Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-03-14

DIRTY AND SMELLY
PERILs AND TEMPTATIONS THAT
BESEr AMERICAN GIRLS.
Artificial Life That Wears Upon Their
Nerves-Mistake Liberty for
License.
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

PARIS, france. Marcn D, 100.
The American girl is advertised the world
over. So is the Latin quarter of Paris, and
when the American girl takes up her resi-
dence In the Latin quarter one naturally
expects fireworks And there are fireworks
Also there are other things. The truth Is,
both the American girl and the Latin quar-
ter are not in all respects as they are adj
vertised. AS to the Latin quarter, it is
dirty. bad-smelling. unhealthy. immoral. AS
to the American girl dwelling there. she is
misguided. foolhardy. slovenly, silly, If
mot -?
Now this continues true in spite Of the
fact that in the Latin quarter prevails an
atmosphere Of art and Of learning, ravish-
ing the soul Of the earnest student, and
among the five hundred American girls al
ways to be found studying there many are
earnest-one or two even are successful
| Concerning the condition of the majority
you will experience the truth IL you come
/ with me to pay visit to a representative
American girl student.
We pass from the street into the gloomy
court of diapidated old building and the
disheveled concierge directs us to the "cin-
| quieme etage par fescalier." We stumble
over the stairs that ascend in a corkscrew
five flights we are filed with the odor-not
of sanctity-but of stale cabbage which is
the bouquet Of the Latin quarter.
Her apartment"
The girl admits us to her bed room, which
for forms sake she calls an apartment.
The bed Is COUCH covered with a dingy
piece OF drapery; soiled silkoline couver-
ture de pied is rolled up around her pillow
and night gown, making the chief and only
furnishing of this divan. A dingy Jap
anese screen closes around the washstand.
Wv fhn INt,~ ,>;o h; <r;rI
Is a singer, two or three chairs in various
stages of alleged artistic decay, a table
strewn with papers and books, a small
stove and tea table. On the walls are
sketches and posters galore, and hung
across one corner, proudly displayed>is
Roma n-striped, short, scant, silk petticoat,
a souvenir Of the last Quat'Z Arts ball.
Here this girl lives all alone. Here she
receives her friends men and women. She
gets her own breakfast here, cup OF tea
made on the stuffy small stove, and a roll
bought from the bake shop across the way.
Commonly she gets her own luncheon here
also-another cup Of tea, bread and per-
haps slice of cold beef, also bought at
the shop across the way. For dinner she
goes to a restaurant around the corner.
In this apartment the odor of stale cigar
cite smoke mingles with the smells ema-
mating from the very walls of the old
house, and altogether If this Is your first
visit the livelfest impression you get of
the Latin quarter is that 1t is badly in
need of Immigration. .
AS for the girl herself, she appears
sloverly. That Is an unkind word. but
none other describes her. Her hair IS
riotous. Her waist open at the throat is
| colFarless and her short skirt is both spotty
| and frayed. She looks far from weH-1s
pale, thin and more or less nervous. If
the truth were known, she does not get
enough to eat except when some American
friend takes her out to dinner But she has
good time. We shall hear about that
later. .i..
Typical Of Most.
This. girls manner, OF living in general
way describes the squalor and physical
hardship endured by the majority of Ameri-
can girl students in the Latin quarter
Sometimes two or three club together and
take an apartment Of several rooms; they
will have better furnishings and more to
eat according to the amount Of money
they have to spend, but on the whole they
live in manner that is simply repulsve
to any one who loves cleanliness and de-
cency and order.
For the relief Of just such a condition of
things Mrs. Whitelaw Reid Instituted the
American Girls Club in the Latin quarter.
This club occupies an interesting old house
built around generous garden green with
Ivy and adorned with some fine old trees.
The house Is furnished with admira BILE
taste, and so far as the original equipment
goes wants nothing to make 1t comforta BILE
and charming. But it is an open secret in
the Latin quarter that the girls who try
to live at the club do not get enough to
eat. That is to say, they get even less
than they can get living in the fashion Of
the girl I have just described. Why this
is SO nobody pretends to say. That 1t need
not be so everybody believes. But because
1t is so this well conceived institution has
come to offer little relief to the American
girl student seeking home in Paris.
Among all the girl students of the Latin
quarter the greatest number are pursuing
art-drawlng and painting that is. l. have
Wei M hp fa afe x,,ba
they are received Here slovenliness Is
crowned queen. To reach almost any of
these ateliers you proceed something like
this:
The Domicile of Art.
Enter from the street dingy court, At
the end, open door leading into a dirty
back yard. Pick your way here through
rubbish to a building in the rear and by
narrow winding stairs and a long, dark,
narrow passage you arrive finally at the
domicile of art. The room is barn like and
hung with all sorts of curtains to properly
arrange the light. 1t Is uncomfortable filled
with easels. before which are girls envel-
oped in long white or black aprons splendid
ly daubed with every possible hue of paint
The only attempt at the beautiful which the
room exhibits Is in studies of the nude pa-
pering the walls, The air is like July In
New York tenement house-the temperature
being adjusted with feeling regard both for
the Frenchman's aversion to ventilation and
for the comfort Of the naked men who are.
one after another, descending ladder from
the flies and, offering themselves for in
spection on the models throne The sub
ject for thezconring weeks study is to be a
male nudeSl and this is the time OF making
the selection. "A number are presented to
the class. WHO decide by vote which one
shall be engaged.
T. tits is ,aldog's life," girl from st. Louis
says to me ass she Is washing her paint
brushes after the mornings work is fin
| ished. II paint here every morning All
the afternoon I draw at IS atelier, and
when it gets too dark to work any longer
l am so crazy tired / can't rest So I
usually go around to some mans studio
to tea, and. after dinner go almost any
where that there is anything going on,
because l am too strung up to- go to bed
and sleep.s Sundays I lie abed till one
O'Clock and then I rush the balance of the
day until midnight or after"
Models Much in Evidence.
A great many of the men art students
| instead of working in the ateiier classes
have studios, of their own and here their
intimates, men and women and models.
assemble for tea after work hours The
models are often the wives of the artists
The cost Of hiring professional model is
so much Of an item In the experience OF a