Alexandria Gazette & Daily Advertiser

PARISIAN ANECDOTE.

A French gentleman of fashion, a few days ago, laid a bet that he would assemble a crowd of above a hundred persons, in one of the Boulevards, in less than ten minutes, round a tree that he would point out.—A stranger immediately cried out, "done." The Parisian buck wrote upon the back of a letter;
"Passers by! I think you are all fools,
And I am the greatest fool among you."

This placard was stuck against the tree with four pins.—First of all came up an old fellow with his spectacles, next a governess, with two children, then an opera dancer, three invalid officers, five milliners, one lady in a merino pelisse, two in casimere shawls, three with their witzchouras wrapped around them—two Englishmen on horseback, and a country gentleman in a hackney coach—a milliner in bergig, a marchioness in an open carriage, a doctor in his sulky; Coffee House waiters, money changers, and livery stable keepers: two savoyards, two water carriers, a seller of spectacles, a carrier of letters belonging to the post office, &c. At length the crowd became so great that there was no crossing the Boulevard—The paper was placed rather low, so that one stooped in order to read below his neighbor's shoulders. One thought it was a beggar—others that it was a woman afit—a third that it was some poor dog who had his tail or ears cut—a fourth that a monkey had made its escape from a Savoyard—Every body's imagination was at work.—None guessed right—and instead of 100 dupes there were one thousand.—The punch and ice that composed the bet, were now about to be distributed at the expense of the strangers—when an old woman in a fit of ill humour, snatched down the paper and the crowd dispersed.