The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-01-06
Of Interest 10 Lady Readers F.:

tastes of American girls and built at
the back of her shop a pavilion where
the lght shines down on a clean stone
tlled floor, neat tables with bouquets at
eluher end and around the walls some
/ amusing frescoes painted by two Amer
lean art students. Henrie,tte is the
friend of all her customers. She serves
| the meals, chatting about art, philoSo-
] Ply, me weather and later stands at
! the door With a slate, where Sc writes
IN chalk lists of what her patronesses
nave eaten, taken from their dicta'tion.
Many Of the girls return to the schools
IN the afternoons but those who have
studios generally work alone or share
a model with friends. Models are ex-
penslVe, 50 a week for children, 81 or
80 Tor a man or woman for the morn
lngS or afternoons. Canvas and paints
are also expensive and fire is a ne
cesSity where models will not pose with
out. These things far more than food
and lodging augment the expense of
studying art in Paris.
1t is at tea time, between 4 and 5
CLOCK in the afternoon, that the Amer
lean Girls club plays a role in most of
the students lives. Six years ago the
club was organized by an American
woman, wife of the ambassador TO
France at that time, who after four
years in Paris, determined upon this
as a remedy for some of the evils of ILL
health and Encouragement resulting
from the homelessness of American girl
students in the Latin quarter. A Ii
brary and restaurant were opened
to all American women: furnished
rooms in an agreeable old house built
about garden were offered from 81 to
S. a month, including free use of two
large, well-heated drawing rooms and a
tea room, where every afternoon in
the year any American woman in Paris
may have as much tea and as much
bread and butter as she wants. at the
kind hospitality of the founder and
patroness of the club.
The restaurant is a warm, pleasant
room, the meals are wholesome and
cheap, but two forms of self abuse !
seem to be common to all women stu
dents and breadwinners-one is over |
work and the other is gradual starva- |
ton.
Nine American. girls have gone crazy
IN the Latin quarter because they
worked all day and all evening and ate
one miserable meal a day and q great
many free cups of tea in place Of din
ner. For 60 cents a day girl may be
well fed at the club; most of the girls
never spend more than 40 cents for
lunch and dinner. There
are no restrictions for entering. Any
unmarried American woman who
WISHES 10 STUDY art OF music III any Ol
it's branches may stay at the club. She
has the sympathetic companionship of
who are working toward
the same end as herself; she has the
protection and kindly interest Of a de-
voted American woman directress, as
well as comfortable surroundings for a
price necessarily minimum, in an or
ganization which does not even cover
its expenses.
For $50 a month it is possible to live
in a French family and have the OPP
Dortunity of hearing French spoken.
This price. in any way of living, means
small room, probably looking out on
/ small courtyard, where the sun never
shines and an entire absence Of luxury
md in many cases even of comfort.
Thus the disadvantages of student
ife in the Latin quarter are the temp
alton to neglect health; the danger, I
where no restrictions are placed, Of
wasting time and finding too late what .
night have been discovered in Amer
ca, that the talent possessed is insult
icient to justify the pursuit of an ar
istic career; and, lastly, an increasing
.arelessness and Indifference to all
resulting from the
reedom Of all responsibility or obliga-
ion toward an older generation.