218 AN OCTOBER ABROAD. 



streets, and quays, and by-ways ; in the restaurants 

 and under awnings, and seated on the open sidewalk 

 social and convivial wine-bibbing not hastily and 

 in large quantities, but leisurely and reposingly, and 

 with much conversation and enjoyment. 



Drink, drink, drink, and with equal frequency and 

 nearly as much openness, the reverse or diuretic side 

 of the fact. (How our self-consciousness would 

 writhe ! We should all turn to stone !) Indeed, the 

 ceaseless deglutition of mankind in this part of the 

 world is only equaled by the answering and enormous 

 activity of the human male kidneys. This latter was 

 too astonishing, and too public a fact to go unmeu- 

 tioned. At Dieppe, by the reeking tubs standing 

 about, I suspected some local distemper, but when I 

 got to Paris, and saw how fully and openly the wants 

 of the male citizen in this respect were recognized by 

 the sanitary and municipal regulations, and that the 

 urinals were thicker than the lamp-posts, I concluded 

 it must be a national trait, and at once abandoned 

 the theory that had begun to take possession of my 

 mind, viz, that diabetes was no doubt the cause of the 

 decadence of France. Yet I suspect it is no more 

 a peculiarity of French manners than of European 

 manners generally, and in its light I relished im- 

 mensely the history of a well-known statue which 

 stands in a public square in one of the German cities. 

 The statue commemorates the unblushing audacity of 

 a peasant going to market with a goose under each 

 arm, who ignored even the presence of the king, and 



