than the occasional introduction of the same material; and the heads, hoods, or roofs are composed of cotton, silk, or leather, with whalebone, iron, steel, cane, or wood, to strain or raise them. The patentee makes his wheels upright, that is, without dishing. According to this mode of construction, the elasticity is much more pleasant than that of steel. Springs of that metal, if made to carry much weight, recover so suddenly after bending as frequently to throw the person riding out of the carriage; and to this recoil, and not to the first shock, many of the fatal accidents which occur are to be attributed. Whalebone being more pliant, does not recoil so speedily, and springs made of it cannot be broken. French Theatre.-Extract of a letter from Paris.-At the Theatre des Vaudevilles, I saw Le Rout de Paris; ou, les Allants et les Venants, the most pleasant farce I have witnessed for a long time. There is an actor here who beats Matthews hollow-M. Joly; he personated ten different characters one after the other, and all of them admirably; he was on the stage almost the whole of the piece; and the quickness with which he changed his dress was surprising. The look of each of the characters was so totally different, that you would hardly be lieve they were all sustained by the same man. Among the characters he supported was an English Milord, who entered the inn at which the scene was laid, with Milady. The Lord and Lady were dressed admirably. The Lord was a gouty man about forty-five years of age, and splenetic; his Lady a dashing woman of twenty, who had assured him that Paris was the only place to cure his gout. Their bad French was delightful: the Lord entered, talking to his servant without:"Allez, doucement, petit Williams; ne fatiguez par le cheval ; nous nous ARRETER nous ici, pour le dejeuner." The innkeeper's wife then asked them what they would have for breakfast; the lady chose milk, and the lord-"Pour moi, lo BIFSTICK." The lady complained of the length of their journey, to which the lord assented—“ Goddem, yes, Milady; le chemin, il est plein de longuer." All this amused the Parisians excessively; the actors were interrupted with bursts of laughter, and the people near us looked every minute at us, to see how we relished it. I was almost in hysterics. Milord said his wife spoke French very well: "Mais pour moi, Goddem, yes, je ne suis pas fort pour le parlement." At last the lord got into a terrible passion at the landlady saying that the French gentlemen would be very fond of his wife, and vowed he would pay only one guinea for his breakfast. This astonished Madame la hotellerie, "What," said she, “a guinea! 25 francs!" "Ah," he replied, " that will teach you to say the French will love my wife; elle n'aime que moi." Exit in a rage. Before the lady had time to follow, and while you heard her husband outside calling her, Joly, the actor, entered again, as a French beau, quizzing the Englishman he had just passed. The change was wonderful. The actress who played Milady was dressed à l'Anglaise, in a cottage bonnet; and, I can assure you, looked much prettier than all the French women with their horrible bonnets, two feet high. gained no formidabic as in private life he was the younger son of ed the contrary party in politics; and having never been VOL. V. New Series. 23 |