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Show Social Diversions of - " Americans in Paris Fsy Open to Thbse of Good P-JT Dating Lives Led by Girl Students and the Wives ot Domiciled Business Men. tNCE an honest American Ameri-can in Paris mourned because his early years did not include an experience ex-perience of college. He was not a university man, and so, in lonely Paris, he felt himself barred from the goodfel-lowship goodfel-lowship of the University Univer-sity Dining club, an institution that does much to hold good men together in the colony. Making his lament one day over a gin fizz at George's bar, I heard him comforted by the late ,Dr. Tyng, one of the founders of the club, in words to be remembered long in Paris. We were alone a hustling life insurance canvasser, Dr.. Tyng, myself, the wife of a very wealthy young American Ameri-can the master of his fortune and his business, which' came to him from his father. . She is beautiful, young, with charming charm-ing ways, fine health, gowns from Pa-quin, Pa-quin, almost unlimited pocket money and fluent conversational French. Yet such is the lack of push of the young. husband that; I positively believe, after af-ter five years of life in Paris, neither has discovered yet of whom the "society" "so-ciety" of the American colony is composed. com-posed. v i 'He belongs to the golf club; but she-does she-does not play. How does she pass her time? In dawdling. In shopping. In eating. In sleeping. In novel reading. . ; In tea-rooms. In pastry-cook shops. In and out the shops of the Rue de la Paix. And yes in carriage riding. It is all done with her mother and' stray girl friends who are protegees-They protegees-They are hangers-on. Naturally, they try to keep, her amused. Of an evening there will be occa-7 sional whist or poker with friends picked' up by the young husband. So her days pass. And so will pa.ss the days of the wife of any American busi- . ness man in Paris; if she gets beyond it, it will due to her exceptional push-To push-To be exact, the "society" of the col- ony does not seek out the families of business men. It has been long enough abroad to be slightly tinctured with that notion. , The fact that the American colony-has colony-has never been able to support an American club is significant of ita weak cohesion. The British, with a. census population of some 13,000 souls,, is just able to maintain one. As early as 1867 a French student of these matters said: "The resident American population of Paris is composed com-posed of the diplomatic and consular corps, of bankers, of artists and art students, music students and of families fam-ilies come for the education of theln children." In a large and generous sense, this still holds good. There are absentee property owners, widows, as-good-as-wfdows, ladies with little children, 5 with half-grown sons and daughters,! with full-grown daughters the sons get away dreaming old maids and , .-..j obese old matrons given up to the pleasures of the table, misunderstood ladies. There are ladies who cannot They Have Been Through College. mourner and the waiter made the party. "Jim," he said to the insurance agent, "I see you always at the dinners?" din-ners?" "Sure," replied the hustler. "You have been through college?" "Sure," was the prompt answer. "All through Harvard, hunting a professor who had given me his promissory note in payment for a premium." Then the kind face of Dr. Tyng smiled on the mourner comically. ."Can't you rememoer having been through college?" he asked. The mourner took heart. "I helped to fit the electric lighting in the new buildings ot the University , of Pennsylvania," he said. "Don't mind the details," interrupted interrupt-ed Dr. Dyng, "come to the next din- ner. inen, in a serious tone, he laid down the principles of the American University Dining club in Paris as he their founder understood them. "We ought not draw the line too tight in Paris. All who try to maintain the good name cf America for cultured Ufp and gentle dealing ought to stand on an equality." While it is not certain that this kindly principle remains acknowledged by the organizers of the dinner club, it is probable that a search through the club's later lists would disclose a lair proportion of university men who would find it hard t6 justify their ' membership. And is it not emblematic emblemat-ic of the social life of the American colony in Paris? Any American of good enough repute re-pute to command a letter to Gen. Porter Por-ter from almost anyone at home will find the embassy open to him in a way that continually takes away the breath of the British embassy clique in Paris and brings' tears of sympathetic appreciation appre-ciation to the eyes of the submerged nine-tenths of the English colony. Observe the widely differing social lives led by American girl students of music, vocal and instrumental, and the wives and daughters of American business busi-ness men not retired but actually operating oper-ating in Paris. From the beginning the music student girls have always had their privileged place in the body of absentee American property owners. own-ers. From the beginning they -have taken up, if variously, by the rich, idle women of the colony'ssociety." Their Old Maids and Stout Matrons. get on with their husbands who cannot get on with their own families who flee from their poor relations; ladies who have had social disappointments at home . who find it expensive to live as they wish at home who flee to foreign for-eign ease from home responsibilities. They come to Faris for a year and remain on half-a lifetime. They do not come to stay in anything like the numbers popularly imagined. According Accord-ing to the last census there were 7.186 Americans in Paris. At the Foreigners' Foreign-ers' Bureau of the Prefecture of Po-lice.to Po-lice.to which all aliens more than six months in Paris-, are supposed to report re-port their changes of domicile they win tell you there are 3627 Americana resident in Paris. The difference between these figures must be made up of true residents who have shirked registration and the-quasi-permanent boarders of pensions and hotels caught by the census taker. Half-Grown Sons and Daughters. music makes their opportunity and the rich, idle women like to "protect" tne future star. The wives and daughters of active American business men in Paris have not been so fortunate. The door has been half open, but the husband or father has not had the courage or de. Bire to try it. I call to mind one such. She is the |