The National tribune., 1883-03-15
THE POOR OF PARIS.
Household Economies --COmmOn-senSe
in Dress Education.
Special corresnondence National Tribune

| PARIS, Feb 20.-Paris in winter is cheer
| less place in point of climate. 1t is not crisp
and snowy like New England, nor bright and
balmy like Washington; but gray, sunless, and
| prone to daily showers. The air is mild. how
| ever, so that the grass is green in the Champs
Elyses, and except fora superabundanceo of mud
| sightseeing is easy. There are two opposite
| ways of spending week in Paris: one may go
to a hotel in the Anglo-American Quarter
| where English is the prevailing language and
! shopping the chief occupation, interspersed
with visits to churches and picture galleries or
! one may 90 tOsOme quietnOOll in the Latin Quar-
| ter and live among the students and working
| people close to the NOtre Dame and the College
| de France. BY adopting the second plan one
| gets nearest to the heart of the city life 1t is
| difficult to get i'll America fair idea of the
! people of Paris, for the French novel, dealing
! chiefly with unhappy domestic life, gives bad
impression in one direction, and the infamy
! of the commune has stamped upon the Paris
! ian working people an equally bad reputation
| III different direction. What one sees in the
| Latin Quarter is population orderly, laboriOus
| and thrifty. By degrees it dawns upon one
| that most OF the conspicuous features of the life
! about one are largely explained by two quali-
ties of the French mind-patonce and caicula-
tion. Of course, this is very old story; but it
! comes home to one with new force in living in
| the midst Of a French population. French
| housekeeping illustrates this combination of
! qualities capitally, Economy of land leads to
the compartment system of building, and
| cellar and garret room is not plenty. Coal is
therefore, bought in small quautities-Of by
the bag-and is used with extreme care. Each
room is heated by a tiny CRATE fire for which
logs and kindling are prepared with precision.
1T would be wastetul to use paper for lighting
fires; waste-paper can be sold and used in
variety of ways. 1t is an economy, on the
other hand, to use special product for kindling
ARR IfTyhrrt
"bouIes" or balls made of tightly-rolled strips
Ofthin wood soaked in turpentine. To be sure,
labor is expended in making boues; - but what
does French labor cost! IL would be a waste
of room and coal to do the family washing in the
house, and this is accordingly given to one of
multitude of women who profit by the equable
climate to use the Seine for their washing ap-
paratus. Food, like space, fuel and waste-pa-
per, is used with minutely careful calculation.
HOUSEHOLD ECONOMIES.
There is 30 more room for storing provisions
thau for storing coal; and the cook buys the
ingredients for each meal as she needs them,
paying cash for them and retaining one sou in
each franc (Or five cents in each dollar as her
percentage. If an unexpected guest should ar
rive to dine, there would be CONSERVATION in
camp, for some member of the family would
probably have to 90 dinnerless. Fortunately,
an unexpected guest never does arrive; French
formality prevents such interference with fam
lily calculations. A certain meagernesS in the
meals is atoned for by dainty cooking which
extracts all possible nourishment from and be-
slows all possible attractiveness upon simple
materials. This meagerness is partly concealed,
too, by the unfailing abundance of good linen
and glass. In the care of table furniture SER
wants are especially trained; and, although the
high standard of neatneSS involves deStruct-
lively frequent waShingS of the napkins and
tahle-clOths, darning is made so fine an art that
French linen probably lasts longer than the
same article in America. A curious economy
of space at the expense of patience, is made in
bathing arrangements. Bath tubs are rare in
private apartments, and it is common thing
to see a long hand-cart, managed by two men,
conveying tin tub and cylinder of hot water
TO the house of an invalid or luxurious person.
Persons of limited means, however, usually go
to a bathing establishment, carrying their own
soap and paying a few cents for the luxury of
warm towels The same patience and cacu-
latiOR is shown prcttily in the little shops and
booths where vegetables are sold Here,
strings of onions carefully hung, serve as deco
ratiOns, and bright punches of carrots and dark
beets are disposed among green lettuce, cab
bage and Brussels sprouts, until the booth looks
like large bouquet. In the smallest butch
ers' shops diminutive legs of mutton are hung
in rows and decorated with rutiS Of stiff paper
inviting to the eye. But nowhere is such pa
tient care and thrift shown as in the care of
children. The contrast in this respect between
London and Paris is incredible. In Paris
there are comparatively few little children, for
the custom prevails among the working people
of sending their babies to Normandy to be
brought up by relations in the country. When
this arrangement is not feasible, however. the
Partisan child is the object Of most scrupulOus
care. 1t is always warmly and neatly clad
and, i'll the street. almost invariably has some
older persons hand in its tight grasp. The
T.,
ticaly unknown in Paris. When a child is
born, the work of saving for it begins. Girls
must have dowries and boys little capital for
beginning business; and to this end there is
most careful avoidance of decoration and eX-
pensive toys. There is a noteworthy absence
of ribbon from the Sunday dresses of the chill
dren in the family groups on the Boulevard
ST. Michel, where the working people flock on
Sundays as they feck to Central Park or Fair
mount. But as there is no tawdry extrava-
gance in the dress of the French workngman's
child so there is no pinching starving, freez-
ing want. Life is a grinding struggle, but it
is calculated beforehand and there is provision
ahead for all bad seasons. In the education
of French girls there is a good example of
this. All French women sew skillfully and
most of them are good cooks There is no dis
position to make fine ladies of girls whose
fathers earn small salaries.
CoMMoN-sENsE IN DRESS.
Arithmetic is drilled into girls in thoroughly
practical fashion, and, in case of need, almost
any French girl can become a book-keeper In
small hotels the wife of the proprietor is book
keeper as well as housekeeper and the habit of
keeping minute accounts III ordinary house
keeping is matter of course. The dressing of
French women is all carefully adapted to Sc
curing neatness and beauty with plainness
French working women excel in this, and
secure healthfulness in dress besides, which
their ider countrywomen do not. The mil
liners who abound in the Latin Quarter, are
models of sensible wholesome dressing in
their plain woolen skirts, falling scarcely below
the shoe-top; closely fitting, warm woolen |
jackets, and heads bare, except for the hair |
precisely braided at the back 1t is amazing |
what an air of comfort and simple elegance |
grows out of the neat lightness of this plain |
little costume, which is always spotless and |
fresh. The general outcome of the patient |
care to live within the years earnings is that |
no one reaches the ragged point of poverty. |
Nevertheless, the conviction is gradually forced |
upon the observer that the French working |
mans comfort is very limited possession and |
exclusively of his own manufacture. Saving |
at every point, destroying nothing that pa
tient, labOriOus ingenuity can utilize, tOiling |
persistently, he extracts self-respecting exist
ence from stern conditions. What the govern
ment can do to help him help himself, it now
does efficiently. The French monetary system
is we'll nigh perfect. The centime, sou, franc
and five franc pieces are of full value and
admit of exceedingly small purchases. The
I.,l..