Day by Day

High Cost of Living! — I love old newspapers. They're an inexhaustible mine of information, and they teach us philosophy through the comparison they allow us to make between the ills we suffered yesterday (and which we have forgotten) and the troubles of the present. It's true that sometimes the comparison doesn't turn out to be unfavorable to the past. But then we wonder how and what we could possibly complain about.

Here's a clipped piece—from a provincial bi-weekly newspaper dated September 23, 1911. I've simply deleted one name, though I've left the initials. As he promised, Mr. F. R..., the mayor, summoned the bakery union to the town hall to examine the possibility of achieving a price reduction. He had the satisfaction of obtaining, on two occasions, a reduction in the price of bread, bringing it down to 0 francs. 35 francs per kilo, when in other cities it's still 0 francs 37, 0 francs 38, and even 0 francs 40.

Bread too expensive at 0 francs 37 per kilo! — What would we have said, Lord, in the year of grace 1911, if someone had predicted that we would be paying sixteen sous per pound fourteen years later!

The Pardon of the Birds. — This is one of the most picturesque and graceful pilgrimages in Brittany. Every year, around Pentecost, it draws crowds to the Camoël forest, where it is held, not far from Quimper. As its name suggests, what makes it so original is the fair that accompanies it. Birds of all species can be seen there, not only from here, but from all over the world. What Breton bride, accustomed to long cruises, doesn't bring back some exotic bird, parakeet or macaw, Bengali or canary, egret or bird of paradise? The most sumptuous plumage, all the marvelous tones of warmer climates, an incomparable range of colors, charm the eyes of the regulars of this haven. People come from ten leagues around, and I'm not talking here about the merchants who usually stock up here, but about the young girls who go there in their finest finery—fine headdress, embroidered breastplate, local or regional costume—to buy, between two dances, the beloved winged singer who will brighten up their little worker's room with his trills.

Amnesia. — A hen, who had little brains, had just found the nest where she had laid an egg empty. It's funny, she thought, when I put something away, I can never remember where I put it. »

Original trials. — When sport goes off the rails, under pernicious influences like vanity, the morbid desire to be talked about, or some stupid bet, there are many stupid things some of its devotees don't commit. There's no need to dwell on them. One day, at the Place de l'Opéra, two pedestrians, to the astonishment of onlookers, formed a "tree" and began walking on their hands. They had bet to cross the central reservation from one end to the other. Moreover, an American set the record for skipping, making I don't know how many hundreds of jumps in a quarter of an hour. And a billiards champion took on the challenge of winning a game of 500 points by playing with his umbrella as a cue!

Let's move on! —To these kinds of feats, how much do I not prefer, for my humble part, the exploit of that Frenchwoman, Mrs. Dublé, who, a few years ago, in Spa, during a sandwich competition, found the means to make 2,000 in one hour, with 22 hams and 40 four-pound loaves! In this vein, the sporting spirit applied to the exercise of the profession—I agree with my colleague Jean Lecoq, who cited various examples and did not find it so ridiculous. The races of forts from the Halle, carrying on their Herculean shoulders, and from Paris to Corbeil, a load of one hundred kilos. Barrel rollers vying in skill and agility over a set course. Oyster shuckers also entering the competition, the most skilled of whom managed to open a hundred in four minutes. A speed match between butchers for the butchering of a sheep, which one of them managed to carve into ten pieces in less than three minutes. Good news! All this is understandable. All this means something, not nothing, like that disgusting championship of gluttony won, in America, of course, by a man named Patrick Diwes, who ate seven kilos of beef in a single meal!

Criterion. — NEIGHBOR. Your son just threw a stone at me. FATHER. Did it hit you? NEIGHBOR. No. FATHER. Then it wasn't my son who threw it at you.

Double and Model. — Who doesn't know the admirable equestrian statue of Charlemagne, erected on the square in front of Notre-Dame? Perhaps a few Parisians. Certainly very few provincials and foreigners. What is less well known, for example, is the anecdote surrounding this statue, created by the brilliant chisel of the Rochet brothers. When these artists were commissioned to carry out the work, their first concern was to seek out a double of the great emperor to serve as their model. They finally discovered him in the person of a passerby whose powerful head, expressive features, and majestic beard were unmistakably reminiscent of the image they had of the first of the Carolingians. They weren't just talking to just anyone, and this passerby was none other than a great physician, whose name was authoritative at the time, although they still only knew him by reputation: Doctor Dumontpallier. Quite taken aback by the suggestion they immediately made to him to pose their Charlemagne, Dumontpallier nevertheless agreed to accept their arguments. And that's how, in the august guise of the greatest monarch of Christendom, he, a modern patrician, had his own equestrian statue in Paris!

Appreciation. — -What do you think of these women who strive to imitate men? -How stupid they are. -I agree with you. Imitation isn't always successful, but in their case, there's no denying it, it's perfect.

CLÉGUER.