ears, leaving only a little above the back of the neck, to give
an appearance of far-reaching baldness, and on my head was
painted, in ah! so brilliant letters of distinctness:

Theatre

Folie-Rouge

Revue

de

Printemps

Tous les Soirs

Such was the necessity to which I was at that time reduced! One
has heard that the North Americans invent the most singular
advertising, but I will not believe they surpass the Parisian.
Myself, I say I cannot express my sufferings under the notation
of the crowds that moved about the Cafe' de la Paix! The French
are a terrible people when they laugh sincerely. It is not so
much the amusing things which cause them amusement; it is often
the strange, those contrasts which contain something horrible,
and when they laugh there is too frequently some person who is
uncomfortable or wicked. I am glad that I was born not a
Frenchman; I should regret to be native to a country where they
invent such things as I was doing in the Place de l'Opera; for,
as I tell you, the idea was not mine.