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Show I Every One Likes to Toy With It One Can Even Take Lessons in French on the Traveling Strips. i Just as at the exhibition of 1889 the great thing was to mount the Eiffel tower, so now the universal movement ,1b to roll around the circle of the Trot-itolr Trot-itolr roulant. They waited hours in tthose old times for their turn at the itower's lift, but there is no waiting for -the Trottoir roulant, or the plate-Iform plate-Iform mobile, or the moving sidewalk, as it indifferently is termed. Imagine exactly what It is a sidewalk built twenty feet above the ground, pro- , itected on each side by railings, with I steps to climb up to it at short internals. inter-nals. From below it looks like an ft- , rated railroad. And this elevated sidewalk side-walk continually is moving in an endless end-less circuit round its course, which were also crippling it. "Et vous amies notre beau Paris we caught the question ques-tion and the answer "Et vous amiez les Parisians?" "Tres beaucoup!" And we could see the fraudulent little Par-isiennes Par-isiennes turn their heads to smile at the deception. Why is it every American Amer-ican girl in Paris wishes; to pose, for a little while, as a Parisienne? Our men never do it. When they give false nationalities na-tionalities they choose by preference the English or the Scandinavian. One of my young friends from Pittsburg not unknown in the coal business has the mania of making acquaintances and dates off-hand. This afternoon, on the moving sidewalk, he was posing pos-ing as a Swedish count, and worthily. He says it Is to practice his French 1 W fir), . AAV, ill BM-SlRi I conversation. He finds the moving sidewalk a great convenience. takes up the center of the grounds. There are no stops, no starts. As Ifast as the crowds pile in it receives fthem. It has not yet found its limit jthe packed standing room around its entire surface. , The length of the sidewalk is 3,370 (meters (one meter equaling 3.3 feet), nd Its total moving width is 2.8 meters, me-ters, which makes a total surface of 19,436 square meters. As four adults to the square meter is considered a liberal non-crowding average, 37,744 ip30ns might move around with the itrottoir at the same time. The company that operates it has put a notice up: "The payment of one fare of 50 centimes entitles visitors tto o le trip only round the sidewalk." lit a dead letter. Old ladies even 'iaring their folding camp stools and usit calmly taking in the panorama. Indeed, there is no better way to get la quick view of the fair. Here we pass Jthe Rue des Nations. Walking with the platform one seems to stride past (the national pavilions in seven-leagued Iboots. The effect is curious. Then if (you walk against it, you stand still iwith respect to the outside world. As (everybody must have read by (this time, the moving side-walk side-walk moves with two different lepeeds. The right-hand strip goes at the rate of a stroll. . The left-band left-band strip goes at the rate of something .more than a brisk walk. If you have ;walked ahead of your party you have lonly to step on to the slow strip and ithey will soon roll up and overtake you. Or you may step on to the stationary sta-tionary strip, when they will seem to . come rolling twice as fast. Some people peo-ple like to ride standing still. The nervous man who likes to walk a little now and then has only to step on the Blow strip to stroll on beside his standing stand-ing friends. Few people can resist the temptation thus to play with the sidewalk. side-walk. The little children jump from combination to combination, Equaling Equal-ing ecstatically. The girls great big girls are almost as bad. Hopping trom strip to strip, preserving their center of gravity by candid clutches at ntter strangers, skipping back and forth with engaging abandon, these lively ones realize much of the tourist's preconceived ideal of the Parisienne, frolicsome and coquettish. We saw a fine case of this natural mistake come rolling down from the Esplanade 4es Invalides. They were two Ameri-tan Ameri-tan girls in spite of their disguise, a dab of Paris rouge and hats and gowns that might be thought too gladsome home. The men were obviously Jaffers of the better sort, and their small knowledge of the language did act wam them that the "Parlsiennes" |