Daily Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1876-1884, 1881-08-18

Hondes, presents an appalling pic
ture Of the misery to which the
poor Of the French capital are re-
duced. The writer's personal I
study Of the localities mainly fire.
queuted by the poor, and the de.
pIorable circumstances in which
they live, deserves, however, more
extended notice than 1t has hither-
to received.
1t appears that out of 10000 ten
ements occupied by the Partisan
poor, there are but 1000 whose ten
ants are able to pay an annual
rent Of more than $40. On the
ether hand nearly 1000 chambers
are let for less than $40 a year.
Two of these were inspected by M.
D'Haussonville, who found one on
the sixth floor of house in the
Rue de 10 Huchette. It was sort
Of small square box lighted in one
corner BY bulls-sye, and entered,
not by . door, but by q low gap in
the wall, through which the ocou-
pant could not pass without stoop-
ing to his knees. A narrow iron
bsdstead, the gift of = charitable
institution, q rickety chair and
some rags hung ON the wall, COM
posed all the belongings of two old
men, for whom this Granny served
% . home. The other $40 lodging
was situated In garrett on Rue
Uaitre-Albert. 1t was sort of
dwarf closet, soooped out under the
slope Of the roof, where six human
6siRGs, lived hudliled together in
space which would have been
scarcely large enough to store half
. dozen trunks. OF course a large
proportion Of the poor are unable
to lease q place OF shelter by the
year, or even by the month. Those
who hire by the week are charged
80 cents for damp, dark den on
the ground floor, about large
enough for dog kennel.
As regards the moral conditions
Of such habitatious, it lie unpleas.
antly significant that three per-
sons, on an average, occupy each
bed. In the course of his inquiries,
n. D'Haussonville encountered
some melancholy examples Of
moral degradation which could be
referred to nothing but the infu.
ence Of extreme privation. He
found, for instance, a woman,
whose husband was in jail, living
with her father and one of her
children in a small, dark room.
Nevertheless, this woman did not
by any means have the look of q
msnster or q wanton. She was
careful enough of her child,
and her decent, modest aspect
had In 1t nothing to distin-
guish her from her respectable
neigh bors. You felt, says M.
DHaussonville, that it was less
natural perversity than the ex-
tremity of distress and self-aban.
donment that had brought her to
such infamy.
To form an adequate idea of the
revolving foulness of certain Paris
tenements, it is necessary to enter
them when they have just been
given up by a tenant who finds
himself unable to pay from TWEEN.
ty-five to fifty cents a week for
shelter. The new occupant when
entering, finds the panes of win
dew glass broken and replaced by
paper; the fireplace and chimney
piece are in ruins, and the wall
paper, which is in rags, is so dirty
that its original tint cannot be de.
tected. When, owing to unfore-
seen and undeserved misfortunes,
the family of q workingman, ac-
eustomed to decency, is compelled
to take refuge in one of these
frightful dens, we can imagine the
profound discouragement which
overtakes the poor mother, who
cannot even obtain water to clean
the place where her children are to
sleep.
The hygienic consequences of
such unwholesome aggIomerations
Of humanity may be easily fore
seen. The statistics of mortality
have frequently attested the rapid
ity with which epidemics are de-
vslopsd in the crowded quarters of
the Paris poor. Still more signifi-
can't than the data connected with
epidemics, is the difference In the
ratio Of mortality from ordinary
causes observed when we COM
pare the poor quarters with the
rich. According to the last bulle-
tin Of the Paris municipal statis-
olcs, the proportion OF deaths In the
Eighth ACCOMPLISHMENT, that of
~ Elyaes, is is In 1000. while in
ne Twentieth ACCOMPLISHMENT
nesrly SO persons, and in the Thir-
11oth - persons to every 1000 in
habltants, die in the course OF each
year. No doubt the unhealthful-
49, Of their lodgings IL not the
onIy cause 81 this excessive death