New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1868-07-05
LIFE IN PARIS.

We extract from an entertaining article
on this subject in Putndnl's for July:
1t is certain that life is as difficult there
as anywhere, Notwithstanding SO many
Americans who go there believe it the most
delightful city in the world, and that life
there is easy, gay, and fascinating. Paris
is not all Champs Elysees and Rue de Ri
voh.
It has been said there is no starvation
while there is-a vast population of 260, 600
belonging to the pauper class. Another in
the hard struggle for existence prevailing in
Paris is seen in the Mont de Piete. This is
a great governmental pawnbroker's shop,
with various branches, and is thoroughly
systematized. 1t guards the poor against
the extortion offree pawnbroking. Through
fifteen years l,313,0 900 articles were
pawned annually, and the average OF the
loans was but seventeen francs and forty
centimes--some three dollars and a half.
This may help to dispel the Illusion that
the people of Paris are gay and nght,heart-
ed. Ny own experience (brief though it
was) led me to the belief that no people
lived so closely, SO carefully, or were in
such grim earnest to get a subsistence; and
that nowhere are the large mass so entirely
hopeless as to bettering their condition
except it be through revolution and convul-
sion. The system holds them in hopeless
poverty or mediocrity; and the system can
not be changed except by revolution.
About one-haif of the whole people Of
Paris-say one million-are classed as work.
men; Of these, in the business of
FOOD, are. ...,........--........ 38,S59
Building. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. l,242
Esllll1e 5i5ol
Glotning and textile fabrics. ......., l04, ss7
SeNetiiIy '..,,..,: :.....t..........-.-i 1881
Fr1lhtnlhg, engraglng, ETC.. ..:.,.,,.... l9,507
Is Paris an earthly paradise for loomdn (?
Rich women and strange women NAV hnd
it SO; but the great mssa Of women there
are intensely industrious, and are poor.
The Parisians have discovered tho art If
utilizing their women. They have Converted
them from lovely and loving companions
for man, serene partners of his joys and his
sorrows, doublers of his prospeIities, sharers
Of his mistortunes-from careless, inconse-
quent, unproductive creatures, into the
shrewdest toughest, hardest, homeliest,
and most productive of the race. 1t is
doubted whether ten handsome women can
be found in Paris to save it. They produce
vastly, everything but children.
'Loyer-so- called-is in the market, and
in the Latin quarter, as well as In others,
whole populatlons Of women, called gri-
settes, are up for hire as temporary COM
panions Of students. These are not to be
described as harlots. While the engage
ment lasts they are true to their Dart Of the
bargain; they keep the rooms, they cook
the food, they wash and mend and make;
and when Sunday comes, in their neat
dresses they go out upon cheap and pleas
ant excursions, or they enjoy a cheap thea
tire in the evening, and are not abandoned
women In our sense of the term. This life
Is their business, and there is no shame
and no condemnation among them.
mThere is much less apparent vice
In Paris than in any other great
city, and the social eviln does not
stalk the streets as in London and
New York. An is here systematized also.
Every house Of prostitution is known and
registered; its inmates are all registered;
and they are subjected TO monthly examine.
Hons to secure them and the people against
disease. Some so, 600 uldltei0etSes Payis
Gstide, 1867, p. 1e83l are SO registered, and
there are $4,000 to 10000 besides those who
are net registered. They are not allowed
to dress conspicuously, or to walk in the
best streets soliciting custom. All is done
sdecentiF and In order Marriage ia becoming
more and more difficult, and non marriage
more and more easy. ".Ht
Hoong American women, of the nouuedu
iRche. are taken TO the Paris market, be-
cause there marquises and barons abound;
these want money, the Others want titles.