, 1886-04-10
HAYENS FOR THE HARD UP
MAKING a LITTLE MONEY GO A
GREAT WAY IN PARIS.
Superiority of Americans Over Europeans
In the Matter of Kitchen convenIeness
Lack, Of h 'ssIaisoa Maebleer-l

In the Matter of Kitchen c-onvenIeness
Lack, Of the 's1aisoa Muebieer-
When Monsieur Was Short of Funds.
We Americans pride ourselves greatly
upon our superiority over Europeans In
all the material conveniences and COM
forts OF life, as well we may. We point to
our Inventions OF wishing machines and
wringers, patent fnt-irons and vegetable
parers. our strainers, choppers, beaters,
with tho j~ustiaable satisfaction hat by
their aid we are enabled to dispense with
such hordes Of meniais as are necessary to
uninventivs Europe. and we are proud
that as important an American menage
may be personally conducted" by one
cook as requires a posse OF servants In Eu-
rope. Not long ago an article In The
Figaro waxed eloquent over some recent
kitchen invention, "If domestic science
advances at this rate,r cried The Figaro,
there are those now living who will see
the day that the bread OF a family will
be actually made and baked in its
kitchen and not by outside labor as now"
We have 10000 things beside domestic
bread, hshballs, and ~doughnuts that Pa
risians have not, but as yet we have not
acclimatizcd the maison meublee. With
out exaggeration IL may be said that one
49, -" @@A - -
one-hnlf the travelling expenses of this
country, and for this superior economy
thanks are due not only to second and
third class cars but also to the maison
meublee. In America n man may marry
his grandmother, but he can not, except
In a few large cities, stop at n hotel with
out paying for three meals a day even
though his ordinary diet be that of one
dying In the wilderness. On the continent
one pays for room alone, being free to
carry locust and wild honey in his hat II
he chooses, or to buy them at the vari-
ously priced restaurants from Bignon's to
the Cuisines B~ourgeoises of the QUARTER
Latin.
WHEN MONSIEUR WAS @HARD n.
Two months g I found myself in a
maison meublee Of Montmartrc. Had I
found myself then in an American hotel
there would have been no other horn to
my dilemma than open gas Jets and closed
doors, for I had come up from CONSTANT
nople via Marseilles with scarcely $40 left
me Of the slU with which i started from
the Golden Horn. took my room by the
month, scarcely expecting relief earlier,
although as 1t happened a remittance did
find me out at the end OF a fortnight. For
this cubby house under the caves / paid 81
Is frances a week. This was paid for a
month in advance, according to rule, and
having paid 1t l counted my assets and
found hat with portentous liabilities to
starvation l had Just S. 80. Just one week
between me and charcoal fumes And yet,
when relief came two weeks Inter. / had
yet left assets off sous, the equivalent Of
one more dinneri That dinner would have
been a huge wedge of pain ordinarire and
a 2 sous slip of frontage de brie. Two
weeks for less than IS in a hotel which l
was not ashamed TO name even to my
compatriots of the Splendide or GrandI
Two weeks in a hotel with a stately vesti-
bule and plastic gods looking down upon
me, their divine stare not one whit less di-
vine than that they ave a young Midasi
Fortunately IL was the season of over
coats. fortunately mine was capacious
OF pocket. Thus was l enabled TO stalk as
magnihcently through those marble halls
as had I the best OF Cafe Richie dinners
under my breast buttons instead of 4 sous
worth Of cooked sausage and 2 of bread in
my sealskin coat tails. Fortunately Jean,
the garcon dc chambre, filed my toilet
carafe every morning with fresh water,
and fortunately, also, the sausage dealer
at the corner c~harcuterie, who gathers into
her swine fed Golfers the most OF my dimin-
ishing sous. never asked any questions.
What must she, what could she, have
thought OF the bearded pard who came to
her 50 regularly with the mien and raiment
Of a Russian Boyard and departed thence
with two pitiful bits Of pig or blood pud-
dings And that piratical looking potato
fryer In a neighboring doorway, what must
he have thought when he gave me so often
In return for royal and imperial effigies
cast in bronze his crisp golden wares
sprinkled with Inc salt from a tin SITTER
what must he have thought TO see me clap
the greasy brown paper into my rear
pantry and march away MS II every field of
Golconda groaned unde my mortgagesi
"What did you thinkl" 1 asked. as l gave
Jean ~ francs at parting, what did you
think OF so many greasy papers and
crumbs upon my fioort" think" an
swered the li~st-slippered functionary, with
a grin, Il thought monsieur was a sec,
[hard up.l We have many such here
Paris Cor. New York Times.