Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LETTER III. AT BORDEAUX. BORDEAUX—A FAIR—THE THEATRE FRAN9AIS. Bordeaux; March 9,1872. In spite of the rain I have been wandering about the streets of this fine old city, which has a somewhat modern look, in spite of its antiquity. I managed to get to the Place des Quinconces, a grand and regular square, opening at one end, where there are two huge pillars with naval trophies in the Roman style, on to the Quay, which is said to run for three miles along the banks of the Garonne. Here I found a huge fair was being held, a true " Greenwich " and " Old Charlton " concern, with its circus, its Richardson's Theatre (a French Richardson, of course), its Wombweli's Menagerie, swings, roundabouts, fat women (plenty of the latter), et hoc genus omneThe Place, however, is so vast that there was no crowding, and the only noisy people were those on the stages of the various booths, the spectators looking on in a very tranquil, not to say apathetic manner. The rain, perhaps, had damped their spirits. In the evening I visited the Theatre Fran- cais, where I sat one piece, " Papillonne," through, and the first act of another, " Un Troupier qui suit les Bonnes." Both these pieces derive the little interest they possess from their gross immorality. If we are to accept such comedies as a reflex of French manners, we must look upon French society as rotten to the core. But I am sure it would be doing gross injustice to take such view. I must believe that there is virtue and there is continence in France as elsewhere—otherwise, the institution of marriage would, of a certainty, cease to exist; for who would care to give his name to a woman and his time and labour to the support of a family when his wife welcomes to her arms the first bold intriguant, and he cannot be certain the chi...