Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-03-17

can see them now as they leave the sta
ton, walking to save cab fare, with their
valises in their hands to proclaim their
forlorn condition. If one is rash enough to
come without rooms taken in advance /
would advise arriving In the morning early.
Personally, 1 would much prefer to have
n room (by the month"; in the part of Paris
between the Boulevard Haussmann on the
north. the Arc de Triomphe on the west.
the river on the south and the Rue DrouOt
on the east. 1t is the great lively center OF
the town. where to move in the street is to
amuse ones self. A good room in this
neighborhood ought to be had for 81 day.
IL taken by the month These rooms would
be in the upper floors of great apartment
houses-not hotels. A Spectator or the
owner of the house or q struggling widow
to do the service and furnish the morning
coffee. Then / would "eat around" never
at the fixed-price establishments. whose
food somehow makes one i'll. hope, in
deed, to eat all through the exposition at
Jan average of less than francs a meal $50
cents). Unhappily, there Is no free lunch
in the French capital, and no one should
come counting on 1t. Except at the Sir
to have even drink Of water gratis. Light
lunch concerns called cremeries) are cheap,
though too infrequent.
But There Are Extras.
And thus, were man to live by bread
alone, there would be ease, freedom and
good rations for So day again, and not in
hotel this time. Helas and cab fares, the
afternoon aperitif, the afternoon game of
nap, or MANTLE. washing, exposition tickets,
side shows and the evenings entertain
ment. All these are as truly expenses as
board and lodging, and the visitor forced
to economize on them is in an unhappy
plight The cheapest evening recreation,
sitting on the terrace of boulevard bras
serie behind half pint of Munich beer,
-orfaf Il
like a mighty river, will cost anywhere
from 10 cents up.
The cab controversy is now at its hottest
point The protests of the cabbies them
selves are in the hands of NJ. Waldeck-
Rousseau, who now, as in the Creusot con-
troversy, will act with impartiality 1t re-
mains to be seen whether the great COM
panles will consent beforehand not to
charge the men exorbitant rates during the
exposition. If they resist, a serious strike
may be expected. AT present the cocher is
certainly badly used, for with the 'aver-
ages of Is francs day to pay before they
touch penny of their own the temptation
TO eXtortion is great. If the companies
raise their averages to "a francs a dav,
as they did in 1889, cab fares will come
high for strangers.
Within the Grounds.
The entrance tickets to the show itself
will be hawked around the streets for Is
cents apiece, as they were in 1880 Already
an immense number of these tickets" as
they call them, are in peoples hands, as
coupons attached to the exposition bons.
or which so many millions were raised for
the nrst expense People bought the bons
fer the lottery attachment. True, the side
shows will be expensive: but. in general
the expense will be found in Paris, not the
exhibition grounds. The theaters, in par
ucular, are going to be exploited pitilessly
At the present moment the whole fraterni-
W OF managers, the point of bank
ruptcy, has united to make an appeal TO
the great public heart. Their special griev-
afee being the 10 per cent tax on gross re-
ceipts levied in favor of the poor of Paris
they propose calling public attention to
TINS inequality of taxation by adding leei-
piy' the 10 per cent to the price of each
ticket Let the public pay the tax awhile"
the managers say. There are men among
US who have paid 10000. 600 francs out to the
poor, and who are poor themselves after
ten years of management" Another the
atricai nuisance sought to be abolished for
the exhibition, this time by certain enter
prising papers, is the systematic ticket
speculation winked at by each manage
ment- One source of these curbstone ticket
sellers stock in trade is the right of the
playwright to twelve tickets nightly. The
author sells them to the SPECTATORS When
the opera populaire offered the societe to
pay cash instead of issuing these twelve
tickets nightly, they were refused on the
ground that money owing to a playwright
may be seized by creditors. but not tickets
which are personal privilege. The real
evil is in the practice of the management
TO stand In with the big spectators, all
of whom make fortunes. Beware of the
theaters.
On SO n Day.
In this way 1 would set down an mag
mary days extraordinary expense for the
ordinary exhibition visitor: Starting out
early in the morning he would surely walk
to the grounds. Entrance, 20 cents One
side show before lunch, GO cents Refresh
ments. p cents: printed matter (cata-
logues. etc), % cents Deception with re-
spect to the price of lunch. so cents more
than we have calculated. He is still in the
grounds. Two side shows in the afternoon,
S110. Refreshments, 80 cents. TranSporta-
ton in the grounds. 20 cents. Warned by
his oVercharSed lunch, he will be careful
at dinner, and run over our calculations,
say. only 80 cents. Coffee and liqueur at a
boulevard establishment anything to restl
30 cents. Music hall promenoir, 81 To-
bacco during the day. 30 cents. Glass of
something at night, % cents. Home Gin a
cab because too tired to walk. 60 cents
This, which Is indeed modest. comes to 81
Adding the So of our estimated living ex-
penses, it comes to $40 a day.
Will it, then, cost $40 day to see the
Paris exhibition? Certainly not Have
ing need not be more than So day? True,
it is supposing no mistakes or extras. The
man who escapes the one will he escape
the other? Every man thinks he knows his
own temperament Add, then. from the
extras list to the 81 such items as you feel
you would succumb to, adding largely for
the item Of errors-errorS of judgment, of
ignorance. of misplaced confidence, and of
temptation. To err is human. If your
wife is divine, she will forgive you L think
a good man might get through on 81 daily.
Let him, however, have his ticket home Sc
cured beforehand. STERLING HELLO.