The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-02-06

some yellow; some consisted of but q single
sheet, while others were small pamphlets; oil.
however, bore tho common brand OF n Govorn.
ment revenue stamp, tho denominations. of
which wero from 2 cents to SO cents. Mrs.
Browns total Indebtedness for fees, including
plumbing work, was 80 francs.
Forty francs Of this, however," the comp
your subscription expires. 1t Is merely a do.
"a. deposit for whatf' asked Mrs. Brown
why. for tho approximate. amount Of your
first months bill. OF course said the Comp
trollor. THE deposit Is always graduated ac-
ment."
the comptroller. seeing that sho had. never sub
scribed for gas In Paris before, good'naturedly
"When your bill comes in at the end of the
month YOU will have, no trouble at nll. because
all the charges, are tabulated. The first amount
amount Of tho Government stamp for the re.
ceipt, the third the rent of the meter, the fourth
mains. the fifth that for the house, main. the
sixth that for the stopcock in the hall, tho sew
and SO on. It is really very simple.
Three days after the appearance Of th,s man.
them Men o Wna q qIr,Sep Won 10 p, sne iH Il, a1d shortly az.
The meter was still locked and scaled with.a
Brown was about to notify tho main office, be-
cause she was tired of using lamps, and. any.
how. the two weeks had elapsed. On the next
day a man arrived with n book in which the in.
spector was to write down the record of month
" consumption. Then in tho afternoon, rcsplen-
dent in gold lace, an entirely new man came on
the scene. With a dramatic. flourish he broke
the leaden seal with a chisel, and the gas was
This two weeks might have seemed tedious
waiting to most people. but Mrs; Brown was
been plenty of distraction in the interval. The
servants wero one source OF trouble. Finally
m6nage. who came In for three hours a day at
a monthly stipend OF forty francs. Affairs
wsnt S Sn, M ysr Er %sl1 , with the Sp { hrr Weekly Sf % os.
the size Of the bills. She had never counted
c enHH a a" quart iaF for o. mix milk. SO p cents a pound for but;
er. so cents a dozen for eggs: $l.25 a pound
a pound for sugar. None of these things was
very good at the price, either. Vegetables were
Ses%R fISsr nio sSs only FSe f fnss }sandpS saR Si i've w Ss
even more, terrifying. and when It came to coal
and gas she was really in DESPAIR;
Meanwhile she was determined that tho dear
girls should have their pleasure not Notwithstanding.
They went to the Opera to hear, Les Maitres
tho opera house beautiful, the performance
they could only, compare to q similar ono they
tramp, singers. Then they went to the Com
edie Francaiso at So each, the Gymnasc at the
fams price df a !hs 81 Ro mai TnSSs at Ss'a AZ s s9e pal tbs
Varieties. at So, and the Opera Comique at
$l.6o. They, stopped then, not only because Of
in Paris they do not give plays to which an un-
married woman of respectability can listen
with entire comfort and admiration.
The museums were next in order: They
were interesting, bit became less so after they
were 0e still 'i Ieft. but ut'i none S'1 was Especially siS note,
worthy. In short, Mrs. Brown and her daugh-
ters found themselves drifting unwilIinely but
inevitably into the ranks, always full to over
crowding. of the people who come to Paris Tor
a winters, eayety and find themselves at the
Brown was determined not to fall into this rut,
but she found that she. had wholly forgotten TO
of Paris arc not devised for young girls who, in
respectable French families. are practically
kept kept in Int the nursery t until H. mn pr;ais H. Once G1Sc. che ne
skate, but even her Impractical eye discerned
that the other women there were Of the kind
that frequent the Moulin Rouge and the other
night establishments Of the outer boulcvards.
only of a slightly higher grade. Then she took
Boulogne, to be still more shocked by the curious
mingling of women of fashion, women or too
much fashion. and male, Washers of every walk
of life. They tried ramb!cs in the Bots, only to
be insulted by other male Washers at every turn
Of the path. Once, when one of these indi.
viduals was particularly annoying, pcrsistlng
in following them with fulsomc phrases of adj
miration. she appealed to a park guardian, who
their walks to the fashionable streets of town,
but there was no avoiding. the mashcrs there.
that she found that a mothers gray hairs were
Of nc avail to protect young girls from insult In
p 1@G p" eomm siresr; s Me f toid her rG thss thsre v Wa q
one very easy way out of the ditticulty; always
to ride in IA cab.
daughters educated in Paris; she knew so many
people, who had done so and she had always re,
She understood why it was that respectable
F .nch girls arc never allowed to leave Tie
Browns good sense had kept them in America
during their school days. 1t was so also with
their thnedIr l reaf Sh1 She was in m, no 81 sense prn6tSi'
more for the benefit OF their French than any
thing else. Il was not long before she had 10
tratcd comic paper in the house. or Il novel.
But all the time Mrs. Brown and her daugh-
tiers were getting to know something Of Paris
they had, come for; They discovered, for In;
stance, thai many things in Paris have changed
traveller whose descriptions, have been re-
garded often almost ms proverbs. French cour;:
tSSSy wf fSe one nfr o. sot the first ilrsS f found 6ai t6St F Pe6 Si
men in these davN were presumably too busy to
take Off their hats In an elevator in the pres
ment house under ike circumstances. They
soon got used. too, to being showed out of the
being clbowed on street crossings, and to being
half upset on crowded sidewalks without
Irc Of seeing a nan offer his seat to a woman
in n public cCnveyance-which meant that she
must stand on the platform, because tho rules
forbid any ono to stand inside. They learned
not to mind the cobmen who swore at them upon
receiving q small Ponr6oire, or the torrent of
they did not get out of the way quickly enough.
They even got used to being called blockhcads
by policemen when they failed TO understand
the rich southern accent in which their In.
quiries were answered. They did not mind 1t
at all when one day at the Louvre, a guardian
forcibly and roughly pushed them backward a
distance of twenty feet when they had mis-
takcnly entered the doorway of n room forbid
den temporarily to the pubic, nor when. upon
several occasions. other public guardians init
mated coarsely that foreign,Ts wanted too
much for nothing. md that whe information
was desired it should be paid for IN ponrboires.
None OF these things, in short, impressed them
much. because they remembered that the new
code OF French gentlemen had been established
at tho burning of tho Bazaar do In Cl'arit6.
Tho experiences OF the first few w,'eks were
In some ways n disappointment, of couN SO: The
desired PARTISAN accent" for example, did not
come on very fnst, because the profa ,,snr of
French was too high in his charges to have
more. than twice n week, and the genera, prac-
tice in conversation, uDOn which Mrs. Br own
Ind counted SO much, WAS confined chiefly to
intercourse with divers shOpkeepcrs. the con
cfergc, the femme dc mGh0gc, and stray butcher
and grocery boys when they made deliveries.
But along about the middle of December there
was more opportunity, 1t arrived with n long
string Of DaraDna making thnir annual lew for