Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-06
PARIS BOULEVARDS.
Mrs. Frank Leslie Describes the
Streets of the French Capital.
PAVED WITH WOOD AND ASPHALT.
Kept Clean byan Army of Male and Female
Sweepers.
SHADED BY THOUSANDS OF TREES


CORRESPONDENTS OF THE DIsPArcH.l
PARIS, September N-The French are
| people who literally live in their streets
The broad footways are crowded night and
day, especially during this exhibition sum-
mer. Bitumen makes walking so easy that
1t is almost less fatiguing to walk than to
stay indoors. And then there is every in
ducement to walk. How can a people ap-
preciate fireside ingle whose fuel is the
more often bundle of sticks, who dine at
restaurants, and who live on fats? They have
not the comforts of home life, and they do
not want them. They prefer the pleasures
OF public society. A Frenchman-at any
rate, Frenchman of large proportion of
the middle class-would not think of spend
ing couple of idle hours in his own draw
ing room. Why should he do so?
The street is his drawing room. And
very handsome one it is, too, with its clean,
tidy, well-swept thoroughfares, its bright
cafes and shady boulevards, its white-look-
ing house fronts, prettily decorated shop
windows and splendid edifces.
The streets in Paris can, of course, be
dirty-for even here rain will at times fall
from the clouds-but in the mud there is
not so strong a feeling of clotted grease that
the London smoke produces in the dismal
thoroughfares of that huge metropolis. The
Municipal Council here do their work of
cleansing the streets well and with method
ical regularity.
The work is agigantic one, and worthy of
attention. The total length of streets, ave-
nues, boulevards, bridges, quays and thor
oughfares generally is set down at about 600
miles, of which nearly 200 miles are planted
with trees. If the whole of the population,
estimated at the last census to number
2, ,239, ,928, should turn out for walk the
same day at the same hour, it is computed
that each individual would have only AZ
centimeters (or 16T inches English) in
length of ground to stand upon. The ex-
pense of keeping these thoroughiares in Or
der and repair is 18,212, 600 francs per an
mum, so that if an equal distribution of the
outlay among the population were to be
made, each inhabitant would have to pay
over 8 francs year in taxes for that pur-
pose alone.
A BIG JOB.
The whole of this vast undertaking is
managed by the director of "la Voirie," or
commission of public ways, and the work
distributed under four distinct headings:
1. The purchase and storage of materials; q
The employment of paviers, road members
and laborers; 8. The watering of the public
streets and thoroughfares; and 4. The sweep
ing and carting of mud, filth and snow.
Each of these respective branches figures
for sum of $500. 000f in the municipal
budget
The best stone used for paving purposes is
unquestionably the old compact sandstone
quarried at Fontainebleau and few other
places on the outskirts of the Paris basin.
There are three varieties, known respective
ly as pif, paf and poui; the former is too
hard for cutting, and the latter too soft for
paving; the right sort is the paf. A hard
granite, which comes from Cherbourg, has
been much used of late years; but its sur
face is polished too rapidly by the carriage
wheels and grows slippery.
The footways are partly furnished with
lavas and basalts.from Volvic, in Auvergne,
and partly with mixture of bitumen and
gravel. Wooden pavement has in measure
taken the place of the old system of maca-
damizing the broader thoroughfares, such as
the Champs -Elysees, the Rue de Rivoli, the
Place Vendome, the Place de la Concorde,
the Avenue de POpera, the boulevards,
etc. The traffic over these roads is enour-
nous, and is of sort which most distresses
and wears any road-namely, such as is
caused by cabs, omnibuses and spring
wagons. After numerous experiments
with different kinds Of wooden pavement,
the plan finally adopted is to form bed OF
lime concrete for base, and then deposit,
narrow side upwards, small blocks OF pine
wood, previously STEPPED in tar, and of the
size of ordinary bricks. Between every row
an interstice is left, quarter or half an inch |
wide, filed up BY gravel and sand, we'll
rammed in, the whole being coated over
with another concrete where tar is the bind.
ing medium. Experience has tested this |
plan to be next to perfect.
AN ARMY OF STREET CLEANERS.
The cost of sweeping the Paris streets, ac-
cording to the latest official returns, is con-
above S1,0O0,OOO annually. The
number of persons, both male and female, |
in the work is 3,464, including |
regular sweepers and extra hands.
The rapidity with which snow is cleared
away from the streets of Paris is a sight |
worth seeing. To effect this, the capital is
divided into 20 Districts, each of which is
farmed out to contractor, who engages to
clear it on bis own responsibility. 1t is for
him to hire carts and laborers, and to appor-
tion out the work in accordance with the
plans; and he is heavily fined if In any part
of his district the business is not proceeded
with in due course. The streets themselves
are divided into three categories-frst the
great thoroughfares, which are ordered to be
at once cleared of all snow lying on them;
secondly, the intermediate streets, in which
The snow is first brushed aside into two long
heaps, stretching along their sides, and
thirdly, the smaller roadways, in which the
snow is merely swept inro a single rampant
along one side.
To each contractor, and also to the direct
ors of the points ct cliaussees, a map is
given, in which these several categories of
streets are colored in red, blue and yellow,
so that the work goes On with regularity
and according to the set y1esign. The con-
,ierges and shopkeepers are liable to be
fined if they do not clean away the snow
from the pavement in front of their several
abodes. To speed MATTERS and help the
sweepers, the municipal tty makes use of
large snow pillow, shaped like harrow,
which has triangular wooden frame with
a steel PROV in front at its apex. 1t is
drawn along by horses; the steel prov acts
like a pillow on the snow and casts it in
ridges on each side of there eadway. When the
main bulk has thus been cleared, what snow
remains is thrown aside By strong sweeping
with one horse i'm front and re-
Volying brush behind, which go over the
ground after the snow ploIw The omnibus
md tramcar companies, who are interested J
n furthering the work. place horses and
generally at the service of the
whenever a heavy fall of snow
occurs. In the districts bordering on the
Seine the snow is cast into the river as fast
Is it is removed from the roadways; in
'thers, it is conveyed to plots of waste
ground, where it is piled up; or else, when