Scan 6
Musical Courier 1899-11-29: Vol 39 Iss 1028, 1899
36 lines. Read by computer on 21 September 2026. Printed page 7. See the scan on archive.org.
1and to form sentences in reply. The tendency is to speak to children and domestics in French.
3English pronunciation is sadly in need of English phonics. It is all that is faulty, especially in the use of diphthongs. The intonation, however, is much more agreeable than ours. A screaming American woman's voice is one of the most distressing sounds in the whole world of vocal production.
5To live in London a really cleanly lady should have made a pretty costume of waterproof or oilcloth of some agreeable shade, cut in the latest fashion; short skirt, chic jacket, pretty toque, all to match, which could be sponged off in soap and warm water every evening. Daily white collars and cuffs might be sacrificed to the Moloch of smoke. In no other way could one remain supportable to one's self.
7In London one is struck by the impression that everybody seems "posted." They all seem to know something. In Paris nobody seems to know anything. There is no place in the world where one hears so many "Oh, ça, je ne sais pas" as in Paris. The man at the guichet for Calais cannot tell you where the Calais gate is in the depot. The soldier in the caserne, close by it, cannot tell you where the Bourse is. People generally seem to know only their one little routine, and that feebly. In London everybody seems to know things generally. Paris knows only Paris, London knows London and Paris besides, and New York and Natal and Pekin and Monte Carlo and Gibraltar, and that is London's advantage.
9When a foreigner in a Paris bank or store asks for an "English speaking person," it is something more than the language that is sought. It is the open spirit, the information, the outside understanding of the person which is desired. To reject everything on general principles is a French failing, and also a failing of which they boast. It is a great pity. Much more bright and intelligent naturally than the English, outside of their own little petty circle, they seem much more stupid and ignorant. This is wholly unnecessary.
11In business in London you meet the spirit of coaxing custom, of pleasing and keeping clients, of constructing reputation even at the apparent expense of the present moment. In Paris all business passage is blocked by the idea of present "bénéfice." It is like shutting out a landscape with a sou held before the eye. They drive away customers for sous and lose at any time a future louis for a present franc.
13In Paris business is done:
14"De la part de qui?" (Who sent you?)
15In London:
16"What have you got that I want, and let me look at you that I may know with whom I am dealing."
17There is less politeness—that is, less polish, but more helpfulness in London activity than in that of Paris. The enjoyment in business is greater, consequently the welcome to foreigners is more true and cordial.
19Street regulation is much more efficient and easily governed than in Paris. With ten times the traffic, and the bulk of traffic, there is not half the interruption, delay or annoyance. All this idiotic screaming of coachmen is done away with by having no necessity for it in the first place, and then by the common sense of the men.
21In London if a man has "anything 'agin' another" he walks up and thumps him or gets thumped, as the case may be. In Paris they draw up their horses alongside of each other and call each other names till a crowd collects, when everybody is happy. If by chance they come to blows it is by a kick in the stomach, when both go off and take a drink of absinthe.
23Officials of all kinds are delightful in London, fresh, alert, ready, plain and direct in replies, with good attention and no waste words or gestures. The policemen are simply wonderful, encyclopaedias of knowledge, kind, courteous and well spoken. Able bodied, too, "which hurts nobody."
25The streets are very badly marked in London, sometimes indistinct, sometimes not at all. In Paris this is perfect. A great nuisance is the naming without number of homes in the residence districts.
27You are invited to dine, for instance, at "Mossy Stone," Shoot-up-Hill, Cricklewood. Your coachman finds Cricklewood and Shoot-up-Hill all right, but may drive you through those districts till 1 o'clock in the morning without finding the "Mossy Stone" referred to, painted in brown on brown on the top of an old gate covered with ivy.
29London streets in general seem dirty and confused. Nothing clear cut, no precision, above all no points of beauty such as mark the rays of every star in Paris' firmament. Paris to London seems like a young and beautiful queen after having seen a rich and pudgy old dowager.
31One thing in London which gives a great feeling of comfort to people who wish that sort of thing is a sense of freedom from criticism.
33The French taste sense being absolute, as the sense of absolute pitch in a musician, those who know of it are in constant dread of creating a discord. In London there is no standard, no critical sense, nothing to interfere with individual ease. To some the sense is of infinite relief. After dress and gossip, criticism is the sole conversation of the French woman. This is different from other criticism, however. It deals with effects, not persons—as discussion of paintings by critics in an art salon. There is rarely anything personal in it. It is always severe, just, absolute.
35It is not uniformity, but correction, that French women
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