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How the War Has Rescued Paris from [ts Decadent Vices
Madame de Saint Point
Writes of the ““Artificial
Paradises’’ of the Gay
French Capital Which Are
Now Dark and Deserted---
By Mme. de Saint Point,
The Distinguished Parisian Poetess and
Grandniece of the Great Lamartine.
EFORE the war Paris was overrun
with establishments which | may
politely term “artificial Pars
dises.”
The war has put an end to all that, but
first will tell you of the strange condi
tions that existed.
Paris was, of course, above all places
the centre of cosmopolitan luxury, where
the people of all countries, whether idle
or hard workers in quest of relaxation,
came to seek mental distraction or lib
erty in thelr pleasures. It thus became
the chosen resort of seekers after the
impossible,
In Europe, where ambition is limited
and where one is contented with a very
small foftune, hosts of idlers, possessors
of comfortable incomes, asked for ano
dynes, for surroundings that would create
the illusion of luxuries that were mate
rially inaccessible to them. To these
people were added many artists who
wished to create chimeras on the wings of
which they might launch their creations.
Mystics, who have no longer any faith
in their religion, but who have preserved
the love of the mysterious and the
strange, of penumbras and of strange per
fumes; women who need something to
make them forget the “pleasures” to
which they have been addicted; the dis
contented ones of life, who are hurt by
stern realities; those who are too weary
of living to attach themselves to creative
work—all these formed the inmer circle
of initiates around whom the curiosity
mongers of the entire world came o
group themselves.
The desire to escape from ordinary
life is universal and eternal. Every civ
{lization, every race, has sought and
found the “artificial Paradise” which an-.
swered best the needs of its soul.
In the immense Asiatic continent opium
has assisted the taste for metaphysical
dissertation of the yellow race and its
horror of action,
Hasheesh has stimulated the sumptu
ous imagination of the Hindoos.
Europe and America have alcohol and
tobacco which they introduce, alas!
among the people they pretend to civilize.
Paris has brought together all the
poisons of the different countries and
added to them its own—morphine, heroin,
‘ether and cocaine.
Each of these products was enjoyed in
Paris amidst special surroundings ar
ranged with all the refinements possible
to give it its greatest effect.
We had an idea of what was to happen
in earlier generations, in the days of the
poet Baudelaire, who wrote “The Flow
ers of Evil.” The hasheesh orgies in the
old mansion of the Pimodan family, re
ferred to by Theophile Gautier in his
famous preface to “The Flowers of Evil,”
helped to create the satanic legend of
the poet, who was only a great poet, sad
and painstricken, of whom Victor Hugo
wrote, “He has created a new shudder.”
It was at this period, also, that Thomas
de Quincey became the analyst and the
ecstatic singer of what he called “Divine
Opium.”
These poisons, which we sometimes
call “divine,” because they open a door
upon the lwnite. may be divided into
two classes, the stupefying and the ex
eiting, according as they cause insensi
bility or sharpen sensibility.
In the class of those that stupefy are
morphine, heroin and cocaine.
In the class of stimulants are hasheesh,
alcohol and tobacco.
As for ether and opium, they may belong
to one or the other class, according to
the users, the quantity taken and the de
gree of intoxication.
_According to his temperament, the
paradisiac aspirant has only an em
barrassment of choice. The only precau
tion mecessary, if he wishes to obtain the
fullest enjoyment possible, is not to mix
the drugs, because they neutralize one
another.
Cocaine furnishes the much aesired
paradise of the poor little women who
frequent the cabarets of Montmartre.
Foreigners only find in them a frivolous
carelessness, a good-humored and witty
gracefulness. All that is only an ap
pearance which these women know how
to affect and to impress on others. Their
lfe is not gay and their hazardous ex
periences not always fortunate. Dancing
and laughter do not always come easy
to them. “Coco,” as they call it, is be
loved by them inasmuch as it helps them
to veil the realities always present. A
oloud of insensibility created by the
“coco” places itself between them and
those realities. They are then charming
automata, with their disgusts and their
miseries overcome, and they create illu
glon without suffering from it too much.
For these reasons the “coco” has
ereated innumerable adepts in these cir
cles. Bther is in use among the more
fortunate sisters of those of Montmartre,
among demi-mondaines, and among our
{ntellectual and artistic classes, both
men and women.
~ Many of our demi-mondaines who are
addicted to ether began the practise by
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*The Green Muse—the Demon Absinthe,” From the Well-Known Paint
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mixing it with champagne to increase the
action of the latter, to heighten the
gaiety which it produces and to increase
their sensations in every way.
Others formed the habit of inhaling it.
Many increase the quantity so greatly
that they end it by making it a stupe
flant.
Our artists generally seek in ether a
Why the Snail Is One of the Oldest Delicacies
HE problem of how the first man
to eat an oyster mustered the
courage to do it is eclipsed by
the heroism that must have been shown
by the discoverer of the snail as a food
unit.
Research by E. W. Rust, of the Federal
Horticultural Board, and Dr. Paul
Bartsch, Curator of Marine Invertebrates
at the United States Natfonal Museum,
show, among other interesting things,
that the snail is one of the most ancient
of delicacies.
Away back in the time of the elder
Pliny, Fluvius Hirpines first instituted
snail preserves at the Tarquinium, a
Tuscan city of Rome. This was about
fifty years B. C., nearly 2,000 years ago.
At that time these mollusks were kept
under ground in an inclosure, and fed
on meal and boiled wine until fat enough
for use. Careful breeding, selection and
scientific feeding produced very large
snails of a very satisfactory flavor
Thereafter wherever a Roman flag went
the Caesars saw to it that the snail fol
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brain excitant, hoping that it will pro
duce in them visions and dreams which
they can transform into artistic works.
The morphine and heroin habits have
generally been acquired by persons in
the course of a painful illness during
which they have learned how it deadened
pain, The patients preserve from this
experience a memory so agreeable that
lowed.
The French merchants of Paris first
tasted this savory dish when visiting the
vineyards of Burgundy for wine. They
brought the first baskets of snails to
Paris by coach from Auxerre. By 1850
the advent of the railroad had brought
the industry to quite a development, and
markets were opened up in France, Italy
and Spain for snails.
The large white snails (Helix pomatia)
are most commony found upon menus in
the United States. They are brought
over alive from Europe in barrels and
casks.
What are known as land snails are
mostly eaten by the Caucasian races.
This species has a vegetarian taste, sei
dom eating animal substance. They are
tound in the woods, fields, gardens, cel
lars, old walls or upon open plains, moun
tain sides, by bodies of fresh water and
near the sea. The slime exudation is
simply nature’s weapon of defense for
this helpless unit of life. With it the
snail seals his globular shell, thus ex
cluding air and preventing a fatai
Copyright, 1916, by the Star Company
Matignon’s Salon Painting of Fashionable Paris Morphine Victims.
they are tempted to return to morphine
again whenever they suffer from any
physical or mental {lls. To suffer no
more, to sleep without losing conscious
ness, that is what the adepls of these
arugs always seek.
Then, again, women of a certain age,
having passed the melancholy point of
the fiftieth year, which marks th~ end of
domination by beauty and sexua! attrac
tion, ask morphine and heroin (o give
them again the memorv of past joys, of
dead sensations, and finally an easy pas
sage, without noise and without regret,
to death.
Heroin is less bruta: than morphine,
more subtle, and procures Jjoys appre
ciably more intellectual.
Before the “coco” was Introduced
toward the end of the last century, ab
sinthe furnished the paradise of many
women. Today absinthe is abandoned
to men and women of the lowest class.
Hasheesh, which comes to us from
m) sterious India, Is a cerebral and sens
ual excitant. It is smokea or eaten in
the form of candy or in pills. It intensi
fies both sensation and thought. It is
less in use than other drugs, because it
creates nothing, in the absolute sense of
the term: it does nothing but increase
and develop ideas and sensations. There
fore, it is evident that a person without
imagination and without much mentality
cannot obtain a great effect from its use.
On the other hand, persons of active
mind derive very great joys from its use.
Opium, which was first brought to
Europe by olficers of the navy and trav
ellers, is the “artificial Paradise” most
generally favored in society. The exotic
surroundings that go with it give pleas
ure to many and it adapts itself to all
desires. For the thinker it is a marvel
lous stimulant, but unfortunately it takes
away all will power and all desire to turn
ideas into works. At the beginning it
has been known to stinulate writers,
but in the long run ruins them.
Our dilettantes and society “snobs”
prefer it to all other drugs. The feeble
light of the lamp, the mats and cushions
on which the smokers repose, the long
pipes, the wreaths of smoke rising in the
shadow, the peculiar and persistent odor
-—all these things are fascinating. For
many it furnishes an excuse for wrong
doing. They take only one or two
pipes, avoiding the smoke for fear that
it will give'them heart disease. They do
not really experience any effect, but the
abandoned attitude, the half-draped con
dition, the idea that they are lost in
dreams apnd unconscious of thelr acts,
permit them a discreet and sllent orgy
which they will have forgotten on the
morrow.
That is why “opium salons” became
enormously multiplied before the war.
They were often frequented rather by
amateurs than by real adepts. The real
amount of evaporation. This slime also
deters such foes as birds and small mam
mals from preying upen them. The up
per part of the visceral cavity has three
fleshy lobes.
The snail lays its eggs during June and
July in the northern hemisphere. It de
posits fifty to sixty eggs in a hole it digs
from four to six inches deep in the earth
These are the size of a small pea and
look a bit like mistletoe berries, both in
coloring and in consistency.
One might easily mistake them for
homoeopathic pills. These are laid in a
cluster in the hole, which the snail digs
with its foot. The eggs hatch in about
twenty days. The young snail doesn’t
obtain its full size until about the sec
ond Summer. They became abundant in
Wurttemberg, Baden and in the villages
along the Danube and the Lauter vai
leys. About Gustenstein there were gar
dens where millions of snails were an
nually fattened.
The large white snail is the one pre
ferred in the best markets. Scientists
call it Helix pomatia. While the better
Great Britain Rights Reserved.
smokers isolate themseives and bate to
be seen in semi-public places.
All these drugs are dangerous, because
at the beginning the effects are truly fas
cinating. Thoughts and sensations are
refined and sharpened by them. One
escapes from the real world and gets out
of oneself. Every power seems to be
increased. Nothing is impossible. Noth
ing appears inexplicable.
This is on condition, however, that one
is accustomed to have the ideas and the
occupations to which the drugs adapt
themselves. Naturally they will not give
imagination to an empty brain and they
will not inspire the ability of an artist
in a gross being. In the common run of
mortals they can only give forgetiulness
and the attenuation of daily cares. This
state of torpor is, however, to many a
real delight. Then there are the sen
sualists, who find their sensations in
creased and made subtle.
But after the first escapades in these
“artificial Paradises,” the quantities of the
drugs which carry one there must be sen
sibly, and aftgr awhile considerably in
creased. The provess of imnunization
which they cause in the body is imme
diate.
The adept is obliged to double, triple
and quadruple the dose. This soon leads
to mental derangement. The *“artificial
Paradises” then cost very dearly. Once
thoroughly poisoned a person is almost
incurable. There are, of course, many es
tablishments where they are treated,
But at the end of a certain time a cure
may seem almost complete, but nearly al
ways after he has been set at liberty the
victim returns to his “Paradise.” In
order that a person may be completely
freed from the habit it is necessary that
the intoxication should not have been ol
long duration and that all will-power
should not have been destroyed by it.
When the war broke out it cleaned oui
these “artificial Paradises” in an aston
fshing manner. It tore the men away
from them. Those who had been merely
amateurs of the habit shook it off entirely
and easily, while even those who were
regarded as hopelessly addicted to the
drug have become brave and efficient
soldiers. The stimulus of the country in
danger is perhaps the only thing that
could have rescued these unfortunate
men. This is one of the many good deeds
that must be credited to the war.
During the long and deadly struggles
of the trenches, do these men long, for
the oases where they took the “divine
poison”? No. For action carries away
every thought or sensation. War is per
haps the most efficacious of hospitals for
drug victims. The public authorities
have forbidden women to resort to the
“artificial Paradises,” which might have
been made more tempting to some of
them by the sorrow of separation or the
loss of a loved one.
These once luxuriously furnished dens
classes affected the aristocrat of the
snail family, the middle classes indulged
in the commoner garden snail, which the
scientists call Helix aspersa. There was
also the wood snail, which Muller named
Helix nemoralis. These were widely
eaten by poor people, because they were
more plentiful and cheaper.
There were other kinds of snails. Fpi
cures about Marseilles preferred the
species known as Helix melanostoma
The Italians had a liking for the edible
snail generally known to scientists as
Helix lucorum.
The English, except those leaning to
French menu items, seldom ate snails,
though the pomatia and she aspersa
species abounded: the latter being in
digenous to Britain.
Tae snall is, in a sense, a fish, though
it doesn’t like in water as such. The
Austrian convents treated snails as fish
during the Lenten season, under the
Papal sanction, and they were so eaten
on fast days. From Ulm, in the Swabian
Alps, 10,000,000 snails came annually
down the Danube to Vienna.
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Mme. Valentine de Saint Point.
are now deserted or turned into soup
kitchens for soldiers’ children.
Our women must all learn to turn from
these exotic vices to their true mission
of raiging children or at least caring for
them.
Our lawmakers are seeking to prohibit
alcobol, an “artificial Paradise” of the
common people, but without much suc
cess. That is evidently more urgent and
more necessary, for alcohol is more dan
gerous. It is more dangerous because it
corrupts the masses of men and women
and thus profoundly affects the race.
The “artificlal Paradises” of the refined
destroy nothing except those who fre
quent them. If the degradation of these
individuals is to be regretted, it has no
importance from the point of view of the
race. The frequenters of the ‘“artificial
Paradises” are not recruited among those
who are working to repopulate our coun
try. Compared to the masses of the peo
ple their number is infinitesimal.
Shall we ever succeed in destroying
what the first step in civilization creates:
the dangerous possibility of expanding
one's existence, of multiplying one's per
sonality, of escaping from the too-com
monplace realities of daily life? Wars
have passed over all peoples without
destroying this essentially human aeed
which is in every one. The great war
from which we suffer now will certain
ly lessen for a time the desire of “ar
tiflcial Paradises,” but will not kill them.
The war has initiated a period of ac
tion. To-morrow is for the resurrection
of the ruined in all walks, and for the
work of repopulation. . Fatal necessity
puts action in the first place, dreaming
{n the second.
5