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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (June 10, 1906)
TITE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND, JUNE 10,. 1906 THEY FEAR QMLY'THE COIGE. - j WORD TSACT U3T AEVER BE PFOOUCED PARIS. May :!,. tSpecial Correspon pendene of The Sunday Oregonian.) There Is an avenue where beauty's smile of recognition is prized more than gold. It is the famous Alice drs Acacias, the beaut y-pronienade of t'.ie Paris Bnis. Be neath the fulling locusi-blossonis pass the equipages of fair creatures whom the J'aris consecration has made celebrated. To frequenters of this locust-blossom al ley, it Is the height of chic to lift the hat to them and receive their careless nod. I know a Parisian who subscribed for a weekly box at the Olympiu just to "be acquaint ed" with I.iane de I'ougy. Now be has a right to what? Why, simply tu lift his hat to her in the Hois: Another loaned money for six months to an old swell in return for a few off hnnd presentations on the porch at Ar menonvllle "good" for the Hois only. He lifts his hat to Wlehe, Verona, Conehlia de Vlllars and the divine Madia. Hut the height of. the infat nation was that of the rich young Brazilian, who, getting presented to Chavita. the dattseuse nf the Opera-Comiqne. begged her to accept a superb emerald ring Three days later she cut hini dead in the Acacias. It was too much. He .sought her In the green room of the Opera-Comique and reproached her, mentioning the ring. "The ring?'' she answered. "Oil, that was for the Opera-t 'omlque !" Like that. He understood. He pulled a diamond warf-pin from his cravat a stone worth Jtoo and begged her to add it to the emerald. Smilingly the beauty took It. "Now I know vnii In the Beds!" she raid. They are set saucy that they wear but one thing on earth. This is "the guigne." Parisian Superstitions. If you ask what. It means, you will be told It means "bad luck"; but it is mote. In one sense it means the hoodoo. In another, yon may rail it the "aura" ot bad luck, or the "microbe" of bad luck and it is catching. In still another sense it is viewed as an intelligent entity, that can be offended and placated. Also it may be fooled and baffled. It can easily attach itself to certain objects. The lovely liorgere. of the Va rietes, was recently given a mandolin that had belonged originally to Josephine, the unhappy wife of the Great Napoleon, and subsequently to til ex-Kmpress Kugenie. As she touched it reverentially, she brought from It a sad. little air. "What is it?" asked the happy giver. "I don't know." site answered. "Oh. you were improvising?' he said. "No, it must be a reminiscence." she answered. It was sad and pretty. .She found herself humming It. It got mixed In her role. It go! into her dreams. "This is tiresome.'' she said at last. "I'll have to hum it to someone else to get rid of it!" So she hummed- it all one morn ing In the" presence of her dressmaker who went away humming it, and the fair Dorgere found herself delivered. Yes, but the Guigne set in at once! Her bull-pup sickened; her sable stole was stolen; she quarreled ' with two good friends; her auto broke down dally', and she got a pimple on her nose. Finally, when an Incapacitating sore throat de clared itself, she sought the advice of spe cialists. "Get lid of the mandolin," advised Wiehe. And two days after she had pre sented It to the Josephine Museum at Malmaison, the sore throat left her, the pimple disappeared, the., pup recovered, the stole was found, her friends became reconciled, the auto' began running per fectlyand M. Samuel gave her a tine new role! There are specialists of the guigne. The lovely sibyl-faced Hobinue is one. so is Tena Conchita, so is Chavita both these latter are Andalusian gypsy blood. There are certain things that Pena Con cliita cannot be persuaded tn 1- She would rather break an engagement than dance on a Friday, but that is nothing. Kvery Friday of her life she lies in bed. Kxactly. She does nothing but lie quiet in bed, seeing nobody, doing nothing but rating bon-bons. leading novels and sleeping. She will not set foot on the stage if a red-headed man be there. "Judas was red-haired." she explains. Nor will she do anything new or import ant the day she has seen a spider, a parti colored mule, or heard a oat meoitl. When she meets a funeral she flint says a very short prayer, then retraces her steps two blocks and makes for her des tination by another route. If she meets a cross-eyed man, woman or child she does the same thing without the prayer. If she puts her left foot out of bed first, she returns, lies five minutes, and quits bed with the right foot. If any one sneezes In her presence she said Immediately to them: "God bless you!" Though the politeness is common enough in Paris among acquaintances, it lias often caused Pena Conchita embar- raysmeni in ine ease tu uiu-r pudiif;ui.. , '."Ah-ka.-ch.oouo:" went one of Sawm Sneeze's cousin." In the passage of thf lxtngchanips racecourse the other, after noon. "God bless you!" exclaimed the lovely Spaniard. "What a r-harming afternoon it is. mademoiselle." . he answered in good French though being obviously a red cheeked American boy and he was shocked, surprised and hurt when Con chlha walked on with her nose uplifted hatefully. One Word Never Pronounced. ' All this is. nevertheless, but the outer edge of the great mystery of the Guignt M pardon, the Cerises and I have risked its I complete hoodoo writing the above, and you In reading It because i have written the word out plain. It Is the one word of the French lan guage that must never be pronounced. The essence of the Cerises lies in this fact: Originally it was merely a Parisian theatrical superstition, applying particu larly to the first representation nf pieces. From the first rehearsal to the final ting ing up of the curtain every soul con nected with the new piece, from the man ager to the s;-ene-palnter's boy. and from the .star to the humblest sewlng-glrt. kept watchful and alert to do no thing that might bring on the subtle aura of bad luck. To pronounce the word was found to be particularly fatal. Bizet laughed at the superstition (luting the rrhearsals of "Carmen," and. at the end of the second act. during Its last rehearsal, he walked to the center of the stage and laughingly exclaimed: ".lit for the Guigne!" Kvery one knows the otherwise unaccountable frost the'great opera received during Its early representations and how Bizet com mitted suicide. Imagining it to be a failure. The French have several names for cherries. What we call ox-hearts they call "bigarre"; what we call pie-cherries they call "cerises" and "cerises" Is the general loose name for the fruit; while a big. black! Juicy variety is named "guigne." spelled and pronounced the same as the word for persistent bad luck. Therefore, Instead of saying "guigne," they always ."ay "cerises." The other afternoon I paid 2 cents for the rent of an Iron chair and sat on the shady sidewalk of the lxicust-Blossom avenue with three young men called "sons of families" middle-class, with money, anxious to be known as sports. Their aim in lie is to dine in the smartest of smart restaurants, rub against these stars of beauty and spend the day telling about It. When , one of them had the right to lift his hat. I tell you he was proud. "Who is .that you saluted?" "Why. the gifted and lovely de Salignac! Is it possible you do not know her?" "Who . is that charming creature that nodded to you?" "That Is Madeleine Thierry!" I nevei failed to ask the question, even when Billy Norton rolled by in her hirod-by-the-nionth landau. Directly behind her came a wonderful blonde In a dogcart. "That's Veronal. ' chorussed the sons-of-family. And she actually did smile on one of them. "There goes the most superstitious wo man In Paris!" lie said.. "Like most of her kind, her present high prosperity had small beginning. That is' why they, all believe in luck and omens their own lives have been so full of magical changes. And often their special phonies have root in some early experience. Verena,' for in stance, cannot stand a painter." Virtually Fired Out. It seems that when she was very young and very poor she started out alone toi be a 'high-class artist's model. She kriew that they went confidently to studios, of fering to pose. What she did not know was that all kinds of vain and Idle girls roam through the art world trying to waste time for hard-working artists and stqdents. These get turned down, and she who is now Verena. one of the most de licious faces and figures of all Paris, being without introductions, got herself turned down with them. At one of the branches of the Julian Academy It was the worst. Thirty stu dents had been interrupted ail the week by trifling femininity, so that what had been a lark had cloyed, and a new spirit of severity reigned with the men. The ban had . been proclaimed. The ancient fttoic practice, too. had been proposed and voted. Its motto is. "Pass her on!" and the watchword Is. "Silence and celerity!" It was into this that the unhappy Verona tripped on the worse day of the year a Friday, the 13th of the month. She stood inside the door. Thirty cold faced youths continued working. "Mes sieurs, do you want a model?" she asked timidly; The- cold faces never looked up. She advanced. . . . Messieurs, do " "A-hem!" coughed the head of the" class. It wa.s the signal. The 30 young men silently placed themselves In two parallel rows across the long length of the studio between the street door and an open win dow on 'the court. The fair young girl looked down the human passageway. "A-hem!" roughed the massier. The two nearest her gently lifted her passed her nlf M'W .MM m . x ffW m :is fii imMs v ,jr4" 1 ! a m - ill m . -..i i 5 ft i s. W wSmmiimm lixvX -.. - -vf few A "Mt?: v MiMtp i -v' III raV v v a xMXijX v L W 1 'g wcm. m - WW 'A' 1 ill lav v;- r TrPX -" " " . I i 1C rj4 1 A Cs each other and these passed her on and so on they passed her on down the long double tile. She never touched the studio floor again. But she was deposited gently out the win dow, on the stones of the court. And then they closed the window und each man resumed his work. This is why Verona will not remain In a room If an artist be present. She has refused roles in pieces because of the presence of an artist. "Naturally, she doesn't give her early experience as the explanation." said the son-of-a-Taniily. "I heard her once say that anything connected with the art of painting brought her the . . Cherries! Once she listened to a man talking art on the porch at Armenonville; and that same evening she broke a pearl necklace' and lost nine valuable pearls. Another time she could not get out of vipiting the Salon. The next morning she slipped on the waxed floor of her parlor and twisted a ligament of her ankle. Even speaking of the subject brings her bad luck!" This question of bringing about bad luck by speaking of it has recently been very much aired in the world of saucy and superstitious Paris beauties. Hardufn. the Table Talk man of a great Paris daily, began with a witty editorial railing at these omens. The celebrated 1,1a ne de PotSgy answered him with an experience in point. 'It is certain." wrote Liane, "that the boast of good luck will tend to make good luck cease: and if one fears a bad thing may happen, nothing is so sure to bring it about as to talk of it. I myself recent ly hoped ardently to pass the week with out receiving a certain letter. Five days of the week passed safely and happily. No letter. I was idiot enough to talk of it on the morning of the sixth day. Well, on the morning of the seventh 1 got the hateful letter!" Lucky and fnluoky Objects. They believe these things profoundly. Also it is good business to write to the papers. Therefore many a lovely one has tened to confirm the principle. Dorgere related her experiences of the mandolin: "I have had convincing proofs that there are lucky and unlucky inanimate objects, just as there are lucky and unlucky per sons," she wrote. "And the' only sensible thing is to tret them in' consequence. If the object brings you bad luck, get rid of it at once! If a person brings you bad 10 the wms of th Best eoujjl Uial w4 J luck avoid that person! Avoid even thofe who themselves suffer from bad luck!" The dashing Madeleine Thierry told how. after several years, she rediscovered a girl friend in great distress. Site took her in and treated her like a sifter. As a result, the bad luck attached itself to Madeleine! "I had a run of cherries that lasted me three months." she affirms, "und 1 got rid of It only when my girl friend sud denly married a wealthy man and went off witli him. He has since lost half his money, and If 1 should ever see I her coming down the street again 1 a turn rind run the other way!" ' Three of these noted beauties de VII llers. Hobinne and de Mernand confessed to the belief In unlucky persons to the extent of keeping tab on every new ac quaintance. ."I keep a little notebook." wrote Ro binne. "and I see no harm in jotting down the date I make any new acquaintance. In parallel column I note the good and bad things happening to me with ' the dates. When I find the dates getting to correspond why, I find it prudent to act in consequence!" I talked of these mysteries with the sons-of-family that golden afternoon jn the Iocust Blossom Alley. "That's nothing to the case of that poor Greek chap, to whom Pena Conchita gave the reputation of the evil eye!" "It drove him from Paris," said an other. "What about him?" Tasked. "He was a nice chap. with lots .of money, and he wanted to become known by knowing -everybody. He was getting pretty well Jn the swim by an intelligent use of the young Brazilian's method one gift for the Opera and another gift for the Bois until he struck Conchita. She refused his presents. " He's got the evil eye!" she said. "And soon the others got to repeating it. " 'There goes the fellow with the evil eye!' "You know what the evil eye Is? It is a Dago rather than a FYench supersti tion. It's a man who cannot help bring ing superlatively bad luck and it's so par ticularly contagious that a single hot glance from him. if delivered right, will start the trouble. Such men are known by a peculiar look in their eyes."- "And your Greek friend had It?" "The girls began to say so. FYom that hour his name was scratched off the book. The whole crowd fled him. And he found himself alone in Paris!" AN AMERICAN IN PARIS. Tall Stories of RailroadingOut West I SPHEt DDENTKD FAST TIME O.X TK A NSl'O.VTI ET A I, LINKS WHKTOKBOtSHtl) A('l,EtR TRt( K ('OK HI SH KRKltJHT. JW. CASEY, traveling passenger agent for the C. M. & St. P. road, is a hustler when he goes after business and it Is on this account, he says, that the other boys on Railroad Row envy him and tell so many stories about him. The latest story told on the row, however, is said to be true, and It runs something like this: Last Winter Casey went to Corvallis after some business, which he secured for the line he represents. The day was raw and chilly and the traveling agent was suffering from an attack of the grip. During the afternoon he met a traveling man with whom he was ac quainted, and asked the friend if he knew of any place where a warm drink might be procured. ."The last time I waa here I. located a blind pig." said the traveling man. "Per haps I can find it again." Casey expressed his gratitude and the pair started out. They traversed the streets and leaving the outskirts of the town, wended their way up the banks of the Willamette River. Finally they stopped near a farmhouse, half hidden in a clump of trees. The traveling man looked around half a moment and then pointed to a small shoat nos-ing around amongst the dead leaves. Casey stared (n the direction indicated by the finger, but all he could see 'was trees and a half-grown pig. Long and fixedly he gazed on that shoat and then he noted that it lacked eyes. "Was born that way," said the travel ing man. Casey's answer would not look well in print. . p , "We are tnakiDg great time on our line row." said the Northern Pacific man. suppose you have all neara or tne record-breaking run we Montana the other day." If any one had heard of the run he did not care to make It public, and the icp resentalive of the Hill road continued: . "We had a train of t'tne freljht for Portland and orders came from St. Paul to hurry it through. Great time was made nil along the line and even the North Coast limited had to get in to. clear, down on the Dakota prairies, to let the freight train pass. The greatest burst of speed, however, was made over the Montana I'nion division between Butte. Mont., and Garrison Junction. The train was given a clear track and orders issued to the crew to make the best possible time. From Butte to Stewart Junction there is an up-grade pull, but as soon as the train topped the hill the wheels began to strike the rd.sh places only. Telegraph poles looked like elong gated teeth of a line comb. The engineer sounded the whistle for Deer Lodge, but before he could release the cord he wa. a; the 'slow' sign of the Garrison yarrt. nine miles further on. "The conductor went into the office to register, and when he came out he found the crew helplessly staring at a black body coming down the track nt a terrltic rate of speed. In theMirief Instant given before the body reached them the railroad men believed that a. cyclone would soon enfold them In Its clutches, and then the dark streak stopped. It was the shndow of in train they had just brought in." "Remarkably fast time." said Frank R. Johnson, of the C. P. R.. "and I be lieve It has never been beatrn but once, and that was by a runaway train on the road that lias the honor of em ploying me as Its representative. "The run I refer to was made in the early '80s, when the Canadian Pacific was bulldinp Its lines through the mountains. One of the men who was on the train when the run was madff told me about it afterwards, and I know that the man had a reputation for veracity. "A long: string of cars loaded with rails and ties had been hauled from Calgary to a point a short distance west of Banff Hot Springs. There was a 2 per cent grade there at that time, and- when the cars became detached from the engine In some way It was less than a minute, before they were moving down grade at a rapid rate. Before the men who were on the cars could reach the brakes they were use less, and so great was the Jolting that the men w'ere forced to lie flat on the cars. "The man who told me the story said that he felt as if the breath was being driven out of his body, and then came a feeling as though life was being crushed out: of him. A glance In the direction In which they were going showed him that a dark wall seemed to be forming just ahead of the ca hoose.x Then the train stopped as though H had struck a powerful set of springs and the train was thrown some little distance in the opposite di rection to which it had been going. "As soon as the men on the cars re covered their senses they clambered off and walked down the track till they came to a black. Impenetrable wall rising high above the track and ex tending some distance on each side. "What caused the wall? Well, now, that is something that the scientists of two continents would like to know. The theory of some of the savants was that the rapid speed of the train had solidified the air in front of It. But If atmosphere only It would have disin tegrated again. The wall remains to this day, and it was necessary to build a track around it to get by. "If you ever take a trip over the C P. R.. stop off at Anthracite. Thern you will find a' large bed of anthra cite coal, and a portion of the bed lies on the original roadbed of the rail way." BARTHOLOMEW JOSEPH. .Mawkish Sympathy With Criminals. Ieslie's Weekly. Magistrate Wahle. a judge in one of the New York police courts, says that mawkish sympathy for the most de graded criminals has been carried to such an extent that "one self-respecting mur derer" had felt compelled to write "No flowers" on his cards. Whether this statement is literally true or not, it l certain that the feeble and flabby senti mentality to which Magistrate Wahle wai objecting Is far too prevalent either for the good of criminals or the good name of American women. It is difficult to believe that any woman of character and refinement would demean herself by such conduct, but we fear that such is often the case. Too much emphasis cannot be placed on all redemptive and truly re formatory Influences In the administra tion of our federal institutions, but silly end misplaced sympathy is not among these. Unfortunately there is no law to prevent such exhibitions of human weak ness, but an aroused and enlightened pub lic sentiment may act as a powerful deterrent in most cases. No doubt this sort of perverted hero-worship has had its share of Influence in Inciting weak minded lovers of notoriety to the commis sion of crome.
