The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1874-07-30
the RlcH.pOoR OF PARIS.
Outward SplendOr and Con-
cealed SqualOr.
Paris Correspondent to Chicago Tribune.

| measured by the length OF one purse,
| there are untold numbers Of the very
poor in Paris. If, on the contrary, the
| estate of a man is to be judged by the
style in which he lives, the very poor
in this vast city are fewer than many
suppose. A very rich man must have
his hotel. Rothschild, for instance,
lives like king, and man who, in
New York, would be considered a
merchant-prince, lives on grand
scale In apartments, or
what is known in America as a fat,
these often having from thirty to forty
rooms, and running down from this to
two or three. There is no such thing
as measuring the dimensions of a
Frenchman house. lie may live at
the top of a magnificent white-marble
palace in six rooms at rent of 800 or
5000. And yet, when you have climb
ed up there, have sounded the bel, land
have been admitted into the hall,which
with its highly-polished mirror, will
deceive you at once in regard to the
size of the little box, you are convinced
that he revels in luxury. Opposite the
hall-glass, open the folding-doors into
the parlor, which is long room with
still more mirrors to
AID IN INCREASING THE PERSPECTIVE.
1t is the duty of the servant to throw
these doors open before answering the
bell, so as to give stranger the impress
sion that the room is constantly occu-
pied, while, in fact, nobody is allowed
there except to receive visitors. Off
of this room are yet other folding
doors, two of them leading into the
dining room, which is always fitted up
in exquisite taste, and, with studied
carelessness, left visible to the caller.
Try the doors at the other side of the
room; it is hard to open them. Proba-
bly, locked! Most effectually locked !!
They never move upon their hinges.
Still they are not quite as useless ''as a
painted ship upon painted ocean, for
they serve double purpose; they dis
pense with the necessity of pictures to
fill up the bare walls-for who would
hang pictures on doors !-and they
give one the impression that vast apart
ments stretch beyond.
Madame will receive you in the most
charmingly-languid manner, if your
call chance to occur in the day time.
She has Just arisen; won't you have
coffee with her! This, if she means by
generous courtesy to make useful
friend Of you. Now you find your
way into what she calls her private
apartment, which, like the other
rooms, opens into the parlor. 1t is
really quite gem in its way. You
wish you were French, or, at least, that
you might understand the art of living
as French people do. But little closer
acquaintance and a moderate increase
in your experience will teach you that
these people work and strive only for
the sake of the appearance they make.
They comprehend what the elegances
of life consist of, and they will live with
out the commonest necessities in Or
der to
A family of seven persons will &C.
tually live in two small rooms, and
make their beds up late at night on the
floor of the apartment in which, but a
few moments before, they were chatting
with you upon the impossibility of
economizing in Paris since the " +.
Even they, in their modest style of liv-
ing, find that it takes fortune now to
spend a year in Paris. You are
shocked to hear them suggest that
theirs is simple mode of life; you
never thought Of being so fine at home.
In reality. these people that speak of
live like paupers. They sleep on the
floor the year round, and often on the
kitchen floor at that. This last is con-
venient. as they can get up and put the
coffee over the spirit lamp. and retire
again until it is prepared. Coffee is
taken in bed, of course.
For the benefit of the girls at home,
who may admire and envy this lady of
luxury that graciously asks you into
her boudoir at IL clock, declaring
she has just arisen, and invites YOU to
take coffee with her, l will tell YOU
something of her toilets, and the singu-
lar way in which they change with the
hours of the day.
Madame goes to market as early as
possible. Nobody is out early in the
morning--that is to say. nobody before
whom she cares to keep up an appear
ance--and, as the market people always
measure a customer before setting a
price, it is wise to go to the market
shabbily dressed, not only because no
one will see her, but as a matter of
economy. So the toilet of the day is
not made until this duty is reformed.
In exchange for the great, airy bath.
room, with its abundance Of hot and
cold water, and its fresh, clean towels.
which Americans cannot do without.
Madame has, in a little dark hole be-
tween the kitchen and her bedroom,
PINT OF WATER
in basin the size of q finger-bowl. For
water is too precious commodity to be
used unless sparingly. Ithss to be car
ried from the street up five flights of
stairs, and servant must be paid FIVE
cents an hour to do it. No further ar
guments than these are necessary with
Madame. With the aid of dirty little
towel, for clothes must be washed away
Il