Getting A Check Cashed In Paris

To one aecustomed to our quick buai movements in New Yorkj and the especial rapidity with wliich banking opemtiops are perfonned, it is quite ludiurous to onter a bank and watcb the performances there. If you present a check for payment, instead of handige it directly to the 'l'ell'T anJ gptinf yourTnpney instantly, or in two or tbree minutes at the late-t (as in ■ New York bank), you will walk np to an officcr in uniform, of whom there are a dozen walk mr about the counting room, in large banks like the Credit Lyonnais, outside the space reserved for the clerk-i. at conducís you to one of the places constructed like cells, in which the bookkeepera are Herving out a Bentenoe of soliitary confinenient. You band your check to the prisoner's as&istant, who hands it to bis "bops." Tho latter consulta a bif? ledger. If there is sufficient " spondulix " to the credit of the drawer, ana its signa ture had all its i's crossed and its t's dol tüd, he returned it to the boy wbo in turn hands it to you, with the requeat thatyou pay two sous for a revenue stamp. This being gumuied on the back of the dralt, you write your name across the back of the revenuc stamp with date, etc, and then a aecond time underneatb your address. This done, you are preseoted with a bronze medal the size of a saucer with a numeral upon it. You accept it modes-tly, believing it to be a sort of Legión d'IJonour arrangement, or reward of merit. You tlun are requested to acat yourselt on one or toe numerous long setteea ranged around the room, which you do, and wait praycrfully till your turn arrivés. After meditating in this pofition for a full half hour on the trannitory nature of lif'e, the slowness oí' French bank officere, and kindred topic, after reading the morning paper through twice, including the advtrtisetncnts, you begin couni ing the panes of glass in the roof, or study the countcnances of your neiglibürs, all patiënt creatures (like yourself), who have become quite resigned to this mode of transacting business, and would be alarmed if they should enier an American bank and draw their money il tíve minutes instead of halfan hour. They wouLi think there was something the matter with the coin,- bogus, or something of the kind. After exhausting all your pationce and the window-panes, and floor-tiles likewise, an officer in another little den, dressed in a uniform composed chiefly of brass buttons and a big " plaque," the size of a dinnerplate on his left breast, yells out, "Quatre cent, quatre-vingt-treize 1 " Of course you don't know what he means, and sit stupidly wondering, but on a repetition of the cry you consult your brass door-plate and tind you hold "No. 493." So up you m.inli to the crier and present ynur msdal, and in return hc hands you out a Bttle bowl that contains your lucre. I timed the operation. Tliere were just livo pcr.--iMahead of me when I entered, and it took twonty-fivc and one half minutes bj t lutn (tniw my littJe check oi I1 I