New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-12-04
CIVIC HOUSEKEEPING ABROAD.
Municipal Pride and Social Service in
France, Scotland and England.


In Paris many times and 1 never yet saw boy
paying on the street. I never playing
anywhere except the little fellows with their bouues
IN the park. Boys do not seem to play in France
after they get old enough to leave their nurses
care You never see big boys playing football or
baseball or things like that as you do in our
PARKS Inc most strenuous game 1 in
Faris was little boys kicking about toy football
or flying toy balloons playing tag
French children are so guarded and hedged in
their recreation There Is nothing like II in this
country They go out to the park in the care of
their nurses-those immaculate French BONES with
their long floating ribbons-and there they seem to
be always walking sedately along the beautiful
paths, taking their pleasure according TO rule and
compass.
The Paris child is distinctive child He is
hardworked boy. From the day he leaves his
nurses arms. he is studying for his profession
The educational requirements are very high and
any boy who pretends to be anything know
at least two foreign languages weII-German and
English-and often others
The absence Of athletics from his life is indi-
Gated by the manner of his dress a style that
would cause American boy to commit parenti-
eide or suicide. both The French boy is dressed
much more richly and fussiIy than the American
boy. He wears friled and embroidered blouses
You Will see big boys OF fourteen and sixteen
with bare legs their knickerbockers stopping at
their knees and their short socks showing lust
over the tops of their shoes.
AMERICAN Gyms" IN PARIS.
''T'he French. however keenly alert in every
thing that pertains to education are alive to the
Importance OF athletics in the development of our
boys Gymnasium schools being fitted up,
with courses Of gymnastic training They are
called American schools, and it Is quite the swell
thing to attend them. In spite of the great sur
race differences, believe that in certain salient
characteristics we and the French are very much
alike They are quick to decide and to act energetic
and untiring. Don't we consider those typical
ali
patriotic than They believe in France with
an unalterable faith; they love France with an
| unchaugeable fervor"
Mrs. ROMANS lecture at Cornwall was arranged
| py Mrs Lyman Abbott, who has been one OF the
most interested promoters of the Village Improve
ment Society since its inception. Mrs Tolman took
| for her theme THE City Beautiful" illustrated
with stereopticon views taken for the Institute of
| Social Service by DR.. Tolman and herself during
thar European trip last summer. AS she described
| famous parks and pleasure grounds, however, she
| included many delightful bits of characterization
| Of the people and their lives
Il sure" she exclaimed that If the Italians
| knew what they were coming to in New-York. the
| awful conditions they would be obliged to live
under here. they would never to America If
you could the light and air and sunshine in
| which they luxuriate in Rome, you would realize
| how like inferno the New-York sums must
seem to them. There. in the very poorest
lowest quarters, houses will be massed with flow
ers; trailing vines droop from the little balconies
at each window masses Of bright bloom make the
! old stone walls gay. Little arbors and roof gar
dens will be discovered in most unexpected places,
showing the inextnguishabe love OF the people for
| flowers and brightness. And If you walk through
one Of those ancient houses into the courtyard in
| the centre, often you will find magnificent old
| trees, there in the heart of the Roman slum.
These houses are very old. centuries old. We
| went TO restaurant in the Roman Ghetto which
| is five hundred years old 1t is in poor quarter.
but it is fad OF the aristocracy in Rome to go
there, because the old characteristic Roman dishes
| can be found there.
| But these old houses OF stone, walls and
| floors. and stone does not absorb filth. like old
| wood and the rooms are large-immense beside
| those of the New-York tenement houses. There is
| no such crowding there is here. And the people
simply live in the streets in the midst Of the glo-
rious sunshine they love. Two or three times we
tried to get views OF interiors. only to find not
| soul in the house
| BEAUTIFUL PRIVATE GARDENS.
! And the streets gay with the corsages OF
| the women. Scarlet, blue. green and orange. they
add that touch OF color and picturesqueness which
never reaches the sodden gray Of slums.
The people are mserably poor of course. Yet they
| do not need TO eat do here. The climate
| does demand It, Bread and wine with occa-
sonal fruit and vegetables enough, and Ital-
ian children know how to play. Filthy, ill fed and
half clad as you see them in such streets they are
playing wildly. I never French children
| play. There great open squares in the lowest
| quarters. making light and air for all. And they
have their own theatres, where the seats cost two
| cents and the father sits smoking and the mother
nurses the baby beside him"
| Mrs Tolman voiced the establishment OF New
| Workers. when they find beautiful private gardens
| in the heart of Paris and Rome
| AT the residence of Slgnor Cavaleri. OF the
| Roman Deputies said she. ''one finds high wall
surrounding the house and screening all from sight.
I But when the street door is unlocked you find
| lush beds CT volets invite you The afternoon
| table is spread in bossoming arbor.'
| built around a central court, in which there may
| be flowers and trees. and those of the richer folk
| old home of Alexander Dumas. occupied by
| the banker Dreyfuss. The whole of one side OF
| garden. In pleasant weather the panels are slid
| back, throwing the dining room open TO the gar
Talleyrands old house looked like glimpses of great
| parks royal grounds with their stately avenues
A similar house Mrs Tolman found given over
| to a hotel boarding house for sef-supporting
| president is Nine. Seigfried. wife OF a French
Senator, took large old mansion eight years ago,
and cut its great apartments into small Individual
| bedrooms, with hot and cold water and electric
lights in each. There is courtyard in the centre.
| and beyond a garden 10 by 100 feet In this gar
/ den the girls can have afternoon tea. TO which
| they may invite their friends. Through the
winter there are fortnightly receptions and dances
| for the same purpose. hlgh class modlste estab-
| Iishment, where swell trousseauX made,
| forms branch Of the work. And relief and
the main purpose Of the work, which is to provide
| a comfortable home within their means to working
| girls.
| FIFTY THOUSAND CLUBWONIEN IN FRANCE
| There are $1,000 cubwomen in France" said Mrs.
TolIran; ''but they do not to join clubs so
| much for social reasons as American women They
seem organize always for definite object
| in this case
The lecturer could not say enough OF the street