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THE NATIONAL, GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by H. C. Ellis 



A MASTERPIECE OE CULINARY ART: PHOTOGRAPHED IN THE KITCHEN OE A EAMOUS 



PARIS RESTAURANT 



The Paris chef takes as great pride in such a piece de resistance as does the sculptor in 

 his less perishable creation. The scientific cook has stood the French people in good stead 

 during the past four and a half years, for he has brought all his skill into play in making 

 palatable the most meager of rations. 



longed embraces as that of an American 

 bride leaving her fond mama, while the 

 collision of two automobiles is an oppor- 

 tunity for oratory surpassing anything 

 heard in America. And yet these are the 

 people who said at Verdun, "They shall 

 not pass !" 



But an American must not take this 

 French volatility too seriously. It is 

 doubtful whether in the history of man 

 the world has possessed a more good- 

 natured, more patient people. 



Contrary to foreign opinion, these 

 French have almost infinite patience. In 

 fact, their very patience with lax public 

 administration and wrong legislation has 

 sometimes been their undoing, and only 

 on rare occasions and at long intervals, 

 as in the French Revolution, will they be 

 provoked into violent bursting of unjust 

 restraints. But when they do, one is lia- 



ble to recall the ancient warning, "Be- 

 ware of the fury of a patient man." 



Owing to their extreme intellectual 

 alertness, they seem to us more silent folk 

 forever arguing or scolding ; but it is only 

 that same energy transmuted into lan- 

 guage rather than into the wasted phys- 

 ical action so often seen in America. That 

 they are a people of exceptionally good 

 disposition is proved by the fact that so 

 few genuine physical clashes result from 

 the veritable fusilade of argument that 

 they constantly fire at one another. 



"no people enjoy themselves more 

 thoroughly" 



Long ago Goldsmith pointed out that 

 the French were the only people who 

 could be happy while starving, and a 

 modern writer, Barker, in his France of 

 the French, has declared : "No people en- 



