The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1865-12-16
MiScell anY.
Living in London and Paris.

If the traveller purposes s0journing any
time in the greatest capital of modern times,
he will be well accommodated in hired lodging.
These are to be had in different parts of the
city, and the prices vary VITA the locality; a
good apartment and sittingroom may be had
from two dollars and fifty cents to five dollars
a week, and the landlady viii find meals at a
reasonable rate; washing is charged at SO much
piece, rarely by the dozen. l9' Of eslfs
The immensely of London strikes the most
unobservant traveller, and he always wonders
how such a mass of human beings contrive to
gather living from such a small territory !;
another thing equally strikes him-the appall.
ing contrast between grandeur and poverty
In the American cities there are undoubted-
ly great extremes; the denizeD of the fourth
story or tenement house in New York looks
with envy on her Weather sister, who lives in
a brown stone mansion on the F.fth-avenue !:
but the man residing in The tenement house
has vote as well a, the opuient merchant in
Wall street. He too, in time, may own a
handsomer house than broker; his wife may
even surpaSs Mrs. Jones in her satins and dia-
mondi, and the former be compelled to live in
two or three rooms-but it is far otherwise
abroad; hundreds, nay thousands of people,
particularly in London, rise IN the morning
not knowing where they are to sleep the next
night or be ted ior that day. The entrance to
VIZ OTSAN|iocIO cdAN blO ptfCiuCuG dIt dllliOSL
blocked up by these starving wretches, who
come to gaze upon the frequenters of the ope-
"a, and secretly envy the luxury they enjoy.
Living in all parts of London is enormously
dear, and house rents are at corresponding
rate; servants wages are considerably cheaper
than in the United States, but En- 5iish donles-
tics are better paid and fed than the same class
on the continent. The lacqueys of some of
the great men receive large sums from the Wis
itOrI Sir .InSb1Ia Havunt,Ic l.,
pounds year wages, and offered him one hun
dred pounds for the door.
Food in Paris is very dear; all provisions
and wine that pass the barrier pay a very
heavy tax to the city. Many reside at Cham
THY for the sake OF cheap living. Few per-
sons in the French capital occupy an entire
house. Apartments are built for the accom-
mediation of families; those generally consist
of three bedrooms, dining room, kitchen, and
closets for wood and coal. A very neat suite
ofrooms, genteelly furnished, may be had for
about fifty dollars month, in respectable
part of Paris. Fuel is exorbitant. Many of
the poorer classes content themselves with
little to cook their iood and pursue their ayo-
cations in the cold. The Partisan servants
are exceedingly careful and economical and
well they may be, as prime articles invariably
bring high prices in the French markets. Ham
is commonly rated at forty cents pound, ten
derloin steak at fifty, and other articles in pro-
portion. The servants rarely partake of these
dalntles. Ii a chicken be purchased, it reap
pears on the table till it is entirely consumed.
My hou'e-keeper in Paris always had plenty of
hot Water, and cooked a dinner with two hand
fuls Of coal and few splinters of wood he
price of apartments depends upon their local-
ty. A room in the fifth or sixth story rents
for a trihe, comparatively speaking; the stair
case is common to all, and the porter receives
ali cards and parcels; he also generally knows
are at home or not, and the time of the SER
want isgreatly nomized.-Ame,ican Month
In.