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What I Saw and Heard in Noisy America -
By THE CHEVALIER
DE FOUQUIERES
The French Arbiter of the Elegances, Back
Home in Paris, Tells How He Had to Live
Up to New York’s Imported Idea of Him,
and Reveals Impressions Politeness Made
Him Keep Suppressed While Here.
T HE Chevalier Andre de Fouquleres. the
Parisian Arbiter of the Elegances,
who recently made an interesting voy
age of discovery to the United States, is back
in Paris, lecturing to large audiences on hit
American experiences.
Here is his first address to his countrymen>
the text ot which has been furnished exclu
sively to this newspaper:
By the Chevalier ANDRE de FOUQUIERES
M Y early Impressions of New York were
startling. From my window I saw the
famous Fifth avenue, which was former
ly the most aristocratic thoroughfare of the
city, but is now entirely invaded by trade.
Enormous and splendid stores with dazzling
displays in their windows are taking the place
of private houses where the most select so
ciety once lived. Fifth avenue is, in fact, un
dergoing the same fate as our Avenue des
Champs Elysees.
How shall I describe to you the agonizing
sensation of the noise that filled the streets,
of that noise which became an obsessing ac
companiment of every hour of every day, that
noise In which the hammering of metal in
many tones, the roaring of mechanical trum
pets, the shouts of harsh voices mingled in a
sort of deafening, discordant futurist music.
Broadway is a human kaleidoscope whose
ever changing figures symbolize mad haste. I
see before me now a vision in which human
beings appear as the Image of struggle incar
nated. of that struggle which is here not a
means, but an end, the only end of life, for
here no one ever rests. New' Yorkers do not
know the delightful Parisian habit of
“flanerie,” that habit which consists in Just
strolling along th$ boulevards and saying
amusing aud useless nothings. The New
Yorker not only ignores the habit, but he
would be ashamed to admit that it had any
attractions for him. He pretends to be busiest
when be has least to do.
I can hardly describe to you how pitifully
homesick for Paris I became at times iu this
feverish life of New York.
About an hour after my arrival T went to
lunch thirty-five miles away witli Mrs. Clar
ence Mackay, in her beautiful French chateau
of a style so exquisite. I did not omit to pay
a visit to the simple little wooden house hid
den in the park of this grande dame, the mis
tress of hundreds of millions of dollars, where
she amuses herself by writing dramatic works
which are greatly admired in the United States.
On the evening of the same day I attended a
great dinner organized in my honor by a
leader of New York's most elegant society. At
the dinner table I found that the Americans
do not indulge in general conversation, but
everybody talks exclusively and continuously
with the person next to him. This custom, in
my opinion, detracts from the intimacy and
gayety of the dinner party.
On the other hand I had no occasion to re
mark upon any lack of gayety when the din
ner was over. As soon as we had passed from
the dining room to the salon, a pianist began
to strike the latest popular airs, the haunting
airs which the workmen whistle in the street
ears and the American man of business hums
while concluding a contract which may change
the business of the whole world. Then comes
the turkey trot,, that maddening delight, that
Joy, that passion of the forty-seven States of
the American Union. The turkey trot will cer
tainly succeed the "cake-walk," the "grizzly
bear" and the tango in the popular preferences
of Parisians.
If 1 dwell so much upon this dance It is be
cause Its popularity is so extraordinary that it
hag taken the place of bridge and five hun
dred. What will you say when I tell you that
the Americans turkey trot at tea time? No
spectacle can be more extraordinary than that
which presented itself to me when I saw a
whole salon full of fashionable Americans
suddenly carried away by enthusiasm for the
turkey trot. Everybody seemed to be smitten
with a sudden madness and began to dance
this fascinating measure with fierce energy.
Dignified dowagers and millionaire bankers
took part in it, with the same reckless en
thusiasm. It Is no uncommon thing to see an
austere magistrate, an Illustrious professor
lrom the universities, or a trust magnate
noted for his haughty reserve and monopolistic
coldness, melt into youthful recklessness un
der the influence of this wonderful dance.
Never is the American so interesting as
when turkey trotting. Never is he so typically
American and^ yet so unlike his everyday self.
He does not 'dance with the gay abandon of
the Latin when executing a somewhat cory-
bantic measure, lie throws himself into this
performance with a desperate solemn energy
that has in it something of the terrible.
When I went away from Paris, several
Parisian journals dignified me with the sin
gular title of "Ambassador of Fashion.” Per
haps they did not say this without a certain
malice, but I bear them no hard feeling on ac
count of it. I was astonished to find on my
arrival in New York that the Americans took
tliis title with the utmost seriousness.- in
deed many of them seemed to believe that I
had an official mission from the French Gov
ernment to promote French fashions in
America.
Since T have completed my voyage of dis
covery, I have found that the duties of an Am
bassador of Fashion, though seemingly frivol
ous, are of the highest importance. It is not,
therefore, solely with the object of turning a
Jest to advantage that I accept this title, and
glory in it, but really because the duties it
involves are of the greatest value to our dear
France.
Fashion is the only French industry which
is still predominant in the United States. The
lead which our great automobile makers once
took in America has been entirely wiped out
by the enterprising manufacturers of New
^ ork, Pittsburgh aud Chicago. The same is
true of many other French industries. Parisian
fashion, however, still preserves all its su-
prauacy in the best society. Nowhere can
ym see such a mad desire of luxury, such
rivalry in the arena of the styles, such sub
jection to the despotic fantasies of fashion as
in America.
No American woman worthy of the name
would transform a dress of last season Into
the style of to-day. She recognizes and wears
only the new. She observes with minute at
tention tho smallest transformations invented
by our dressmakers. Audacity attracts her
and it is upon New York that our artists of
the Kuo de la Paix always try their most
audacious creations. An American woman is
never quite in the style of Paris but always a
little ahead of it. The style of Paris is always
a little quieter, a little less eccentric, a little
slower, if I may venture to say so, Than that
of New York.
The revenues of a queen are spent every
year upon the toilette of many an American
woman. Too often the real queen does not
spend her revenues on dress. Many of our
most famous French dressmaking establish
ments owe more of their prosperity to their
American customers than to the royalty and
nobility of Europe.
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"Most American millionaires are capable of buying an historic French
chateau and setting it down in Wall street as a counting house. Says
M. de Fo-iquieres. This Illustration from a French Paper Shows How
•ho Frenc.i Think Such an "Outrage" Would Appear if Perpetrated.
A Drawing from the Witty Faria Magazine, "Tho Butter Dish," Illustrating the French Idea
of tho “Deadly Earnestness” with Which We Dance the Turkey Trot, an Earnestness in Which
M de Fouquieres Finds "Something of the-Terrible.”
But there is a mean, paltry movement to
dethrone this supremacy of France from New
York to San Francisco, to snatch this enor
mous source of wealtli away from us. it was
by combating and ridiculing this movement as
Ambassador of Fashion that I was able to act
with advantage to my country.
Competition in tho field of fashions is, of
course, fierce and constant. It comes especial
ly from Germany, which numbers in the United
States a thousand representatives to one
Frenchman. The new movement alms to
make these German fashions supremo. The
inodes invented in Berlin and Munich have
never been accepted by tbc New York aris
tocracy, the famous "Four Hundred,” to which
entrance is so exclusively guarded. The new
millionaires, moreover, they who form a bril
liant society side by side with the older set,
are too careful to follow the examplo of the
others to give their paitronage to any coutur
iers but those of Paris. The great American
middle class, however, which disposes ot a
large part of the wealth of the country, has
begun to pay attention to the seductive cata
logues which speak of Parisian novelties, but
originate with German houses.
It is desirable that pur dressmakers should
make their creations better known m America.
The American woman must be taught not only
to love French fashions, as she does already,
but to distinguish between real and imitation
French fashions.
French dressmakers make too little effort to
maintain the tremendous prestige of our ele
gance among a nation that loves every form
of luxury.
The American attitude toward French
fashions is really the highest compliment that
can be paid to us. it Is a recognition of that
cult of good taste and good manners which
perpetuates the most brilliant side of our his
tory, the most glorious in the world. The
American woman unconsciously pays tribute
to the greatness of France when she insists
that her gown shall be "the latest thing from
Paris.” Let us take care that she gets what
she asks for.
The war is between the art of France and
the industry of Germany. We must combat
that tireless industry, that appalling applica
tion of the Teutons. Let us expose the pre
tensions of a people who put pink flowers on
red hats and propose to create fashions for
the world. Let them stick to the work of
making strong, serviceable garments for the
laboring man. France alone is afile to clothe
lovely woman in a becoming manner. This
/
was the great truth which I sought to im
press upon Americans, and I flatter myself
that I have enjoyed not a little success.
There is a similar contest between German
and French cookery. Tho. Germans perpe
trate the cooking iu the hotels ami restau
rants of America to an incredible extent.
They are a people capable of making ice
cream with pork fat and stuffing lobsters
with strawberry jam. Of course, all the su
perior establishments are conducted by
Frenchmen, but unfortunately they are too
few in numbers to make their influence felt
throughout the country.
French cooks and restauranteurs should go
to the United States In larger numbers and
strive to make the delights of our cuisine ap
preciated In every hamlet in the country. A
chef who is comparatively obscure here
might become a great ana wealthy person
there.
Do not let me be understood as casting
mean aspersions on the German. He may be
inartistic but he is usually honest and fright
fully industrious. He gives you a solid arti
cle, "your money’s worth,” as the Americans
say. and they are very eager for solid re
pasts. Tho German dish may give you indi
gestion, hut the Americans are used to that.
My dear countrymen, if I may venture to say
so, are too prone to sell a delightful airy
nothing for a high price.
I arrived in America at a moment when
society was threatened with a great revolu
tion. The installation of President Wilson in
the White House marked the triumph of the
Democratic over the Republican party, the
triumph of the party of sin^liclty over the
party of wealth. Many persons were debat
ing whether the appeal for simplicity made
by tho new head of the Government would
not find an echo among the lovers of luxury
and tarnish the splendor of those magnificent
American fetes which have been the wonder
and the envy of Europe.
If American society should become austere
and puritanical, it would no longer be the
America we have known and loved for several
years past, and French fashions would surely
suffer. I am happy to be able to inform you
that there is no such danger. The world of
fashion ami the world of politics are com
pletely divorced in America.
An American millionaire may live more
extravagantly than one of our grands seig
neurs of the old regime, but if so he is not
in politics. Should he decide to go into that
useful vocation he sells his furniture and pic-
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Chevalier de
Fouquieres in
Persian Costume.
The "CourtUle”—
from an Old
French Print of
1860. Thu
Dance, Says
M. de
Fouquieres, Is
the Grandparent of
Our Trot and
Tango—Only It
Has Lost All
Its “Splendid .
Gaiety and Innocent
Joie de Vivre” i.
During
Its Development
Here
tures, buys an ill-fitting suit of clothes, turns
up his collar and makes himself look like one
of “the plain people.”
I have known many cases whero a states
man lived like one of "Hie plain people,” while
his wife moved in fashionable society. Such
arrangements cause much unhappiness, for
tile husband’s political plans are injured
when his wife’s splendid entertainments are
mentioned, while the wife is still more
seriously embarrassed when her fashionable
guests catch sight of her democratic hus
band.
Wealth In the United States will, as a
rule, continue to flow in the direction of
luxury, of splendid entertainments, of objects
of art and of beautiful dress for the women.
For this reason this country offers a vast
field to tho artistic Frenchman which he has
not yet thoroughly worked.
If the luxury-loving American public gave
me an excessively flattering reception, if they
surrounded my arrival with unusual pomp
and circumstance, It was because they were
eager to hear me champion that elegance, that
luxury, that chic which are the life and
breath of fine society. They wished to hear
me tell them that there should be no return
to the simple aud ugly life, no striving back
ward toward the conditions of the cava
dweller. I told them, and they showed un
bounded delight.
The reputation which preceded mo front
Paris had a singular effect. The American*
expected, mo to he dressed in an extraordinary
and striking manner. They examined every
detail of my appearance in a rather embar
rassing way. They wished to know the exact
form of my shoes and the mysterious reason
which had decided me to wear in a visible
manner a white rather than a colored hand
kerchief. Some of them were surprised that
I did not wear a silk hat with a flat brim,
trousers large at the top and tied with a
tape at the bottom and other peculiar gar
ments which American caricaturists have
been in the habit of attributing to Frenchmen.
Strange to say, although the Americans go to
France in large numbers, they always expect
(he Frenchman to bo as tradition has depict
ed him. Nevertheless, they seemed to be
pleased with what they discovered. It was
indispensable to them to learn the name of
my tailor and the number and shades of all
the neckties I wore. They are a good-natured
but an inquisitive people.
How to Eat to Keep Body and Brain Healthily Balanced
By FRANK A. REXFORD,
Teacher of Biology at Erasmus High School, and a Leading Expert on Food Stuffs.
A GREAT many people are dying of slow
starvation in this world- Not because
of lack of food, but because most per
sons In tho world lack knowledge of food
values. Their brains work badly, their bodies
wear out early, their efficiency is diminished,
because they do not know what to eat, or how
little—I will not say how much—to eat.
There are only two reasons for eating. One
is to repair the waste; the other is to supply
energy. There is no trouble about the build
ing material. Practically every one eats
enough, or too much, of body Duilding material.
The great sin of diet is a sin of omission.
People do not eat enough of the energy-produc
ing food stuffs. Lacking energy they do not
do their share of the world s work, and what
they do, do not as well as they should. The
wand’s advancement in the arts, the sciences
and in business and ethics is immeasurably
retarded by the lack of knowledge which re
sults in this lack of energy.
Since we have established our experiment
station among the 200 pupils of the Erasmus
High School, we have emphasized the fact that
it is among the people who, as we are In
the habit of saying “live best,” ia which this
sin of diet is greatest. Here in Flatbush,
where many own their own homes and most
dwellers are in comfortable circumstances, we
have big, dreamy boys and girls. Why? Be
cause here and in most subui communities
the children have plenty, indeed they have too
much, meat and too many egg3, the expensive
articles of food. Of vegetables, which con
tain the energy stuffs and are cheaper, they
do not have enough.
Go over ou the East Side, and the reverse is
true. The lean little folk who play on the
swarming sidewalks cf that quarter have a
superabundance of the energy-malting stuffs in
their food. The light-footed, wide-eyed, scrawny
child of New York's East Hide lives largely on
fruits and farinaceous stuffs. The little East
Sider expends three times as much energy in
a day as the Flatbush dweller, but in a very
Lot Summer, or a very cold Winter, be yields
easily to the adverse conditions. Coffins are
then carried daily out of the tenements. The
little bodies that were no long on energy were
loo insufficiently repaired. The bricks that had
not enough straw' crumbled.
A mistake made by the enlightened ignorants
is that ajppetite is a guide to the selection and
amount of food. A normal appetite is—but few
persons have a normal appetite. The appetite
has grown aud grown until, as an enormous
tumor, it makes undue demands for space and
sustenance upon the body. It is far from true
that we should eat what we want and eat when
we want it. Eating has become for some per
sons, especially In New York, a means of pas
time. If a person is "blue” he fancies he must
eat to send up his spirits, if he is lonely he
eats to keep himself company. He eats when
he has nothing to do, eats to amuse himself.
As fast as he can he is eating himself into his
grave. The other night I dropped into a res-
.taurant in New York after the theatre, and a
veterau waiter, pointing to a woman, high
colored and of ample build, said:
“She's going the way of lots or New Yorkers.
,iey think it’s the drink that kills them, but
isn’t, it's the eating.”
; Not overeating so much as the wrong food is
billing more than half the people of the world
long before their time. The intelligent would
govern their diet if they knew hove. The edu
cated are educated in every respect besides
this. That is the reason I set about learning
what my pupils’ families live upon, and to cor
rect, so far as I could, their errors by sugges
tion. People will eat the right foods if they
know what they are, and I am endeavoring to
show them what these right foods are.
The body, 1 have explained to them, contains
five chief materials, water, minerals, fats, car
bohydrates and proteids. It is our business to
replace these materials as they wear out, as in
a building you would patch up broken timber
with a now piece of wood, or when the cement
between the bricks begins to crumble you fur
nish fresh cement. No guise in which food is
served can change the fact that real food must
contain these rebuilding substances. You may
lunch in an uptown restaurant on truffles and
what accompanies it, while I am sitting peace
fully on the curb with my loaf of bread, meat
cakes and pint of ale, but the fact stands.
We are made of the same stuff and need the
same kind of nourishment. Water and min
erals need not be discussed at this time since
they do not change in the body, and a sufficient
amount of minerals enters the body in the
forms of parts of various foods. Of water noth
ing need be said except that we should drink
three quarts of it a day.
Proteids, fats and carbohydrates are the es
sentials, and upon them we should concentrate
our interest, for upon our supplying them in
sufficient quantities depends the length of our
lives and the degree of our efficiency. And
now attend, for (his is the rudiment of the food
question. The alphabet of food contains three
letters, proteids, which are found in greatest
quantities in lean meat and eggs; fats, which
we deTlve from the fats of meat, and from the
oil of fruits, as the banana and all nuts; aud
carbohydrates, which furnish the body the fats
and sugars it requires. Cereals and the vege
tables supply us with carbohydrates. Rice is
an example, corn, wheat, beans. Amplify the
classification yourself.
When you sit down to order a meal at a
restaurant be sure to supply your need of the
three Or, if you are a housekeeper, keep them
constantly in mind while you are giving your
order to the grocer aud planning uexl day’s
meals.
No mail can lay down an eating rule .or an
other. The general truths I have enunciated
must guide you. They and this other, that
there are seven essential foods, and that it is
in the others, the trimmings, so to speak, that
you are likely to err. These essential foods
are meat, which supplies protein; potatoes, fur
nishing starch; bread, that supplies starch;
eggs, more protein; milk, a fat; butter, a fat;
vegetables that are carbohydrates.
There have been arbitrary rules that each
person requires two ounces of protein, two
ounces of fat, and two ounces of carbohydrates
"to keep going.” That and all other arbitrary
rules are liable to be misleading. The truth
is that a nervous, overenergized person, needs
more proteids to repair the tissues, his excess
of energy is too rapidly wearing out, and lie
needs to diminish the coal that keeps his en
gine driving with too great force. The heavy,
phlegmatic person should revise his diet to in
clude more fats and carbohydrates, which
make energy and diminish the supply of his
building material.
This is a suggestion that can be safely fol
lowed for it is conservative. For each pound
a person weighs he should have a daily allow
ance of one-eightieth ot an ounce of protein . If
the person weighs 160 pounds he does well to
eat enough meat and eggs to secure for himself
two ounces of protein a day. The remainder
of his food should be so apportioned as to keep
him sufficiently warm, and above all to "keep
him going,” and in a mood to “go.” Tbe fuol
foods, that is, tats and carbohydrates, should
be consumed in sufficient amount to make up a
total of 2,500 to 3.000 calories. While I desire
to simplify the subject as far as possible, cal
ory has no synonym. It Is a unit of beat and
energy, as pint is of liquids, or an inch is of
length. It is sufficient to say that we have our
allotment of 2,500 to 3,000 calories of heat and
energy when we do not suffer from cold ex
tremities, and when we are enjoying our work
and doing it the best any one can. In a word,
when we are at or above par.
Nourishing food, by which I mean food con
taining the proper food values, is not neces
sarily expensive food. I asked my pupils to do
their own marketing for the families with the
food formulae I have cited as guides, and these
two tables, each showing what a family ot
ten lived on for a week, prove that one family
spent twice as much as the other, and was no
better nourished. In fact, the children from
the family of ten who lived on sixteen dollars
a week looked rosier and more energetic than
the other. Compare the Items in the light of
the working rule I have given and judge for
yourself why. The family that spent thirty-
three dollars a week spent, you see, three
times as much for meat. It supplied itseif
freely with pies, cakes and bread and buns,
all from a bakery. The other made Its own
bread:
ERASMUS HALL HIGH SCHOOL.
ECONOMY IN FOOD.
Weekly Food Account.
Section of* City—Bast New York.
Quantities and Kind of Food. Cost.
2d lbs. meat at 20 cents $4.00
% bbl. flour 1-25
Potatoes 1-1?
Canned goods 2.00
Vegetables 60
Desserts 1-00
1 lb. coffee 23
1 lb. tea - 60
7 lbs. sugar -38
Spices 25
3 lbs. butter 105
1 lb. butterine .25
Fruit 25
Cereals 26
Sauces and relish 30
12 qts. milk 96
2% doz. eggs 1.25
Fish - 30
Miscellaneous foods 1.55
Total cost of food for the week.... $16.03
ERASMUS HALL HIGH SCHOOL.
ECONOMY IN FOOD.
Weekly Food Account.
Section of City—Williamsburg.
Quantities and Kind of Food. Cost.
Meats : $12.00
16 loaves bread (bakeryJ 1.6u
Fish 72
Cereals 25
Pies (bakery) •. 80
Cake (bakery) 63
Buns (bakery) 40
38 bottles milk 3.25
Fruits 1-87
Butter and Eggs 4.00
Vegetables 2.00
2 lbs. coffee 68
(4 lb. tea 16
7 lbs. Sugar 69
Spices 20
Miscellaneous foods 4.27
Total cost of food for the week..$33.75
1 suggest a model menu for a day. and let
mo add that the father of thirty-five years
need eat no more than the boy of ten. Thera
is an impression that the child should eat much
less than the adult. Oil the contrary, my son
who is ten, eats as much as I do, and some
times more. In this I encourage him, for l
consider that for every waste cell in my body
I must resupply one; while in his case, ha
must supply two, not only the cell that has
been destroyed in the day’s wear and tear, but
lie must furnish another for the growing
body.
For Breakfast:
Fruit (apple, grapes, orange or berries,
cooked or raw).
Cereal (with cream and sugar.
Buttered toast.
One boiled egg.
Cereal coffee or cocoa, with plenty of milk.
This is an American breakfast, you see, in
stead of a French one. If y»>u have work to
do it is better to be well fortified for tho task.
Dinner:
Meat (ample portion, but not too much).
Your judgment must tell you what is too much,
A "stuffy feeling” after eating Is usually a
warning.
Potatoes (boiled or baked).
Side dish of green vegetables.
Fruit (preferably stewed).
No pies nor puddings.
With a breakfast and dinner of this sort we
can make of the luncheon what it should be—•
a filler and soother, under these conditions
one does not require a heavy luncheon. Some
thing warm will draw the blood supply to the
stomach and rest tho head. A little nourish
ment should be taken at midday, but not
enough to tax the digestive system, nor make
him drowsy in the afternoon.
Hot puree of vegetable or mea^ broth.
Unsweetened crackers, or
Sandwiches (bread and butter, or nuts oi
lettuce with mayonnaise).
A final warning against overfeeding, but
more particularly with the proteids: If you
give the body more building material than It
needs it will be like a finished house whose
drawing room is filled with left over lumber.
This excess of building material in the human
body creates waste matter in the form of urio
acid or other poisons. These, cast into the
blood, are harmful, and by causing overwork ot
the kidneys are even dangerous.