine. He talks all the while to himseif, but so that the garcon can hear: “Why did those rascals deceive me? A., yes. perhaps he ought to be excused. It Is his mother-in-law’s birthday, and 8., remember he said he was not well, and B. I’ll wager I he met some woman on the way,” and so on until he hud found an excuse for each one. Suddenly he strikes the table in anger and roars furiously: “But still they should have had the politeness to have written me a line.” When lit* U at his coffee he says to llrehant: “You see, If I had to you I would have been waiting yet. Ne*xt time we must see somehow that they are more exact.” And the next time and the time after he was ak>ne, and he finished always with these wort Is, as he rushed out: “I will ask them again, Breliant. lam curious to know how far they will carry their ill breeding.” Poor Indite, he was fastened In i’aris in IU7O died of hunger during the seige.

Adelina Patti has l»een telling the Gaulis how thoroughly she detests Kngland and the English, and all because of the income tax: “It is a country where you can neither hunt nor sing, nor do anything you wish, and I have but one 41ea, to •tell my property and get away from it forever, as quick as I can. I cannot sing in Berlin, in Paris, anywhere, without finding when 1 get back to England a government agent who demands from me a certain sum for each of my engagements. It is the income tax. It is from my voice I have my revenue, is it not? Well, they tax my voiee. Monsieur Niecoliiii went to great trouble and ex|K‘nsc to arrange for hunting, aud then ill tiie country people for nnles around came and insfsted upon great amounts of money liecause the pheasants destroyed their crops! You cannot imagine the trouble we had in this beautiful England, sung by the poets. We were surrounded by enemies, curious ami jealous, who invented against us tli3 most terrible things. These people have poisoned ray life when I thought to be* happy and tranquil, and thev have made me desert in horror the little nest I tiought with so many joyous hopes.

They lielieved in Paris to the last that they had full cause for their treatment of Jacques Offenbach during tiie commune. Bom in Cologne, he was always at heart, they persisted, a German, and it was said that on his vovage tiack to France from America, aft'er his visit here, during tiie centennial exhibition, that he uid not hide his German sentiments. The story that he posessed the “evil eve” annoyed him greatly, and strange to say, the superstition was credited by such men as Merry, Theophile Gautier and Alphonse Royer. It was thought to Ik* unlucky to shake hands with him or even to pronounce his entire name; so, generally, he was spoken of simply as Jacques. His apjK-arance had something to do witli this idea. They said lie looked like Mepliistopieles, with liis long lean figure, hisiked nose and mocking glance. He was exceedingly jealous of the success of the Herve, liecoeq. Pianehette anti all others who seemed to Ik* forcing their way into what he haqi come to consider his exclusive realm of opera lsniffe.

Tiie notary’s’clerk to his fiancee: “You love me?” “Yes.” “You have never loved anybody but m"?" “No.” * . “ Very well; now write all that down in this *note-book." M. X 7 asked a separation from his wife because of incompatibility of temper. “I’m sure I don’t know what he would have ” said the lady; “I wish everything he does. He wants to be master and so do I.” A celebrated pianist to his friend: ’’You do not know how hard it is to give a concert.” “No, hut I know how hard it Is to receive one.”