Omaha daily bee., 1902-10-19

VI l AlNIO'
mission. All importations of tobacco are
rigidly watched and none is allowed to be
grown without authority from the govern
ment. Ii you sprout a plant in your garden
you must notify the authorities and they
will send a man to number the leaves, and
when the plant is ripe you will have to &C
count for every leaf. If you wish to i'm
port a few boxes of cigars or a few pounds
CT tobacco you must write a request to
the officials to that effect on government
stamped paper. An agent will call upon
you to see that you are the person who
wrote the letter and to give you permits
sion. When the tobacco comes he will
call again to see that it goes to the right
party, and that the duty is promptly paid.
France buys a great deal of its tobacco
from the United States. 1t comes in hogs
heads to Havre, Bordeaux and Marseilles,
and is shipped thence in most cases to
Paris. The government has an mmenaA -
factory here on the banks of the Seine
which employs over 1000 hands and con-
sumes more than $4,000, 900 pounds Of to-
bacco a year. The chief officials are gradu-
ates of the polytechnic school, and they
must have spent two years in studying
tobacco and the process Of its manufac-
ture. The government gets over $40, 900, 900
q year out OF t1lS monopoly, ana the cA-
penses of the army are largely borne by
it. There is also a tax upon salt and on
matches, both of which are government
monopolies.
In my English letters l wrote of the mu-
nicipal improvements which the chief cities
of that country are making. I found that
many of them are now tearing down old
buildings and widening their business
streets. Paris began to do this more than
fifty years ago, and as a result it now
has the best streets of the world. 1t was
in 1862 that the work began. The first
Improvement cost $40, 000, 600, and one-halt
of the expense was borne by the state.
Two years later an expenditure of $50, 000,-
900 was authorized, and later on there was
an appropriation of $3S, 900, 900 at one time.
This year the government has voted to
spend $40, 900, 900 in extending the public
works and identifying the city. Two and
one-half million dollars is to go for en-
larging the markets, which are already the
largest of the world. One million, six hun
dred thousand dollars is to be spent on the
I. completion of the Palace Of Justice, and
large sums on the extension Of the boule-
ward system, The Champs Elysees is to DO
: heightened, new bridges are to be built
over the Seine and new technical schools
are to be established. Paris steadily moves
? onward, Like its people, it delights in
{ new clothes and appreciates that it pays
: to primp and powder. 1t is making many
r sanitary improvements, aid with it's wide
r boulevards and its many parks and open
= places it has today as good a set of lungs
= or breathing places as any city Of Europe.
( The city authorities see that the town is
we'll kept. The streets are swept every iGE
r by an army of 5000 men and boys, and
night there are street-sweeping machines
i, which push all the dust and dirt into the
q cutters, from where 1t is washed in the
, early morning into the sewers with the
| hose. 1t costs Paris almost $4,000 900 a
q year to flush the sewers and for the removal
: Of rubbish. 1t costs more than that to
n light and clean the public promenades, and
r about s., 900, 900 to keep the streets in re-
pair. Altogether the streets are better
kept than those of any other European
: city, with the possible exception of Berlin,
They are well paved with wood and as
: phalt, and you can drive upon them for
= miles without a Jolt.
l doubt, in fact, whether there is a more
vator yesterday and mounted to the top OF
the Eiffel tower for a bird's-eye view Of the
: French metropolis. / was 1000 feet above
- 1t, so high up hat the men walking along
- the streets below looked like crawling bug;
and those carrying umbrellas like gigantic
beetles. The street cars were no large
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