The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-09-23
PAYMENTS OF PARIS
STONE, WOOD AND ASPHALT ARE
USED IN THE FRENCH CAPITAL
What 1t Costs to Maintain the Pave
Unconstitutional Epochs of the
City's improvements.

Boston Herald.
/ noticed last year that a good many
streets in Boston were in a bad condition.
and when 1 asked why they were not
cleaned and repaved, it was inferred that
there was no money. OF course, l didn't
believe my Informant. but 1t would have
been most impolite TO have told him so,
and / merely remarked: "'Well, they do
things better than this in Paris" which
surprised him a good DEAL, and then he
suggested that it would be well to write
q letter about IL 10 the Boston Herald when
/ got back. I had forgotten all about his
request, when it was brought TO my mind
two or three days ago by the annual dis
putes between the project of the Seine.
representing the state. and the municipal
council. representing the city, over the
appropriation for paving and repairing
Paris streets. You see, the state pays its
share toward the work, and the yearly dis
cussion is as to how much that share
shall be and as to the substitution OF the
new pavings fer old ones.
What a story could be told OF these
Paris paveESenss; of the unfortunate be-
lngs whom fortune has thrown on the
Streets" and who walk them from morn
till night, desperate by need and suffer-
ing. until, tired OF struggling. in the end,
fall, worn out and discouraged, by the
vayside. What cruel miseries, what hor-
ribIe dreams. what crimes, what comical
incidents, what noble and touching facts,
what acts Of abnegation AMI OF sublime
devotion. these stones have seen, If they
have eyes as they are supposed to have
ears; and what a marvellous book could
be written under the title or The Mo-
D~-s- (" IJOxu
often has this Partisan soil been watered
with blood? How many times has II been
invaded by the waves of q dslirlouS crowd,
rushing along furiously to the assault Of
some abhOrred power, or joyfully hasten
ing to the always magnificent spectacle or
some popular fete, or OF some patriouc
manifestation.
THE FIRST PAVING.
Tt is nearly eight centuries since paving
stones acquired city rights in Paris. In
the year 11S5. under the reign of Philip
Augustus, the first paving was executed.
Then acts OF the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries charged the city with the care
of Paris Crossroads and of other streets
to the people ~inhabiting them 1t was thus
.until 1887 when this care passed 10 the
charge Of the state. but a decree of the
National Assembly, dated Jan. 1, 179l, re-
turned to the city the expenses of Paris
paving. But the city, not having the means
1t could only do so by "the aid of grants
from the treasury. and from March p. l19s;
the budget of roads and bridges inscribed
this expense to it's charge. Finally. since
May, 1926, the expenses of the streets gave
rise to a division between shicb the ear stape ma anv
times. 1t is thus that the contingent or
the state. which. during the period from
1856 to 1870. reached the figure OF 1000, WOf.,
is to-day only about 3.OOO.OOOf.
I doubt if there are any of the pave.
Davis nnu- Iika nan Cr0nnE themselves
wear out with years; they exist longer.
but their decay Is just as sure, ana the
destructive old villain who is named Time
ends by overcoming them. However that
may be. there are in Paris, among the
6,315, 400 square meters of pavements, with
out counting sidewalks and the Interior
courts Of monuments and private dwellings.
pavements OF all sorts and all ages. l have
seen 'royalist' stone producing dampnes5
and vexation in the ceurtyards of the old
mansions of the Faubourg Saint-Germain,
where the stones seemed to be weeping
selves in a greenish verdure, as though
they were homesick for the forest of Fon-
tainebleau, whence they came.
Then there are the bourgeois pavements
Of 1890, large, heavy cobblestones, spread
ing majestIcally over little frequented
sun a convex surface and shining ike the
venerable Uranium OF a college professor,
and giving themselves the luxury of a few
blades OF grass growing in the space which
separates each stone from it's neighbor,
Just like the little dressmaker on the other
side of our courtyard cultivates a pot of
gTli flowers and a half dead geranium on
her window sill. Then there are those rev.
dictionary pavements. also. which figured
so prominently in the barricades, and final
~ We come to the modern pavement, TO the
municipal stone pavement that comes from
the quarries opened by the state. in the
bouillet. so as to be free from the require
ments OF quarrymen who try TO raise the
price to an extreme degree.
VARIOUS EXPERIMENTS.
Before adopting this kind of pavement
numerous experiments were made, and the
arkoses of Autun, hard sandstone of the
channel Of the Cotes-du-Nord de la May
snne, OF the Orne, and Of the Sarthe, as
well as GRANTEES from the Vosges and Bel
gian porphyries from QuenaSt were used
successfully. But ~porphyries were soon rec
ognized as too slippery for horses. and, as
they also rendered France tributary TO
foreign lands. they were put aside. The
pavements of hard sandstone Of French
production. although Of q higher price than
those OF Yvette, are cheaper in the end,
because the care of them is less burden
some and they last longer. Among the
experiments thus made, L must mention a
small pointed pavement OF which several
square metres in the Rue Saint Jacques,
near the boulevard Sairt-Germain, are still
found as a sample pavement which must
assurdly have brought happiness to shoe
makers, but was the despair of psdes-
TRANS. Let me say, too, that to the diff
ferenI varieties of pavement which l have
enumerated must be added that OF the Ours,
or which numerous samples are found near
the French Institute; and, finally, the pave
mentS or common space, sometimes thrown
into prefectoral gardens These two latter
kinds are mentioned only, for they cos;
nothing TO contributors.
One OF the earliest changes was to a
process OF oallasting due 10 Mr.. Macadam
a Scotch civil engineer, who gave 1t his
name, and macadam was the object of oul
parents's infatuation as we to-day are in
f2tuated with wooden pavements. 1t Is
sad, however. that that engineer, having
come to Paris TO visit the first works exc,
cuted according to his method, let this
avowal escape him: IF. like you, we haC
the sandstone of Fountainebleau at the gate
OF London, never would a single pebble bt
crushed in our streets" Nevertheless, most
of the principal streets OF the French CAPT
surface thus paved, the care of which re
mains in the charge of the city, has beer
sensibly diminished, 1t is still about 1,495, 0O
square meters
COST OF REPAIRS.
1t Is not a little expense TO care for Pari:
pavements. and since 1866 the cost has al
ways followed an ascending figure. From
S.60O,O0 francs in 1855 it reached the hgur,
of 1,542,00 francs in 1890, at which it ha.
been very nearly maintained. With the de
velopment OF the population. the circulation
and the traffic OF carriages are consider
ably developed. You can have an idea o
this by considering that the number O