Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-06-17
Easier to Economic in Mod
ish Gowns Than in Spare
Menu, They All Agree
High Cost of Plain Living
Makes a Franc Perform
Less Service Than of Yore
PARIS. MAY 81.

PARIS, May al
/ There are certain Martha-like qualities
in the Frenchwoman's callbre that one can
not helm admire She works so hard. She
throws herself so whole-heartedly into the
numerous small economies which this war
has necessitated She has such keen eye
to business. All thoughts of pleasure are
put out of her mind and she only turns that
mind to the all-absorbing question OF
carrying on"
Persistently cheerful, too, is little Madame
Like the proverbial good woman who Is the
delight OF her household she rises early
and works late. One sees her trotting do"h
the street to the morning market large
basket on arm and tight grip on her
purse strings.
Mon Dieu," she cries, turning her eyes
up tragcally, 'but the prices this morning
are of proportion indeed ruinous! )"
oPEN-AIR MARKETING.
The open-alr stalls are gay-colored. lively
and picturesque. Carts stacked with all
sorts of country produce rumble into the
CITY during the night, and at dawn unload
nj the stalls Behind them stand rosy
checked peasant women, golden butter ana
cheeses piled up, and the air made sweet
with the perfume of cottage-garden MOVERS
Tender Spring chicken at Sl.7b each dan
gle invitingly before the eyes OF the passers-
by, and the fat old saleswomen call their
wares with lusty voices
"He is young and beautiful, this charm
ing chicken, and of stoutness truly sur
prising," you will hear them droning.
Then comes the strident tones OF some
little housekeeper, who, though douDtless
her husbands blessing, Is yet the pane OF
the market woman; Mon Dieu but you
deceive yourself about this chicken, you
who say that he is young He Is more
aged than my petit bebe that waits Tor
me at home Daily am deceived by the
years of the so-anclent ROSTERS which l
purchase trustngly from you They are
of a toughness extraordinary
The market woman smiles. Does she not
know her customers through and through
and is she not as adamant when II comes
10 driving a bargain7 Her smile Is like
the Mona Lisa's calm and inscrutable.
have often chatted with these women and
been greatly amused by their tales or OBJ
durate purchasers.
,,Eh bien, we know them ALL" they say,
''from the rich lady who dons the SO shabby
bonnet and comes to market herself instead
of sending her cook, so that she may buy
more cheaply, to the little 'bonne tout
faire, who must render account for every
sou spent They are all hard-but. mon
Dieu, we have to be harder still!'
EVERYTHING UP"
Meat, fish and poultry are all very dear in
Paris Just now. The mistress of the house
compares her books with those of two years
ago and wrings her hands. The cook com
pares her perquisites with those before the
war and groans over the decrease. The
butcher vows he will have to close his
shop unless the cattle dealer Is made TO sell
his cattle at reasonable prices, and the
baker Is imperyious TO complaints about
bread that will not keep for "a hours.
Asparagus Is ~ cents pound, Straw
berries cost 80 cents for a small basket.
butter is rs cents a pound. Fish Is so
extensive that the economical Parislenne
has discarded 1t entirely from her menu
Flower markets have so few customers
that most OF them have ceased 10 exist,
see many OF the school children gathering
wild flowers In the meadows around Paris.
and these they take into the city to the