The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-06-05
HOW PARIS POOR LIVE.
Many Housed in Wretched, cramped
 and Crowded Dens.

c. T. B. in the New York Tribune.
 Paris. May 25.-The Paris municipal elections are over. The nationalists, the Jew baiters, the government opposition, have been beaten at the polls, and in- stead of forming a comfortable working majority, as hitherto are now reduced to a minority in the city council of Paris. It Is to be noted that nearly all the suc- cessful candidates held out elaborate propositions to their electors for the re- form of abuses under which the working classes have long been suffering. and the new council at the Hotel de Vile is con- fronted with programmes urgently needed Improvements, among which the most pressing is the housing of the poor. That Parisians have taken up the matter in earnest is clearly shown by the result of the municipal elections. and M. Paul Brousse, municipal councillor for the dis trict of Clichy which comprises the pow erty stricken quarters of the rag-pickers, or "chiffonniers," say that it Is a curious fact that Paris, which Is the most dem ocratic city in the world Is far behind New York, London and Berlin in regard to workingmens lodgings
 The importance of providing hygenic homes for the poor at prices we'll within reach of the humbles purse has long been acknowledged by successive municipal governments of Paris. and much has been written on the subject. Jules Simon enunciated a profound truth when he said in his famous speech before the chamber: Without a dwelling there can be no family; without family, no morali- ty; without morality, no elevation of hu- manity and therefore. no fatherland" The formula was greeted with loud ap- plause, but years have passed since he uttered it. and the most luxurious city in the world still offers in the dwellings of its poorer class a spectacle worthy of Dantes Inferno.
 Of the 100000 inhabitants of the me- tropols recent statistics show 360.0O0 wretched creatures housed in indescrib- able dens, under conditions which must inevitably tend to foster disease and vice. Another million, that is. one third of the entire population of the city, occupy what are described as administrative eu- phemism insufficient lodgings" These lodgings are. in reality, obscure corners of the Notifications which encircle Paris where groups of destitute and filthy hu- manity crouch at night in unventilated and unlighted sheds, aptly called in their slang ''canichottes" or miserable ken nels.
 An analysis of these figures shows to- GOO small lodgings consisting of single room, in which about 1s0,000 persons are housed, giving an average of three III each room. There are also 25'O0O two room lodgings. accommodating l4oou m dividuals, and 5,400 little "boxes wi,h three divisions,' as they are called Tn the suburbs, inhabited by over 4o,0oO human beings. A further 1S,o00 occupy four-room lodgings, and these are perhaps tnc most to be pitied of all. for the houses thus cut up into inadequate dwellings are squaho beyond description. The commonest ne- cessities of life are absent Water mas 10 be fetched from tap in the hltny. evii smelling court, and the majority ot the rooms have no outside ventilation what ever