The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1892-09-30
T. OLD PARIS,
Quarters of the City Where Poverty, Crime
AMI Degradation Mingie.

ami Degradation Mingle.
The real Paris, the Paris Of romance
| and history, the Paris Of Eugene Sue, Of
| Balzac, of Victor Hugo, Of Emile lola,
in one word, the Paris Of the Parisians,
and not that of Cooks tourists,-must
be looked for off the B~oulevards, in the
popular quarters of the city, in the fau-
bourgs. There one, instead of English
and American visitors, sees the real
inhabitants OF Paris and can judge of
the real characteristics and customs of
the French people.
1t is in these %populous quarters only
that one feels the sensation Of being in
a strange city, among a people about
whom everything has the charm of
novelty,-dress, manners, shops and
architecture.
10 begin, then, We find in the very
heart and centre of the city, on the
Boulevard st. Mitchell, the students
Boulevard" a vestige Of the time when
it was yet a Roman settlement and
called "Lutece."-the 'Thermes' of Jul
ian, built by that Emperor in the fourth
century.
These "Therms,'' or baths. are yet
in a wonderful state of preservation,
better by far than that of many buildings
of the last century. One has but to
glance at the massive and solid walls of
this curious structure to see that they
knew how to build in those days, and
that contractors were then a race un-
known.
These ruins, of which every division,
"Caldorium,' Frigidorium," etc, can
still be distinctly located. from part of
the collection OF the famous Musee
Cluny, in fact, almost part and parcel
of the hotel Cluny. which is built close
up to them and contains so many artistic
and antiquarian treasures. They are
p%iousIy preserved, and will probably last
: for centuries to come, when the modern
: structures surrounding them will have
crumbled to dust.
Close to the Halles:, Gales the famou'
. market, of which Emile lola gives sucl
: a vivid and wonderful description in thu
@ '.Ventre de Paris" are the Rue Pirouelle
where one seems to be suddenly trans
4 planted into the very midst of the Pari
of the middle ages, and the Rue de Ven
ice, a curious old street, full of curiouI
a tumble-down old buildings exceedingl.
picturesque. but still more filthy and b.
q no means wholesome looking. The Ru'
de Venice is one of those streets which
quiet, peaceful and law abiding citizen
give a wide berth to after shutdown.
% a still more dangerous neighborhoot
is the spot known as Les Carrieres d
Amerique. situated in Belleville, for
merly one of the most joyous and beau
tiful suberbs Of Paris, but now part an
p parcel of the great city. In the past
d was a Sunday promenade, full Of beer
Il gardens, bad music, and cheap res
taurants. At present it is Stunned b
T. pleasure seekers and inhabited by tn
re poorest of poor workingmen, the sour
As and refuse of the vast capital. The mos
n poverty-stricken and disreputable of a
Paris possesses of poor and d~isreputabl'
" IA conglomeration Of rag pickers, thieves
g and assassins, seek refuge in the eXcavt
t. tons of these now abandonded quarrie'
Why they are called Les Carrieres I
. Amerique 40 n pretends to know
u There is now, and certainly never ha
y been, anything American about them
Sigmund j. Cautfman. in Octobt
II L%ippincott's.