The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-12-10
MARTYRS TO ART IN PARIS.
GIRLS GONE CRAZY IN
THE LATIN QUARTF5R FROM
STARV ALTON.

They Were Art Studeats and Died in
Vain-There Are Hundreds OF
Young women From the states
There Vow. Majority Are Poor
and Many III and Desperate-A
Vivid Picture of the Futile Strug-
gle in the Name of Art.
Paris, Nov. 15.-There are hundreds
of American girls studying arr in the Latin
I quarter of Paris. The majority of these
are poor, many OF them are ID,
all of them overworked. \ few succeed.
/ Three different ways OF living have been
adopted by This colony Of students: one
/ is 10 sleep in a studio or furnished room
and go TO small restaurants in the neigh
borhooi for meals another is 10 stay at
the American Girls club in the Rue Chico
reuse; and the third is to board with
French family. In each case the average
cost a month is about SO.
The life is like nothing in the United
States, for what in New York Chicago OF
any of the large cities would be a tene-
ment house. in price and surroundings, in
Paris is an old studio, under a crumbiing
red tiled roof. 1t has a balcony. reached
by an uncertain stairway from the court
below where the concierge clatters about
in wooden sabots brushing away the au-
tumn leaves that nave drifted in from
near garden, whose doors come on The
damp, misty air of Paris that filters into
the veins of and possesses men, making
them, from one generation TO another,
commit every folly. every sacrifice for art.
II Is Il Hitter Life.
Studios may be ren3ed in the Latin quar-
ter at all prices from 500 TO $3.50 a year,
but for no, less time than a year. Several
rooms and a kitchen are included for the
higher prices but for the more modest
sums girls content themselves with small
balcony at one end of the atelier which
they arrange as a bed room and manage
10 keep in order with the aid of a femme
de menage, who charges z cents an hour
for her services as chambermaid.
The winter days dawn cold and damp
| in Paris and the American student has
neither furnace. register, nor steam heat
| nor running hot water TO disguise the fact;
art is preceded by domestic duties, she
makes a fire on rising; she heats water;
| through the door she slips in a small bottle
| of milk two rolls, a diminutive piece of
| butter, left on the stairway al an early
| hour. and with some coffee which she eX-
| tracts from a cupboard full of paints,
brushes canvas turpentine and groceries,
| she prepares her morning meal at a cost
| of cents
Innumerable Americans whose day has
| begun in this way, assemble together
with Russian, Swedish, German and
| French girls between eight and nine
O'Clock at the different schools which are
| open all day and all evening. The most
popular of these are Juian's, Colarossts,
| and Wits, where the best French mas
ters cridcise once or twice week.
The average cost for drawing or paint
ing in tie life classes Is s. a.
month for the mornings, afternoons or
evening IS or SO for any two
| classes. The Whistler's school is for
painting only, and it is impossible 10 en-
| ter it for less than three months at cost
| of S2S. Raphael Collin, Coutrois and Dag
| uan BouVeret also have private classes
which are more expensive. The models
| pose for fifty minutes, rest fer ten, and
| at the end of the morning Seance the stud
ents make their way TO one of the cheap
| restaurants of the quarter where luncA
for about 20 cents; item for example:
Napkin, / cent; beefsteak, cents; bread,
:. cents; potatoes, A cents; dessert or cof-
fee. / cents fee, cent; total, 20 cents
Some of these places are frequented by
masons. teamsters, Workmen of all sorts.
The marble topped tables, surrounded by
small, straight backed chairs are nailed
to a wooden floor sprinkled over with saw
dust. The American takes her place side
by side with a miller or a countryman in
a blue blouse and eats tough meat and
greasy soup from coarse, thick china, I'M
willing even to admit that she is making
sacrifices for art.
At Henriette's.
The most popular of the restaurants is
"Henrette's" in the rue Leopold Robert.
Henriette has studied the taste
of American girls and built at
the back of her shop pa
vilion where the light shines down on
clean stone tiled floor neat tables with
boquets at either end and around the walls
some amusing frescoes painted by two
American art students. Henriette is the
friend of all her customers. She serves
her meals, chatting about art,
philosophy, the weather and later stands
at the door with a slate where she writes
in chalk lists OF what her patrouesses
have eaten, taken from their dictation
Many of the girls return to the schools
in the afternoons, but those who have
studios generally work alone or share
model with friends Models are expensive,
50 a week for children 81 or s. for a man
or woman for the mornings or afternoons.
Canvas and paints are also expensive, and
a fire is a necessity where models will not
pose without These things far more than
food and lodging augment the expense Of
studying art in Paris
1t is at tea time. between and O'Clock
in the afternoon, THAI the American Girls
club PLAYS a role in most of the students
lives Six years ago the club was organ
lied by an American lady, wife of the
ambassador to France al that time, who
after four years in Paris determined upon
| this as a remedy for some of the evils of
| i'll health and disbursement resulting
| from the homelessness of American girl
students in the Latin quarter A library
! and a restaurant were opened 10 all Amer
| lean women; furnished rooms in an agree