Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1867-01-12
MISCELLANEOUS.
life I'm Paris.

! A Paris correspondent of the New York
ObserDer gives us this view of life in that
wonderful city:
How much does it cost to live in Paris ?
I Why there is no city in the world where
money slips away faster than i. does here,
but there is no need CT spending as much
for mere BOARD and lodging" as in New
York or any other American city. | am
| assured by resident here, who has made
! himself perfectly familiar with the ways
and means of Paris, that there are many
! gentlemen officers under Government, lite
rary men, titled men, and men who move in
the very highest circles, attending the most
| aristocratic parties, and being on the best
footing with the best society, whose entire
income is not $500 year On this they
| dress well, pay their rent and buy their
| food, and often lay up money besides =
| How can they do it2 To get an answer,
| you must take The facts into account which
have Just mentioned. BY going up in the
world, to the highest floor of the many
| dwellings built for tenants, you may get
| furnished room for franc (twenty cents
day and even less. In fact many of the
! fine houses on fashionable streets have upper
stories where the poorest of the poor hire
| lodgings for u few cents per night. But l
am speaking only for the respectable class
of people with very limited incomes. In
! the middle of the forenoon, or as have
| often seen them, at twelve, noon, ant even
afterwards, they take their breakfast; con
! sisting of bread and coffee or common wine.
! This breakfast may be had at u decent res
! taurant for five cents, or sous, and 1t Will
! he as much as man requires. All over
I Paris there are restaurants where full din
J ner is furnished for 40, or 35, or even 80
! cents. For this sum you get dish OF soup,
! two dishes OF meat, bread, dessert and
wine. One man, who was once butcher,
has established several restaurants, In yari-
Gus parts of the city, and is prosecuting .he
+! experiment of feeding the greatest possible
number at the least cost and a fair profit
He now entertains ten thousand every day,
and at some of his tables q good dinner may
be had for less than twenty cents. have
not yet dined at any of these cheap estab-
| lishments, but as soon as my courage and
appetite are equal to the undertaking, | am
| going through u system of economical di-
etctics, ana will make an honest report OF
| the result. And even if we allow our friend
| with an income of $500 year to indulge
in the luxury of room at two francs, u
a dinner ut two francs and breakfast at one
| franc, he is spending only dollar day
and has plenty left to dress like prince
that is to dress as gentleman should
| These figures are higher thar were given to
me, as the cost of living on little In Paris
and indeed, I am afraid to put it as low a:
! it was put to me. When Pat wrote home
| that he had meat three times week IL
America, his employer asked him If he didn'
! have it three times day. ''1is, yur honor
but don't you think want to be Behaved
l want my story to be behaved, and there
fore keep it, within the limits of the truth
And if the family do not wish to resort tt
a restaurant for dinner, they employ
| truiteur, or petty restaurateur, TO send then
a certain number of dishes at certain hou
of the day, and this arrangement makes
more economical than to provide the SAM
dishes at home. This is creeping into prac
tice in New York and will become common
after awhile Dinner being over, instead o
sitting at their wine, as gent are apt U
do at home, they throng the cafes on TIL
Bouleyards and the brilliant squares o
. Paris, and, with their coffee, or ices, or
"little glass of liquor,1 pass an hour or two
4 or three, or more, as the case may be, TN
custom imparts to Paris an aspect, IN tn
eyeing, entirely unique. AS We walk tn
gayest streets at any hour from dusk t
midnight, and how much later / do no
know, the sidewalks are lined with men an
women, few of the latter compared with tn
number of men, enjoying themselves as
the business of the day were over, and no'
they would yield themselves to utter abar
/; don and social enjoyment 1t is really CT
I rious to see, as we often do, grey-heade
and venerable men, who look hs II the
might be heads of families and heads {
{ Corporations, solid, respectable, grave, an
good, mingled among crowd of jolly pa
eiraats, yet all engaged in slipping the
Q drinks, and chatting, without noise
> drunkenness, and quietly retiring when the
are through. On the Champs Elysees an
in other parts of the town it is common
. connect a concert Of music with the caf
q but those are quite distinct Institutions frol
IS the boulevard saloon, where Paris spends i
n evening when it is not at the theatre
! opera. ..,..i'. ..i.,s -. .,ee e's