Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-02-25
SCARCITY Of HOMES
WORRYING PARIS.
Situation There Described as
Worse Than in Any Ameri-
can City.

By Cable to The Star and New York World.
PARIS, February 1J.-Amerlcan
cities may think they are hard put
to supply homes for its inhabitants.
but the situation in the United States
is easy compared to that now known
in Paris.
SO difficult indeed is it for newcom
ers to find suitable apartments that
an entirely new avocation has been
created to help out. 1t is the trade
of ''marche ur''--one who ferretS out
vacant apartments or those about 10
become vacant Marcheurs deal
through COMMISSIONERS. who III turn
deal either through agencies or OIL
rectly with clients. The commission
for finding an available apartment
nowadays is in the neighborhoods OF
3 900 francs. and if Il person gives up
his apartment his rakeoff runs from
5000 to $4,000 francs.
Difficult to Find Apartments.
There has never been a time in the
history of Paris when apartments
were so difficult to obtain: that Is All
eycept the extremely expensive ones
which only a few can afford AdVer-
tisinG or applying through agencies
gets no results and countless numbers
of young persons are waiting to OBJ
married New apartments which al
most daily are thrown open for occu-
pancy cannot keep up with the de
mand.
Many of the new apartments now
being opened are being sold TO tenants
and one taXicab company which has
gone into housebuilding will only sell
an apartment to those willing to buy
stock in the taNicab company Itself.
It'll. To-. n n
the business of fiat building, but the
expense of construction and the meth
cd of letting the contracts practiced
by the municipality makes the cost so
high that the places are beyond the
purse of people with moderate IN
comes for whom they were originally
meant.
Homeless People in Streets.
The homeless go to extraordinary
lengths to find a fiat, and reading
the obituary notices and death lists
in the newspaper is so common that
concierGeS. as soon as a tenant in the
house dies, usually put up signs on
the front door that the fiat in ques-
ton has already been taken. They do
this to protect themselves from the
rush Of applicants they know will
follow.
Naturally lndt nat mas Deen taken
before its occupant closed his eyes.
So soon as it had become known that
death was impending the concierge
himself. spurred by the offer of a
large commission from the mar
cheur." had sent out the desired in
formation
They have even gone farther than
that. Nurses and doctors in the hos
pitfalls have been asked by their
friends for the names of patients
from desirable neighborhoods who
were III their last illness. With ad
dresses thus obtained a close watch is
kept on the death notices and action
taken almost before the vital spark
has dimmed. There have been cases
where landlords have been Emporium
ed before the patient himself knew he
was about to die.
Keep Watch on Hospital Death List.
One patient at a hospital who had
Just had narrow escape from death,
hearing through a nurse that many
inquiries had been made about him
during his serious illness. revealed
that he was seeking a home for him
self. He asked the nurse to cast about
in the hospital and find out who was
in extremiS and give him first chance
Hearing that patient in an ad-
Joining ward was near death. the
nurse asked the doctor in charge of
the case to give her advance infor-
nation at the final moment. The ply
Sician regretted exceedingly that he
would be unable to comply with the
request; he had his eye on the apart
ment for himself.
Copyright. 1920