Morning journal and courier., 1893-04-17

large extent, the shops still do business on the bargain and barter system, this shop stands out as the most conspicuous of a very few where fixed prices prevail, where the notice, English spoken" does not turn out to be snare, and where Ameri- cans stand on an equal footing with Frenchmen st the cashiers desk
 Speaking, however, of the cashiers desk, and of the privileges enjoyed there, re- minds us of the curious fact that in Psri- sian shops the system of paying at the desk Is so universal that even the Bon Aarche does not vary from it. The clerk who waits upon you escorts you to this point of interest, and while one person re- ceives your payment, another, not far away, wraps up your purchase, and dur ing all this time you are still under the protecting care of the salesman, who final ly leaves you only when you are in safe possession of both your change and your package, and are yourself taking leave of the store. To those who have been wont to look up in bswilderment while goods and money are flying automatically across the ceiling, this Parisian method appears to be old-fogyish and decidedly slow. You wonder, too, how such c dilly dsIying on the part of salesmsn can ever pay. But in Europe clerk hire Is so low that 1t is cheaper in some cases than labor saving machinery, and as to the time con- sumed, you do not find in practice that 1t IS very great. while in stores like the Bon Marche, the sisles of which are always thronged, there is decided advantage in removing the purchaser to another part when his order has been filled, because by that means additional room is left for GUS toners who have yet to be served.
 Like nearly all great enterprises, this
 big Psrisian shop was built up from the most humble beginnings. Its protector was originally pedlar. Coming to Paris
 with little capital, and with that which was still better, viz, a wife who, like most French women, had 8 genius for business, he established himself before long in a shop forty feet square, and by the new fad ot fixed prices and small profits he grsdu- ally extended his operations, until the ped lars pack he carried at hls death was oom- mensurate with one of the biggest blocks in Paris, representing a fabulous capital and an annual profit of millions of francs
 For ten years after that his widow carried on the business, the volume of trade still swelling and the profits still piling up, until, in 1885, she also died, the mann moth pedlar's pack falling then upon the younger shoulders, which, with equal suc- cess and with increasing gain, are sustain ing 1t at the present dsy.
 But thereby hangs tale, and one of the tenderest human interest-a tale which in the's days of big fortunes and little souls ought to be proclaimed with trumpet voice in every market-place and along every ave nue of commerce. The Bon Msrche is not only big business establishment. but grand philsnthropic enterprise. Aristide Boncicsut and his good wife, Marguerite, besides leaving the biggest shop in the world, have left to all the world sn exam pie of good works. Rarely has there been seen greater aptitude for gathering enor- nous profits from legitimate trade; and for the lavish and practical way In which the earnings of this big business were turned back to benefit dependents and to bless great city, the conduct of these Psrisisn shopkeepers has never been equalled. The principles which governed them were that the frst shsrers in their vast success ought to be the faithful em- ployes who helped to achieve it, and that after that they must remember substantisl- ly the community which had favored them with its confidence and patronage. Hence princely bount!es at odd times for desery- ing clerks, and for 8 large number a part nership in the concern. Instead of fines for the infrsction of trivial rules, a trust in the honor of the three or four thousand dependents such ss put every one upon his mettle and inspired all with love and respect for the management. For the men, after twenty years of service, and the women after fifteen years, a ccmforts- ble pension, with all the care of father hood and mothsrhood-all the comforts, and many of the luxuries, of 8 good home while this pension was being earned. This for employees; nor hs, the half been told, while the city of Paris benefits to the extent of a great central hospital and a large poor fund which ministers blessing in every one of it's twenty arrondissements.
 One thing brings up another, and our reference to the hospital founded by the Boncicsuts reminds us of another Ps-isIsn curiosity, Pasteur's celebrated institute for the treatment of hydropho5.s After our observations In Paris we do not wonder that inoculation against dog bites had It's origin in this city, nor that 1t finds here an annual quota of from two to four hun dred who are needing to be operated upon. The helplessness of French femininity is something enormous, if one may judge from the vast number of females who seem to require canine assistance iu get ting about the strests. We were confiden- tislly assured In London that many of the dogs in that city find an untimely destina- tlon In sausage meat, and one almost wi.h- ca that a similar fate, or some other that would lessen their number psIceptibly, migh. be visited upon the came species ia Paris But here they gre so far, in all va rieties and in the grestest prCfssion, and here, happily, is an eFectusl antidote sgains. shsir bite, The number of pa tients treated last year WAS ,559, and the deaths were four This iH a death rate of only one-fourth per cent, which is nearly four times as good a showing as the insti- tute made at first. in 1886. and it Is grati- flying to obssIvs that this illumination In tho number of fatalities has been going on gradually with each succeeding year.
 That the mind should turn towards churches after dwelling upon hospitals, dog bites, death and other alarming things, is only natural, and to our thinking the greatest curiosity among the churches of Paris Is the Notre Dame dos Victoire. This church was built to comms .norate the fall of La Rochelle. the great stronghold of the Hu2uenots For the devout of Pari. 1t has wonderful attractions, and in some features 1t has cot its like in Christendom. Beyond all other Parlsian churches it is held by the Catholic mind 10 be, what its name indicates, the shrine of Our Lady of Victory, and the troubled in mind flock to 1t from feelings similar to those with which the sick aud dying crowd the sl- tar of Our Lady Of Lordes
 What adds largely to the interest s,. tschtpg to this church is the fsct that it is fIvorits shrine of the eK Empress Eugenie. ons sees there the seven lamps she caused to be lighted iu the first shock of her great trouble. and if one only knew just when to go. be might occasionally see there. closely yelled snd modestly attend ed, that unfortunate lady herself It is said tha. Eugenie is frequent visitor when in Paris, aud that. like thousands of