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Show HER TWENTY-FOUR HOURS OF GLORY Parisian "Lady of the Tub" Queen for a Day. "In the gay nineties," says a bulletin bul-letin of the National Geographic so-city, so-city, "the washerwomen or blanchls-seuses blanchls-seuses in each quarter of the city of Paris elected a queen from among themselyes, and the queens in their turn elected a 'Queen of Queens. This honored lady of the tub was borne on a throne to the president of the. republic, who bestowed upon her a golden bracelet. Among other presents she received ?100 in gold, a dress which might serve for her wedding gown, and a crown which might later be pawned or used as a parlor decoration, depending upon the vicissitudes of the queen's later years. "Recent celebrations have been merely processions of floats, grotesque gro-tesque or lovely according to the moods of their designers. The queens of queens have been beautiful beauti-ful and with no background of suds. The president now presents them with wrist watches. "Ml-Careme's queen for the day is selected from the 20 queens who represent the 20 arrondissements of Paris. In addition to these queens there are many more, Including queens of students, hucksters, dressmakers, dress-makers, and typists. "The number of queens has grown so great that It Is now impossible for each to have a separate automobile auto-mobile for herself, and others for her attendants ; so each queen has her car filled with her ladles in waiting. The automobiles of the queens are followed by floats which often caricature current events. There may be, for example, the ogre of high prices, the housing problem, and the vulture-faced landlord. "The route of the procession Is equivalent to a sight-seeing tour of Paris. It passes through the most Interesting sections of the city: the Latin quarter, the Place de la Concorde, Con-corde, the Madeleine, the Opera, and Port Saint Denis. The procession stops at two places, the Elysee palace, pal-ace, where the president kisses the hand of the queen of queens and bestows be-stows a wrist watch upon her, and the Hotel de Ville where the city fathers' place her on a dais which Is occasionally used for the entertainment enter-tainment of a visiting sovereign. "Mid-lent Thursday Is the only day except the French national holiday holi-day on July 14 when the Paris boulevards are closed to vehicular traffic and turned over to the crowds of pedestrians struggling to get close to the festival cars. "Celebrations for Ml-Careme are now held in Corsica, Italy, and Spain. Nice and Cannes on the French Riviera, stand out, however, as the cities where the holiday spirit of the occasion Is enjoyed with prewar pre-war zest and where the populace Is not just a crowd of observers but active participants In the fun." |
