The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1870-03-24
DAILY PRESS.
Thursday Morning, March "a, 1870.

PoRT'LANG.

in Progress.
Before dropping the American colony in
Paris, 1 may say that not a few of our well
known American families are exhibiting strong
symptoms of becoming fixed facts, or, in oth6 I
words, of setting down here for good and all
1t is hardly to be wondered at, for Paris is
really so full of fascination for all ages and
tastes that alter short experience the diffi-
Guilty is to shake Off its allurement and sober
down to the prosaic life OF other lands. There
| IS an old Virginia family here, dating from the
dsys OF colonial goveInorships, that OF the
| Corbins, who have been domicied in Paris fol
| some forty years. A wealthy Philadelphia
family, the Ridgways. have been established
here nearly twenty-five years. and. as the DE
| scendants of both these families have inter
married with French noble houses, II may b(
inferred that though affections tor the great
republic may survive, their more material part
has been permanently absorbed by la belle
France. The Moulton family have been set
tied here for over thirty years, and as the sa
| gacious head of it has gone extensively into
| real estate it is not likely that the high price
| of lots in New York will ever attract them
thither again. This reminds me of two Other
gentlemen, not unknown in the land OF Goth
am, who seem to put implicit confidence in
l
or falls. James Phalen and Elisha Riggs, well
known in our financial circles, have invested
splendid aVehe5 SpeeS 99e ecdaae Years snce
| in :he direcC netgtUuriIuod OF tho "Areh OF
Triumph a stately structure in marble, built
w Napoleon L. in honor of his own great vic
tories.
Inns portion of Paris only ten years since
was complete desert: but the magic wand
of Napoleon III. has waved over it and be-
bold 1t has been laid out in more than dozen
magnificent avenues that in straightness and
breadth are unequalled in the world, while
buildings of costly and most imposing dimen-
tions are rapidly converting this terra inccg-
nita OF Il few years since into city of palaces.
With view, doubtless, to enhancing The val
u of the land IN this new AID elegant quar-
ter, which has the advantage, besides, OF so
great an elevation as to overlook the rest of
Paris, the two very shrewd gentlemen I have
Just named have erected the past year two
very commodious and splendid mansions, with
front ot some sixty-fve feet each and a
depth OF sone two hundred feet. They have
with characteristic enterprise. introduced in-
to these fine houses certain Anericau novel
ties, that bave made quite q sensation here,
and which cannot tail to be copied when the
| French have once got over that deep-s Gated
| love Of routine which, in house building at all
| events, makes them cling with the utmost te-
| nacity to tue customs and modes OF a century
since. Messrs. Phalen and Riggs have built
f.ssasAss rbrfr CeIlais, In tue New York
| fashion, SO that every room in the house as
well as the corridors ard staircases enjoy the
| same temperature. This is al indesci ibabe
luxury in Paris, Ior though the cold is not SO
| great as with us yet the small wood fires used
never make any portion OF The house con-
Portable. In like manner they have introduc-
ed hot and coid water all over these houses,
aud, more daring still, they obtained, will
great dihculty, the consent oil the municipal
government to lay gas pipes so as TO burn in
every part oil the mansion.
his is an unprecedented innovation, for in
| Paris gas Is only used i'll the halls and kitch
| ems OF the finest houses, as great prejudice
exists against 1t as being very Injurious TO the
costly gliding so much in fashion, as well as
from belief that it is hurtful to the health.
These silly prejudices will naturally give way
before successful experiment, and they re-
ceived heavy blow recently at a brilliant
bali given by the Count De Gabriac, ssn-in
'aw OF MIR. PhaleD, and who S residing with
him, for The lighting up OF the large aud nu-
meroHs saloons so completely surpassed the
the usual wax tapers, however multitudiuous.
that surprise aud admiration were expressed
on every side. venture TO predict before q
| year is over that we shall bear Of new houses
gong up in Paris that will be announced
with great flourish as being lighted all ovel
With gas u Ia Americdine! This is an addi
tional proof that travelling Yankee is. at
ter all, beneractor of his kind, and that III
has done something for the world besides thu
Invention OF wooden nutmegs.-N. Y. Her
| add