At the present moment, four or five of the band of self-styled
noblemen who traded on the boy's inexperience and generosity, are
serving out terms in the state prisons for blackmailing, and the
THEATRE FRANCAIS possesses the anomaly of a young and beautiful
actress, who runs a racing stable in her own name.
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.
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