Show HERR MAY i oo I The Origin of the Name and the Customs of the Month How MayDay is Observed in the Different Countries BPS The Fauna FestivalFrance and China The Climate of Tonkin i 1 Parisian Points and Paragraphs Para-graphs Special correspondence of TUB RES LD PARIS MAY IST 1884 May observes Hugo is the month of love the month whose green robe becomes every day more ample The origin of its name is manifold some claim that it is derived from hula the mother of Mercury the goddess of the earth which nourished man others from marjor bus signifying the growth of vegetable nature so i I rapid at this epoch Again Romulus Romu-lus is credited with the origin from his having divided the population into two classes majors and juniors directing fees to be kept in honor of both Polymnie relates that the name of the present month comes from Mejesty which was born on a day to associate with Honor and Ben eficenee In the Catholic Ohurob May is called the Month of Mary the chapels are decorated with the choice choic-e t of presentation flowers it II the month sacred to confirmations to innocence in-nocence purity and youtb May was placed under the proteo tion of Apollo and personified by the I figure of a man between twj ages clothed with a long robe and ample sleeves and carrying A basket of flowers on his head a peacock lay at his feet with expanded tail emblem of flourishing nature May has ever been fertile in political crises Gordon Gor-don and the Egyptian question have now arrived at explosion point In France the month baa been evar rich in revolutionary movements from the Slit of May 1793 the first day of the first act in the great tragedy of the revolution down to the 24th of May 1873 when a parliamentary revolution revolu-tion expelled theirs from the Presidency Presi-dency A wet May is reputed to fill barns and a cold one to empty them The gardeners have more than a tradition that i their Jdees are the three Ice Saints JI Mamert Panoraoe and Ger Tis that present themselves during the 11th 12th and 13th of the month under the form of a biting frost which nips many hopes Frederick Fred-erick the Great disbelieved in the traditions of the saints notwithstanding notwithstand-ing tke robust faith of his garderner he directed the orange trees to bi planted out before the unlucky days and the result WAS the shrubs were destroyed The three days in que3 tion > re due in Paris between the 13th and 15th and at Lyons from the 19th to the 20h It is the Parthean arrow of winter and presumed to arise from the melting of the snows in central Europe In France no person would think of changing clothing cloth-ing till the saints have made their visit ViRitMIlY May ia i a month rich in festivals and it was ep in the ancient world However this is not strange as all our fetes are more or lees the relics of Paganism France has no institution of Maypoles but she dances round mats de cocague every 14th of July May day is not appropriated to sweeps either that guild is presented with the waole month of September instead in-stead It was formerly the custom now honored more in the breach in France to plant a tree called Mai on i the firstof the month That observance observ-ance is still obligatory at Chateau neuf On the Brat of May too the forest guard of Foutinebleau received re-ceived on the kings tablea large flat stonehis dues consisting of wines hams and oakes At the present pre-sent time the artists generally hold a picnio on that mahogany wind and weather permitting to fete the opening open-ing of the annual picture ehow at Paris And the corporation of goldsmiths gold-smiths on same day presented Notre Dame cathedral with a model of some noted church The gift now Cakes the form of a cash donation since revolutionists display a weakness weak-ness to melt down all works of art in precious metal However it is only right to be just Under Louis XIV especially who commenced his reign in abject povrt and ended all its glories in profound misery the court and nobility melted down their beautifully beau-tifully Artistic plate to convert it into 1 money This explains the rarity of old French plate During the siege of 187071 and the commune many families were forced to sell articles ef plate to the mint in order to live May is still observed as a pratnla 1 tlou of spring People make it 13 point on the first of the month to go to the country to gather flowers in the fields and cut green bough it is = a favorite moment to present old peo I pis with flower infants insht on de coratinc grandmothers asps with aiav blossom youngsters ir their teens also exchange flowers trusting t that toe tan uage of a bouquet may find a tongue aa well aa a thought Bat ha month Is viewed as fatal to widows and burr gas Ovid warm vir1 rct to light the hymeneal e torch during May liecauee fbher J nria let can a oil and EAch mealit i t the laying of the perturbed spirits of Knoaitors to ret We moderns cill them up from the vasty deep as freely free-ly Ai if only JSallyJ At Lyons on the first of May the printers planted a tree before the residence resi-dence of the governor and each printer was bound to hang on it as a blossom a stanza of pootry composed compos-ed and set np by himself Marot condescended con-descended to supply several members of the craft with the necessary rhymes On the 15th of May the Roman vestals ves-tals threw into the Tiber thirty man ikms of old men and crusty bachelors bache-lors typical perhaps of the eamnuio doctrine that they Were a superfluity i I superflui-ty at natures table But Roman ladies did not do things by halves they had ther Fauna festival or the fete of the Good Goddess Faunus was a lady so famed for her chastity that she never raised her eyes save to behold her husband The latter one day coming home found her blind drunk and scourged her to death with myrtle rods Regretting Re-gretting this rash act the husband had her pla ed among the gods jibe fete in question commenced at midnight mid-night the hour for love feasts It is i he first hen party on record Only women were allowed to aaaist and it i any domestic animals or barn door I I fowls belonging to the male sex were on the premises they were tm porarily expelled Even pictures and statues of the masculine gender were veiled Glodius destroyed the superstition super-stition he managed to conceal himself him-self in the apartment where the mysteries mys-teries were celebrated but anxious to make himself known to his mistress C c are wifebe was discovered Next day all Roms was in an uproar at tbe sacrilege the fair sex demanded demand-ed vengeance for Jtha impiety But Glodiua was a popular leader and strong and rich enough to intimidate or corrupt the judges Coaar WAS cited as a wiine > as to the tacapades of his wife He replied be was ignorant of them and as a rule husbands hus-bands generally were the lau to learn about tneir wives misconduct But then said the judge why have you repudiated your wife Because the wife of Cie ar must even be above suspicion Curiosity on tiptoe for the result j of tbe general meeting of SUPZ shareholders share-holders which is to come off on the 29th it is the belief that the shareholders share-holders will again remain away BO that not being in number the project for adding the English element to the council cannot be carried And these tactics are to be repeated till England be baited to restore theijoint or accord the whole contra Egyjrt to France The French maintain the Suez canal baa now become a necessity also for them to connect with their two new realms Madagascar Madagas-car and FrenohOhina More than the French believe Eng lands right hand h lost its cunning in Egypt she is being outwitted daily dai-ly by the French wfio plainly tell her I to take herself off and allow them to replace her and teach nations how to live The French are delighted at their new coaling depot at Obook this not only it seems makes them independent of Aden but renders the latter useless At Obook a French captain has raised every kind of vegetable veg-etable it appears in perfection in two months wellwater is abundant and the neighborhood with the slight application ap-plication of the protectorate principle princi-ple can tap the whole trade of oriental orient-al Africa What puzzles the French is that despite the Dclendo est Carth ago applied to old John Egyptian stocks remain firm and the English fiends are to be paid less interest It is not unlikely old maids will go into mourning over the sweet simplicity of the threepercent The union of the Bonapartiats or in a word the Monarchists with the Radicals bodes no good for the Republic Re-public This union of the carp and I the rabbit could return a radical majority to the chamber and so speedily speed-ily cut shortlthe existence of the third Republic and bring to the front some power that would in return muzzle the radicals A special correspondent of one of the Avery few Eerzon journals in I France who is at Tonkin and not in the back office of the paper recommends recom-mends no citizen to come to Tonkin at least before three generations The I advice was superfluous When a r veritable emigration societythe only speculation never yet attemptedis founded in France to ship emigrants to Madagascar Tonkin or even Tunis Tun-is not one but two kings may be expected on the throne of France Tonkin is cot a dismal but a beautiful ewampTthe fl > ors of the houses are in brick but sash is the humidity of the sol end climate that1 tif an article of clothing falls on the ground at night it wiii resemble a sponge by the morning Your bed made up in the morning will be a couch of fungi Qor mushrooms by s night l At the latter period small lizardsthoe reputed friends of man moEqaitoes rats frogs i jsckoa and other small deer take possession of your chamber as a matter of course At daybreak the sparrows are so audacious that they enter by the chinks of the roof and porch on your clothes All the meat and poultry t served as food appear to haze been5 taksn out of NouLs kth6 rd J I raainder biacaitj I tAt i t-At Hanoi is tbs colspe to the fet1 I i tered or cvil service it Is by pdbh I I I competition that tie ctbr ° s > re filled1 I I UD About 1U COO candidatesnao I ali Iy present themselves oate n4f if J I tthessre t eliminated by th test ° z I animation the Feat i tttre gewqid of half the balance and the tHM I 1 yields 100 capabluslhelafter 1 coafrtb I ulethe twenty c ndidctef regntred i i t Theae senfor wrangler or f hcaeD i lire DominatEd t a 1 rrriBC9 J at a r salary that a footboy would disdain I but then like Turkish pashas they are at liberty to find their extras by squeezing the taxpayers The darling sin of the Tonkinoise Is gambling thimblerigging is the game Ine acrobats are as plenty as black berries and so nimble that it would pay to import them Tbis ia the more urgent as the new law in France prohibits children being india rubberized Defore the age of sixteen when the raw material is of coarse useless The people have all full moon features but of extreme mobility mobi-lity they would be tolerable despite their astronomical defect only for their teeth so black with betel chewing chew-ing as to resemble so many pegs of charcoal The childrens heads are shaved save two black locks pending pend-ing from each side of the sinoiput They are well up in French they say Good morning Captain to every stranger and are so advanced in western civilization aa next to add 71 give us a sous The home minister is being attacked attack-ed for prohibiting the bull fights when that spectacle was destined to relieye the poor In the name of the prophet figs One indignant editor regrets that France has not the same liberties as England where cook fights are tolerated for the needs of I charity The longer one live thus I the more one knows A husband confesses he put his wife in quarantine thatis locked her up in the cellar her disease was drinktwo women committed suicide sui-cide together they shared between them a loving cup of poison the terrible terri-ble nuisance betting offices will now be suppressedjcompanies are established establish-ed here ua branch agencies of London Lon-don firms and so deceive the unwary un-wary it has been notified that such agencies will in England be proisout ed by Scotland yard and at the same time by the prefect de police here Tbe Figaro newspaper shows in its office a carrier pigeon which arrived arriv-ed at the col after two years absence It draws no subscribers My dear I feel so sad I Jam get tine up to 30 liDo riot be uneasy since some gears my love you have been getting away from them A footman has resigned the house parrot mimicked the bells and made I sleep imposaible |