New-York tribune., 1880-01-18
GRIM WINTER IN PARIS.


A GLOOMY Observation-Disclosures STREETS AND
COLD HoUsEs-PROvIsIoNs SCARCE ARD DEAR
| SKATING IN THE BoIs DE BOULOGNE-AMUsE-
MENTs AND POLITICS.
| IFRoM THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUNE.l
PARIS Dec 25-Since December 1870 | never
spent a Christmas Day under glOomer circum-
stances than this one. Distress regns everywhere
around me- Ny rich friends are laid up from the
| effects of accidents. One has hurt knee cap, an-
other has spraned an ankle this one has dislo-
Gated shoulder, and that one received confusion
which places his life in danger. There is on my
| desk heap OF invitations to dinners and to parties
! and another heap of notes in which l have been
told that these entertainments stand deferred
| until the weather is more propltious.
| Winter has never in this region appeared
III harsher form. In Russia the mercury has not
fallen lower than here and for once, at least the
proyerb is at fault that evil things never last
! long at Paris" We have no wind to complain OF.
| II we had it might blow somebody good. The at
mosphere is calm. We're there leaves on the trees
there is not air enough in motion to stir them.
The sun is bright for few hours each day, but not
sufficiently so to do more than give rise to thick,
evening fogs in which everything takes phantom
and very fantastic aspect. They disappear toward
| midnight when the frost becomes hard enough to
split stones and to render the surface of the Seine
promenade for all the idlers whom fashion
| does not call to skate on the ponds in
! the B0is de BOulOgne. The Ice on parts
of the river is twenty-five centimetres thick,
| but its asperities are too numerous to admit OF
sIedging. Siding or skating And the poor horses
| How YEARLY they toll along; how hacked and
aded they look and what a lot of them it now takes
to drag along a heavy vehiclel The two hours
sun the evening fog and then the bitter merciless
lIost keep the streets in condition winch renders
the circulation of this great city 3nguld as that OF
| a alternating animal We are beginning to look TO
the few provisions in orr small iardcrs, we did
| in the Winter of the Terrible Year. Fresh yegeta-
bles are rolled up in straw-when we can getit-and
when we cannot, in coarse dry dshcionts. covered
over with flannel. Whenever in my walks abroad,
see any that ale at all cheap in the green groceTs
shops pounce upon them and bear them away
IN triumph Our allowance of gas is re-
duced and we are told by the conceDcs
hat if the frost continues IT will be cut OF alto
gether The flame in the strcet-amp l. feeble, and
ID struggles with what little strength it can master
for existence Charcoal yendcrs and coal aud coke
merchants only sell to customers, and TO them at
double rates.
American housewives may speak ofParisiaus rs
the Wise Virgins perhaps did Of the Foolish, after
tn, latter were turned into outer darkness. Why
did YOU not vou imprudent good-tor-nothing7, lay
in, they may ask. stores of everything you wanted
for Winter Use : Why Simply because there Is
no room for storing anything in our hamtatons.
The Paris dealer n provisions aud other articles OF
household consumption, is to al inteutS and par
posesa store Keeper Because of the lack OF space
in Partisan fats. cooperative store, which flourish
I'm London never worked well here. Ncdcpcn on the
Auverenat across The street for 0ur wood, on the
butcher. few doors off, for our meat on q grocer
hon.
the immediate vicinity # a market. on the green
grocer for potatoes. milk butter. cheese and all
sorts Of vegetables We purchase fresh and
fresh Just as we want things for our tables; and
| when our trad.-ncu fail as some of thcm are doing
tins Winter. the bc. thing can DO, is 90 grin and
| bear IT, Where ihc Partisan only lays mp tor
future use is in the wiac cellar. Every moderately
wcll-fo-do Bourgeois has there good store Of the
| two Igs-Bursundy aud Bordeaux. and choice stock
| of fine dessert vintages. If Ire can. he makes
! nitr room for a small provision of logs to burn
i'm Winter But as severe weather does not generally
last many dave at % time he not often induced to
cut down has provision of tIble-drnks in order to
| leave a small space for plo OF hrcwood
| Paris j. utterly uuprcparcd fora continuance dur
| inc three weeks or month Of snow and hard frost
live in one of the best part, of the town, and IN
modern house. The windows are as well adjusted
| those Oi ans ol ny diIVill't"i''r 4'' tii'
minute snow that has been falling this Winter hcfc
come, in through the mtcrstices at the hinges as
fast as # there were nothing TO keep it ont. until
mailed pads over them. Door, are hung M such q
| manner as 10 drag IN shutting. Locks arc SD bad
that the springs get directly out OF order. French
pcopc when wealthy, curtain mp their doors rs well
"A their windows which makes their sitting
rooms close and stuly. The caioHfTi IN
| the modern house is frequently out Of
| order II you value O whole SKIN. do not permit
/ the architect. when the proprietor authorizes You
to improve your da:. to extend the hot wat"r pipes
TO il. They are made like the doors and locks
and windows and there are ninety chances to
! % hundred bon favor of au explosion. II this "Niiie
| Lumieren which Is dark. gloomy and irost-bound
this blessed Christmas night. has not been blown
up b. the aa. used for ietus lt, the reason le that
an tho Gas lctters are English. believe there is
scarcely Frnchman cmpoycd IN the nanuiac. .uie
OF gas pipes or LAMPS or in setting them up.
Fashion is ashamed while charity is the rage to
cut "a dash on the skating ponds ia thc Bois. There
has not been 50 far any night f6ic. and
| the toilets in which fair skaters skim over
The lee are generally more sober than conspicuous
for fancy allied to richness. The Com'c dc Paris Is
n member OF the Skating Club. and ayails himself
daily Of his privilege to skate nj Madrid. whcTo
there Is no popular or bourgeois crowd TO mob him.
II was in Germany that he learned, when a
student at a kindergarten school 20 use the skates
| A Miss Post, whose mother some twelve or thirteen
years ago was a fashionable American belle. is much
admired for the light graccfulncss of her motions
Baroness Alphonse Rothschld invariably accom-
| panics her young daughter in her eyrafions. The
Baroness was born and bred at Frankfort where
Winters are long and skaing is very popular. She
and Mademoiselle skate with their arms around
each others waists. a Miss JOY from Can
ada. is the ioness of the Madrid pond
She is a remarkably fine and fresh complexoned