on Propaganda: Intellectuals Scorn Talking Films Frox Our Own Conarsroxpexr recent speeches have not been taken very seriously in France (owing to the belief that they were intended principally for the benefit of the Italians themselves), they have stirred up the latent local hostility Jwhere the French and Italian frontiers touch.
The French are convificed that Italy covets Nice, which was form ly Italian, A great many Italians; live on the French side of the! border, and some of them are al-Ways apt to let their patriotism outrun their discretion, especially when they receive encouragement in the form of trumpet-blasts from the Duce. An Italian association recently brought out a poster on which two Italian girls living at Nice were shown in Nice cost un as taking. part in the procession from all the Italian provinces at the wedding of the Prince of Piedmont. The inference intended to be drawn was of course that the Nicols want to be Italian again. As a matter of fact, the two girls took thei Nice dresses to Rome but arri there too late to take part in the procession, and the photograph of them in Nice costume was taken at! the Italian Consulate, which, of course, is the headquarters of the Toeal Fascists, The French authorities came to] the conclusion that propaganda of this kind could not be permitted, fund a Fascist commissioner named Denotari has been told that he must. leave the country. Three men in close touch with the Italian con sular agent at Villefranche, a few miles cast of Nice were expelled some weeks ago for equally puerile attempts to prove their patriotism. Hotheads of this kind are a permanent source of danger, especially Jamong Southern peoples, who are} naturally excitable.
Few "Talkies" Being Shown Yeasons. why so few talking films are seen i e. They have, he says, a great many enemies, among whom are the intellectuals and artists who Took down upon the ordinary film. "A celebrated literary man, whom 3f, Pagnol asked if he ever went to "the replied: "T have been five or six times since the war, but my cook goes every Friday." - This disdain - for the cinema in general pr hrough-out the intellectual elite, with very few exceptions, There is another diss of specta-tois who go to the cinema because it is comparatively cheap and they Jean smoke and go in and out when-fever they please. They like the cinema just as some people like pickles, which they regard as a ismail relish not at all indispensable, and when they are told that the talking film is a form of art with lereat_ possibilities they shrug. their [shoulders incredulously. Other ened mies of- the "talkie" are. the pro-[ducers of silent films which could and: still can be sold all over the world, whereas the "talkie" serves for only one country or Janguage; the proprietors and managers of halls, who find themselves obliged to pat up expensive electrical and melehanical appliances for seand fi the film artists for whom-silence is golilen and speech is failure; the direeto¥s, who find themselves reduced to- the role. of stage manager; the actors and actresses who jate past their prime, and on on.
The public, M. Pagnol remarks, a crowd, and when'a crowd reasons it is always idiotic, but, when i feels, its reactions are invariably, leorrect. "The Paris cinema chief gave Maurice Chevalier's last Sim} attracted nearly in eight weeks years. A" good powerfal attraction. theatre. velopment, and not a rival,-of the
House Wreckers Busy While old houses are falling thick, land fast under the hand of the wrecker, and Paris is steadily losing} every day seme amall fraction of its historic charm, literary and at four are doing th best to perpetuate the memory great men in the few renaming Awellings that once sheltered them.
'A tablet has just been place with great ceremony, accompanied by the inevitable orations, in the front of No. 17 Rue Visconti, where Balzac set up in. business as a. printer immediately -after having failed as a publisher. As everyone knows, his second attempt at trad was equally unfortunate, With the help of Mine de Horny, he bought the printing business for 30,000frs and paid 12,000frs to his partner, 'a clever and intelligent printer named Barbier. Another 15,000fr8 went in stock-in-trade, The first order turned out by Balzac's presses was a patent medicine puff for a druggist bearing the appro: name of Cure, who can hardly posed that the met giving a printing order would en~ sure him a place in the history of literature, Two years later, Balzac found himself with liabilities amounting to 113,000fr3, a consider able sum in those days." Ie ther became a type founder, but, in spite of the continued assistance of Mme de Horny, he was soon obliged admit defeat and clear outs The business was taken over by Ale ex andre de Horny, Mme de Beng': son, who pulled it out of the mite and set it going again to such good Purpose that it in still alive and flourishing.
The New "Concierge"
In proportion tu the gradually decontrol of rents, the con partment was, though ry high. A. si that should encourage to be found in the. Latin Quarto Outside a large, milk-white block: of buildings, looking clean and at-, tractive in the glory of its new: stone frontage, you may meet well-dressed, affable gentleman, who, should you linger and display. it terest in the notice "Flats to let," will open the conversation with yo He ventures to think that you are looking for a flat, and, if that is 80, he suggests that' you" should give yourself the trouble to step inside, without any undertaking on your part and without the slightest. expense, What is he there for, she sks plaintive, but to, anayer questions as to rents and leases. anc any other details of importance in the relations between landlord and tenant; and these are such delights fully modern flats, he continues, he conducts you up the stairs and along the corridors.
He is living proof that even Paris landlord can be modern and move with the times. What a con trast to the crabbed concierge who sat like a spider in her little den and shook her head wearily when, such a word yartement" was Dbreathed in her hearing! At. the same time, one cannot quite shake off a haunting suspicion that the amiable gentleman who touts for tenants has to earn his living out of somebody, who is more likely to be the tenant than the landlord, The Insignificant Centime Paris, June 13.
Max O'Rell, the clever French man (now almost forgotten) who, used to explain France and England to each other, once tried to console his own countrymen for many imperfections in their pub: lie services by pointing out that the national accounts were worked out to the last centime, so that nothing should be lost.
This venerable system is to be Jabolished.—The centime now re, presents such an insignificant atom that it is not worth - worrying, about. The monetary reform com missi ig at the Finance [Ministry recommends that the cen-J8ime shall vanish altogether from the, public accounts. If somebody Jowes the State an amount involving. franes and over 50 centinies, that [fraction is to be treated as another frane, and if the centimes number Tess than 50 the State will gener. iously wipe them off the slate and: say no more.about them. In thi way, Inbour, expense and tempers
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.