his placid manners and silent habits. This language is a murmur
interrupted by subdued hisses,'--'_un murmure entre-coupé de sifflements
doux_.'

The gregarious hotel life in America commends itself to the time-saving
habits of a busy race; but the love of speciality in France modifies
this advantage: in our inns a stated price covers all demands except for
wine; here each separate necessity is a specific charge--the sheet of
writing paper, the cake of soap, and the candle figure among the
innumerable items of the bill. Thus an infinite subdivision makes all
business tedious, involving so many distinct processes and needless
conditions; at every step we realize of how much less comparative value
is time in the Old World. On the other hand, the rigid system that
governs municipal life, the means adopted to render all public
institutions both accessible and attractive, claim perpetually the
gratitude of artists, students, and philosophers. A programme of
exploration may be arranged at will, yielding a complete insight, and,
when achieved, such has been the order, communicativeness and facility,
that we have a more distinct and reliable idea of the whole circle of
observation than it is possible to obtain elsewhere. We are continually
reminded of Buffon's maxim: '_la genie est la patience_.' A curious
illustration of this systematic habit of the French occurred at
Constantinople, during the Crimean war, where they immediately numbered
the houses and named the streets, to the discomfiture of the passive
Turks--one of whom, in his wonder at the mechanical superiority of these
Frank allies, asked a soldier if the high fur cap on his head would come
off. The _concièrge_ beneath each _porte cochére_, the social
distinction which makes each _café_ and restaurant the nucleus of a
particular class, the organized provision for all exigencies of human
life in Paris, illustrate the same trait on a larger and more useful