Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-03
TWO NOTABLE EVENTS
Paris and London Municipal
Councils Exchange Visits.
SURPRISES ON BOTH SIDES
Vivid Contrast Between the Two Great
Civic Bodies.
RESULTS OF THE CALLS"
How the "City Dads" of the Two I'M
portant European Capitals
Were Entertained.
RESULTS OF THE "CALLS."


Special Correspondence Of The Star,
PARIS, February 10, 1906
When the London county council asked
the eighty members of the Paris municipal
council to come and be entertained in Lon
don 1t was the first invitation Of the kind
since ancient guilds paid sumptuous visits
to each other in the middle ages.
Now that the London county council has
returned the call of Paris we may look for
the proceeding to become a usual one. The
municipality Of Manchester has already ar
ranged to visit the municipality of Lyons,
the city fathers of those two great manu-
featuring towns having much to ask and
tell and to demand and to concede each
other mutually. Here Is q hint to our
American city councis-the first one Of
them to come officially to Paris. as cor
porate body, will receive an undreamed-o
welcome in the city of light. 1t Is in the
way of new order of things in which plain
business men are to wrest from gflded dip
lomats much of their power and prestige. :.
Nevertheless these first two calls had
their surprises on both sides Their own
members even, did not dream that there
could be such differences between the civic
bodies of London and Paris-dlnerences In
composition, differences in ends and aims
differences in working material, ana dlHef-
ences in results.
These differences did not come out so
much when the Frenchmen went to Lon
don. When the 1877 merchant princes who
compose the London county council showed
their Paris brethren about town they truly
glowed with all the rich commercial mans
complacency enjoyed when he takes coun-
try customers in tow. But the men from
Paris sat tight out of pride.
Surprised the Frenchmen.
This was socially, as you may be sur
prised to learn. The Londoners did thing
that struck the Parisans dumb with as
tonishment When one calls the country
councillors SO many merchant princes one
does not err far. They live in great and
sumptuous town houses and suburban
mansions lying In their wooded grounds.
Into these-served by their buffers foot
men, lackeys. drivers, chauneurs SOU
brettes, matrons, housekeepers and boys In
buttons-they invited, TRANQUILITY and SIM
ply their unknown Paris confreres.
Every one of the eighty members of th.
heterogeneous Paris municipal council kept
his earlier panic-stricken surprise and later
immense gratitude and admiration to him
self They had naturally expected to be
entertained in London hotels. When they
found themselves. instead. made honored
guests In sacred London homes" 1t Is
question which thing touched them most
the luxury and richness OF the prfncely in
teriors or the fattering intimacy so unex-
pectedly thrust upon them by typical mem
bers of race additionally imagined by the
French to be cold. proud, standoffish and
superclious. In any case you may be sure
that more than seventy of the eighty visit
ing Frenchmen, as the London lackeys
brushed their clothes each morning, ana
the smart soubrettes brought up their
shaving water, cogitated much more pain
fully about the style of return entertain
ment they could offer to the county coun-
| cilors in Paris than of the municipal
ownership of gas works or any other purely
civic problem.
The explanation of their trouble was that
the municipal councillors of Paris are not
merchant prices. With one exceptional
| nobleman living with his wife's family in
| their hotel particulier"-none of them In
| habit mansions even houses occupied ex-
| clusively by their own families. All live
| in flats as all but the extremely rich must
| do In Paris What kind of flats they are
| for entertaining British merchant princes
| you may gather when you learn the COM
| position of the Paris municipal council
The Paris Municipal Council.
Out OF its eighty members there are just
| two "rentieres," l. e., men living on the
| income of investments-one being the no.
| bieman already mentioned. There are four
| manufacturers, two contractors and ten
| commercial men. One of the manufactur-
| ers makes clocks in a small way, another
surgical instruments. OF the commercial
men three are Representatives OF COM
| MERGE" selling for other firms. one runs a
| perfumery store. one has a meat shop tand
| a university education), one is bookkeep-
| err and one travels for distillery. These
| make eighteen our OF eighty Paris munich
| pal councillors. The others are: Nine Jour
! nalists. Le., newspaper men: three ex-army
| officers. one tourneyman butcher, two pho
| tographers, seventeen lawyers. one arch1-
| tect five scientific men and teachers, three
| doctors, four clerks and bookkeepers and
| seventeen workngmen. True, they are
| skilled workingmen. making their So and
| even So a day. and also men of push and
| moral force. Such are Jules Henaffe, type
| epgraver; Emile Landrin, metal engraver:
| Ernest Moreau. workman blacksmith; Alex
snder Patenne, Autograph engraver, and
| Emile Poiry, workman painter.
AS municipal councillors they are elected
| to term of four years each. As body
| they must hold four sessions OF ten days
each every year-and. as q fact, they hold
| a great many more. Each councillor. also,
| Is necessarily member of one of the six
| permanent commissions. which meet fire.
| quently,, travel about Paris much and do q