Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1878-10-09
What it Costs Parlsians to Live,
Paris letter to the Philadelphia Ledger

All the shops being open on Sunday
morning in Paris. this peculiar people,
who live only from hand to mouth,
first bought their breakfast, and then
started out to buy their dinners. They
first invested in u little bunch of kind
lingwood to start the fire with, and then
IN little bag of charcoal to keep it going.
The person who bought more than a
day Or two's supply of fuel would be
looked upon as q foe to the state. so
fixed is the public habit of buying only
enough for the day. The Kindling-wood
and charcoal shops are as prominent
and numerous along the streets as any
others, and they display their goods in
the windows as actractively as possible,
the kindling-wood neatly tied in small
bundles sold at one and one half cent
apiece, the coal in square blocks, and
the charcoal, in bags, varying from 10
to 30 cents apiece. If firewood is wanted
by some aristocrat, who is bold enough
to establish fireplace, he pays for it at
the rate of about two cents stick, and
he buys just enough to last till the dim
ner is over and the company bids fare
we'll in the evening. In food the range
is somewhat restricted, the Partisan
buying almost everything by weight, at
so much for the kilogramme, which
corresponds to nearly % pounds. Re-
ducing the prices paid to American
money, and that the purchases to pound,
it is found that Parisians pay about AZ
cents per pound for veal, SO cents for
ordinary rump steak, and 40 to 60 cents
for beefsteak, 80 to 40 cents for NUT
ton chops, SO cents for leg of mutton,
GA cents for coffee, 81 to 81 90 for ordi-
nary tea, a cents for bread, so cents
for butter, As cents for ordinary ham,
and 20 cents for boiled ham sold in
shoes at the shops (the usual way in
which it is bought Is cents for loaf
sugar broken into the accurately square
Jumps universally used here, about 8
cents quart for milk, 4 cents each for
tomatoes, and IL cents half peck for
potatoes. These are the usual prices
now paid for these articles, and, al
though the list does not include all. it
shows the high prices at which most
articles Of food are sold in Paris. This
is due not only to the increased charges
consequent upon the exposition, but
also to the "octrol," or city customs,
Paris levying heavy duty upon almost
everything brought into the city in order
to raise revenue. But, with these very
high prices, the Parisians can still! live
more cheaply than in most other
places, owing to the small value
Of the articles of food they
subsist upon, and the absence of waste.
fitness. l do not suppose there was a
dinner, outside Of a hotel, served in
Paris yesterday Sunday, Of which the
food that composed it was not bought
at the shops and market on Sunday
morning. This important business
over, the populace started for the days
amusement-to the exposition, to the
theatres and cafes, to the boulevards, OF
10 Versailles. 1t being the grea
fete day at Versailles, the first Sunda.
in the month, at least 100000 people
directed their steps to that famous cit.
and palace, but Paris could readil.
spare them, for, including the stranger
attracted by the exposition, there ar
probably 100000 population here now