Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-01-13
Paris Will Be No Place for American
Girls Next Year.
CONDITIONS ARE BAD ENOUGH NOW
A Talk With the Superintendent Of
the Art Students Club.
WHAT IT ACCOMPLIS SHE'S

PARIS. December 81, 1S99
There are too many American girls in
Paris today. What will it be, then, next
year. when the exposition shall have
drawn triple or quadruple the continually
increasing yearly quota-the cruel, brilliant
exposition that is to carry down so many
weak and helpless ones in its mad whirl?
The colony in Paris sees the coming dam
ger, yet no plan is made to meet it. The
colony came abroad to escape trouble, not
to seek it. Its members are lotus eaters,
and you must not ask them to exert them
selves. The colony will shut its eyes, as it
always has done.
If the American girls. of whom there are
too many, were only tourist girls, girls to
be finished by the grand tour, hotel dance
girls, well-to do and more or less protected.
then. perhaps-though it is open to debate
the same grave inconvenience would not
be foreseen; but the students form differ
ent category.
In how many safe and kindly towns at
home they are preparing for the Pilgrim
age. the splendid pilgrimage to Paris in the
exposition year, when the worlds art is to
have its century's end and apotheosis?
How many. in their lack of means, are
even wondering If they cannot find ways to
do something to support themselves in
whole or part? These are the girls for
whom the thoughtful people of the colony
are trembling. They are the most interest
center. and yet just the ones to be warned
not to come!
At the Club.
At the American Students Club, the one
establishment in Paris with a mission to
look after the forlorn pilgrims, the view
taken is gloomy. Here is a place that in its
normal workings forms haven of protec-
ton and reffeshment for the American art
student girl in Paris. In Paris, where but
ter Is 90 cents a pound where toast Is
called 'grilled bread and charged for as
such; where tea is looked on as a medicine
and where the gentle ) o'clock hour is re-
spected only by the fashionable, the club"
SHINES on the hsconsolate like a star of
promise. Outside No. Rue de Chevreuse
in the full Latin Quarter, 1t is dark at &
o clock. The chill winter fog bedraggles the
lone girl who Tugs her sketch book and
stool back to the room that she calls home
inside No. Rue de Chevreuse there are
light. warmth and laughter; the air is
heavy with the perfume of buttered toast
and girls sprawl on cushions calling for
more sugar. Or they sit in reception rooms
ana explain orimly worthiiy, their art to
admiring visitors. who always may buy
pictures. Thirty girls at least are always
living In the club protected by It's reputa-
ton as by triple steel. From far and wide
gu 10 lloOp " IL Ol until the
rambling buildings downstairs rooms are
packed. They are girls who live outside
Bohemlans in lone rooms up long flights of
stairs. or boarders underfed in skinny pri-
vate families, or girls living dubbed to-
gether, tired of each others faces and the
daily friction of combined expenses. The
clubs tea Is lavish good toast, sandwiches
bonbons and petits fours. all gratis, and the
miracle takes place every afternoon Such
are the normal workings Of the club; but
what must 1t say to the crowds of new
girls who will swarm to it In the exposition
year?
"Tell Them Not to Come"
Tell them not to come! They must not
come" These were the first words and the
last words of Miss Acly, the superintend-
ent. when 1 talked with her. Indeed, so
strongly does Miss Acly feel about this
matter that she at first begged me not to
say anything about the club, and utterly
refused permission to make photographs
But 1T is perfectly inconsistent" she ex-
claimed. for me to be warning our girls
to stay at home and In the same breath to
tell how we'll we will treat them when they
get here. 1t is tempting them to let them
know that there is such a place in Paris"
We agreed perfectly. Yet there Is another
point of view, and the bare history Of the
American Students Club points q strong
moral
Years ago, appalled, by stories current
then, as now, all kinds of stories of priva-
ton, of temptation (the cruel regulation
gossip of the colony) the wife of the Rev
William Newell, who was in charge of St
Luke's Chapel, in the Latin Quarter has
tened to throw open her own drawing room
to American girl students. There she en-
tertained them. at first once a week, then
twice week, then every day, until she had
MADE free reading room, tea place and
club of her apartment. The work among
the American students of the Latin Quar-
T4fl4tinp I,1Jk ~ 40
a stir in the colony. Girls refused to attend
the meetings, refused to take tea with Mrs
William Newell. I'VE do not want to be
called brands plucked from the burning"
was one of the bitter sentiments, not utter
ly unjustitied. In the Episcopalian phrase
ology. st. Luke's was called mission"
Girls declared they needed reforming no
more than the lazier members of the
colony. AT the same time, to justify the
work, the cold, bare facts of their benight-
ed condition were unveiled
In It's Own Home.
Then came upon the scene the wife Of
the American minister Mrs. Whitelaw
Reid. rich woman and social power
She transferred Mrs. Newelrs afternoon tea
and mutual help club to a building of its
own. insured its financial integrity and
gave to 1t social prestige. The change was
magical
Now that 1.-The club" has grown into a
ana influential combination
OF hotel, club art sales rooms and free
afternoon tea ''place"-the word charity
must not be used-f had some curiosity to
learn if Mrs. Reid was still called on to
make up much of an annual deficit
How could 1t be otherwise?" replied
Miss Acly, the superintendent. 1.-The girl
students who live here, to the number of
thirty or forty, do not come to Paris to en-
terrain the world. That is what Mrs. Reid
does. The dining room is run as a private
restaurant for American women. The young
women pay an ordinary price for their food
and rooms. They consequently are entirely
Independent; but. all the same, the public
benefits of the club make the expenses run
up. SO that there is always deficit to be
made up by Mrs. Reid. On Sunday even
tngs we have often $50 people besides those
living in the house. Every afternoon the
rooms are full of girls from the outside. If
you serve chocolate and cake to $50 people
you will find that 1t runs up"
Food should Cost Sixty Cents a Day.
What can a girl live for at the club?"
She ought to spend three francs (sixty