The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-03-11
DICTIONARY SNYDER OF PARIS
Stories of a Queer Character of the
IMtin Quarter.

Latin Quarter.
Among the venturesome spirits from
foreign shores who will seek the gold
en- opportunities of the Klondike this
spring will be one of the most noted
characters of the Latin quarter Of
Paris. This is Charles Synder, a ma
tive of America, who has lived for
more than 30 years at the French cap
ital, and who is well known to the stu
dents of the Quarter" as Dictionary
Snyder He is veritable human cy-
clopedia (thence the sobriqueD, and to
boot superb linguist, having at ready
command seven languages, which he
speaks with facility and faultless ac-
cent. However, Synder has seldom
turned his intellectual gifts to personal
advantage, being strangely averse to
worldly advancement, and his prospec-
tive visit to the gold fields, 1t is
thought by his friends in this city, is
wholly unimpaired by desire of riches,
but is rather urged by an inordinate
love of travel and adventure.
Dictionary Snyder" Is not an artist,
but for years he has lived among art
lists in Paris, serving as friend and
companion to thet&older brushes, as
monitor and fatherfy adviser to the
younger men. In everything he Is typi-
cally bohemian, Indifferent to that
which the future may bring forth, so
long as his small needs in the present
are satisfied and in sentiment and ac-
ton he is the assured, uncompromis-
ing foe to convention. He is as we'll a
master of expediency, and his stoical
philosophy has reduced the entire
scheme of existence to the first princi-
pies of food and shelter. Innumerable
have been the examples he has furn-
ished that q man Of resources may live
practically without money and yet pre-
serve his independence and manhood
Probably Dictionary Snyder's"
greatest achievement in economy as
exalted to the plane of high art oc-
Cured during the siege Of Paris. He
went through the siege from begin
ming to end. and that, too, on Is francs
-15 francs in a time when one might
open restaurant with a single horse
in the cuisine and grow rich within a
day beyond a dream of avaraice, when
solitary quarter Of cold boiled dog
insured the seller lifelong competen-
cy. But he did it, and came out a.
trlfe reduced in avoirdupois, but new
erthe less cheerful and comparative
ly healthy.
From the first Snyder had wisely
surmised that the siege would be
protracted, and with the closing of the
city's gates set about to buy guam
titiy of provender of the greatest nu-
triment and neutrality-suspicious.
He endeavored to hit upon something
that even the most provident OF
Frenchmen would not think of, and
which would therefore be sold far be-
low the exorbitant prices demanded
for staple articles of food. But there
were few articles of diet, indeed, he
discovered, that were not fetching top
of-the-market prices, and most of the
necessaries Of life were selling for
about 10 francs a bite At last, in a
small shop in a neglected district of
Paris, Snyder found bargain in the
shape of three bottles of olive oil and
a quantity Of bread. These he mixed
with water, making a sort of soup, and
on this limited, though nourishing
fare survived until the siege was near
ly ended.
The Disqualification and satisfaction
such a triumph in frugality must have
inspired in the bosom of man of Sny-
ders peculiar traits were not suffici-