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| PARIS 1920s. La Rotonde, a sidewalk cafe popular with Russian Ex-pats. |
Paris is full of Russians
by Ernest Hemingway.
From the public domain: Originally published by the Toronto Star,
February 25, 1922.
Paris is
full of Russians at present. The Russian ex-aristocracy are scattered all over
Europe, running restaurants in Rome, tearooms on Capri, working as hotel
porters in Nice and Marseilles and as laborers along the Mediterranean shipping
centers. But those Russians who managed to bring some money or possessions with
them seem to have flocked to Paris.
They are drifting along in
Paris in a childish sort of hopefulness that things will somehow be all right,
which is quite charming when you first encounter it and rather maddening after
a few months. No one knows just how they live except it is by selling off
jewels and gold ornaments and family heirlooms that they brought with them to
France when they fled before the revolution.
According to the manager of a
great jewel house on the Rue de la Paix, pearls have come down in price because
of the large numbers of beautiful pearls that have been sold to Parisian jewel
buyers by the Russian refugees. It is true that many Russians are living fairly
lavishly in Paris at present on the sale of jewels they have brought with them
in their exile.
Just what the Russian colony
in Paris will do when all the jewels are sold and all the valuables pawned is
somewhat of a question. It is usually impossible for a large body of people to
support themselves indefinitely by borrowing money, although a few people enjoy
a great success at it for a time. Of course things may change in Russia,
something wonderful might happen to aid the Russian colony. There is a cafe on
the Boulevard Montparnasse where a great number of Russians gather every day
for this something wonderful to happen and then, eventually, like all the rest
of the world, the Russians of Paris may have to go to work. It seems a pity,
they are such a charming lot.
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| Circa 2019 |
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