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Show Paris Turns to Gaiety After Years of Wartime Struggle Famous Race Courses Reopening, but Initial Days Lack Much of the Anticipated "Snap." j By SPEARMAN LEWIS. I (Chicago Tribune Cable, Copyright.) PARIS, May 8. One by one Paris is opening its great race tracks this "week, for the first real effort at a return to the old gala days in near-i near-i ly five years. It will be Ateuil on ; Wednesday and Longchamps on Thursday, with repeats for both on Saturday ahd Sunday. It looked like a good American story Monday's opening at Maison Lafitte. You could just picture the Yank doughboy millionaire giving the bookies an awful beating. You could just hear him whipping whip-ping it home as old "Remorse" flashed under the wire by a nose. And then long lines at the cashiers' windows and tally-hos to town, just like wo used to come in from Washington park or Princeton, Prince-ton, or from Lelond Stanford. Having stood everything else In France, It certainly took no great stretch of the Imagination to thus prepare yourself for the A. E. F. at Monday's premiere at Maison iL-afitte. Nothing Like the Old-time Race Track. But it was nothing like that, at all. One lonesome doughboy from the First division braved his way through the grandsand gate. He was as lonely as a Billy Sunday, sermon on booze will be in the United States after July 1. The program pro-gram was in a strange tongue. The familiar fa-miliar bookmaker was absent. ' I He could walk about the paddock without with-out restriction. He could even buy a Jockey a drink without Mr. Pinker ton making it a matter for investigation and future action by the Jockey club's stewards. stew-ards. And as for the ladies, "God bless 'em" they were there in great numbers, but they were not so dazzling as the fairyland setting in which lies Maison Iafitte. and so the great crowd swallowed swal-lowed him, and Paris went about its own affairs in Us own way, as Paris will do. Famous Track Lies in Picturesque Spot. In the valley of- the Seine nestles Maison Lafitte, forty-five minutes by motor mo-tor from the Madeleine. It is as beautiful as the gardens at Versailles or the Tuileries. The grandstand or the jockey quarters, betting stalls and restaurant res-taurant are in a rustic village of rest-fulness rest-fulness and simplicity. There is no dust. And, following the old European custom, the horses are run the wrong way of the track to us. In this setting, with the first warming sun of spring softening the May day, bravely crowded thousands of Parisians. You could not in truth tell it was a gay crowd. There was no cheering as the winners flashed past the stand. There was some little wine spilled, and a few models promenaded, but h was not a Boundless day, a Colonial Girl day, Kentucky Ken-tucky derby, Brighton Beach or City Park, New Orleans. France Too Wounded for Sudden Gaiety. The truth Is and it may take a week for even Paris to find it out that France has been too deeply war wounded for even France to recover its gaiety over night. There are too many gallant men under the sod to the east of here, and there are too many women now humbly toiling who once lent their delightful presence to this gala opening, to give to this week's revival re-vival the brilliancy and exhilaration of the French racing of yesterday. They say it will be different at Auteuil and Longchamps ; that famous modistes are holding their "busy Berthas" for Saturday and Sunday, but Monday at Maison Lafitte was as strange and strained and unreal as a buffet lunch after a swell funeral. |