A Great French Fair.

all in full play ; while between them along the broad avenue , as far as the eye could reach , undulated a sea of holiday folk , numbering many thousands , all apparently in the best humour with the brig ht sunshine , the rustling trees , and the abundant entertainment provided for all who chose to look . For the theatrical booths , greatly as they varied as to

pretension and price , yet accorded in other matters pleasing to the populace . Along the front of each was spread a painting of what was supposed to be performing inside—and which generally depicted some thrilling scene—while to add to the attractions , ever and anon there issued from the open portals some of the players who promenaded the p latformor

per-, formed some scene for the amusement of the public , or executed some neat footed dance , to the music of the band , whicli each theatre kept working at high pressure . Ancl that favourite French instrument , the drum , being paramount in each , it is impossible to overrate the extent of the din , or how completely it drowned the announcement of the

performances within , even though they were generally vociferated through speaking trumpets , such as are used at sea . However , ignorance as to what they should sec , did not deter visitants , for as fast as one audience ebbed out through the open doors , another flooded in , and ou oue occasion we tided in with it . Considering the decided love of the French

over our own . countrymen for spangles , gilding , and frippery generally , we were surprised at the freedom from such equivocal splendours on the part of this little theatre , compared to theatres of a like standing in our own land . There was an abundance of li ght , and a freshness , trimness , and . simplicity in their decoration which agreeably surprised us , and a

like remark was applicable to the costumes of the performers . Would we could say as much for the performance ; but though it was not wanting in passable acting , sprig htliness of dialogue , or in completeness of plot , on all the flowers was visible the trail of the foul serpent which mars so much of what would otherwise be pleasant and sometimes profitable among our neighbours .

Once more at liberty , we resolved not to risk the chances of another performance but pursue our way through the fair . A short distance farther brought us to the domain of animal learning and science , where fortunetelling ponies , histrionic dogs , learned donkeys , ancl drilled canaries , put in no unsuccessful claim on public patronage ; and these ivere again

succeeded by the lotteries for coarse confectionery so common in our own fairs , ancl an extensive growth of merry-go-rounds , here a sad misnomer , for they crept round at the saddest of paces , and there was a whimsical gravity on the faces of the juvenile riders of the dogs ancl swans , ivhich stood so solemnl y in their places round the circle .

After passing a few unpromising attempts at agricultural machinery , our attention was next attracted by a kind of van with a pair of fine horses , such as is sometimes driven by our own commercial travellers , drawn up across the avenue , and closing the extreme end of the fair . On the top was crowded an unusually large band , with a drum of superior calibre , which ivere making nil the noise they could , while the eyes of a considerable crowd were fixed on au individual standm . * -

in front of the driver ' s seat . He ivas a tall , handsome man . with coal black moustache and hair , attired in a fancy costume of violet velvet , braided , and tagged , and striped with gold , which wo understood he was pleased to style a Polish dress ; on his head was a gold , laced shako , with a flowing plume of white ancl violet , and by his side , sheathed in steel ,

hung something which—but that it was smaller—might have passed for a Turkish scimitar . With folded arms and lofty bearing , this splendid personage stood as if unconscious of the crowd thickening round him , until suddenly drawing his scimitar , he flashed it over his head , and on the instant his musicians ceased , then waving his sword towards his audience , he began , with great volubility , to harangue them on the healing qualities of a small box of ointment he held in his hand I

Never were we more surprised . Wc had thought that so stately a person would have descended to nothing less important than reading the fates of men through the medium of the stars . But our charlatan was wiser than we were . The Norman peasants , among whom he stood , cared far more for their present bodily ills , than they did for their chances of

future happiness ; ancl as this remedy professed to cure every one of the diseases most frequent among them for the small sum of fivepence , and as it was moreover recommended by a catalogue of the most wonderful cures , it soon became popular , and the music after a time recommenced , while a rapid interchange of boxes and half franc pieces took place round the orator .

Every morning while the fair lasted this velvet clad dispenser of ointment was to be found in the same place , addressing the public with unvarying success . Ancl on the only evening ive made our way through the fair to view its pretty illiimiuatioiis of coloured lamps , ive are exceedingly mistaken if we did not see the same individual gorgeously arrayed in

pink and silver , and with a jewelled turban wreathing his brow , seated on a divan beneath a tent set up in a peculiar low hung cart , ancl driving an excellent trade in love charms , and those against witchcraft and sickness , among the female peasantry , young ancl old . By law the fair is limited to fourteen days , but the weather

having been sometimes unfavourable during the first week , the mayor ivas pleased to grant it another week ' s grace , to the infinite delight of the inhabitants , and , I doubt not , to the advantage of their coffers . But it is on the second Sunday that the fair reaches its height ,, on which day it is computed that not less than forty thousand country people visit ,

and great preparations arc made for their entertainment . Among other things , the year we were there , was a balloon , and the promise of wonderful performances in the hippodrome , which occupied au angle of the boulevard . Yet , after all , to an English eye , the greatest attractions and novelties of the fair were to be found in the groups ivhich

thronged it . Not in all the fictitious life displayed within the walls of those theatres—not in all the pictures lining those temporary galleries , was there to be seen aught stranger than some of those who , in the truthfulness and . simplicity of real life , moved unconsciously among the crowd .

In a country which values elegance and fashion , so highly as . Prance , of course their votaries were not wanting among the congregated thousands , and many were the city belles attired in the last Parisian mode who swept through the crowd , acknowledging with graceful bend the salutations of the spruce gentlemen who loitered about the fair . Then there

was the little red legged , blue coated soldier , looking longingly at everything , but without money for a single purchase , ancl the stout red legged , blue coated officer , with his pinched up waist , who , for all his swagger , was in the same category . Here ancl therethe centre of a group of joyous irlsor

, g , escorting some demure demoiselle , was a Sister of Charity , with her clear eyes and her fresh face glowing beneath her linen coif—that enhancer of female charms . Then came the griselte , mincing along , ancl shading with a parasol the gaily capped head , for which she neither desired nor was permitted a bonnet . Once or twice the eye fell on the funereal figures

of a few cloistered nuns , buying silks and wools for the embroidery which is the solace of their secluded lives , and shrinking timidly from the crowd , as if alarmed at the bustling world beyond the convent gate . Ear other seemed the feelings of the jolly looking priests , asclad in their long serge cassocks and black and white

, bauds , they strode in twos and threes among the crowd , g iving and returning many salutations . Not a merrier joke passed the lips of professional jester than those to ivhich they gave utterance , ancl no heartier laughs were heard among that vast assemblage than those whicli responded to them