Year: 1874

[Paris Correspondent to Chicago Tribune.]


1t is certain that, if poverty is to be
measured by the length Of ones purse,
there are untold numbers Of the very
poor in Paris. II, on the contrary, the
estate of man is to be judged by the
style in which he lives, the very poor
in this vast city are fewer than many
suppose. A very rich man must have
his hotel. Rothschild, for instance,
lives like king, and man who, in
New York, would be considered a
merchant prince, lives on a grand
scale in apartments, or
what is known in America as fiat,
these often having from thirty to forty
rooms, and running down from this to
two or three. There is no such thing
as measuring the dimensions Of
Frenchman's house. He may live at
the top Of magnificent white-marble
palace in six rooms at rent Of 800 or
5000. And yet, when you have climb
ed up there, have sounded the Land
have been admitted into the hall, (which
with it's highly-polished mirror, will
deceive you at once in regard to the
size Of the little box, you are convinced
that he revels in luxury. Opposite the
hall-glass, open the folding-doors into
the parlor, which is long room with
still more mirrors to


AID IN INCREASING THE PERSPECTIVE.


1t is the duty of the servant to throw
these doors open before answering the
bell, so as to give stranger the impress.
sion that the room is constantly occu-
pied, while, in fact, nobody is allowed
there except to receive visitors. Off
of this room are yet other folding
doors, two of them leading into the
dining room, which is always fitted up
in exquisite taste, and, with studied
carelessness, left visible to the caller.
Try the doors at the other side of the
room; it is hard to open them. Proba-
bly, locked? Most effectually locked !
They never move upon their hinges.
Still they are not quite as useless ''as a
painted ship upon painted ocean,, for
they serve a double purpose; they dis.
pense with the necessity Of pictures to
fill up the. bare walls-for who would
hang pictures on doors ?-and they
give one the impression that vast apart
ments stretch beyond.


Madame will receive you in the most
charmingly-languid manner, if your
call chance to occur in the day time.
She has just arisen; won't you have
coffee with her? This, if she means by
generous courtesy to make a useful
friend of you. Now you find your
way into what she calls her private
apartment, which, like the other
rooms, opens into the parlor. 1t is
really quite a gem in its way. You
wish you were French, or, at least. that
you might understand the art of living
as French people do. But little closer
acquaintance and q moderate increase
in your experience will teach you that
these people work and strive only for
the sake of the appearance they make.
They comprehend what the elegances
of life consist of, and they will live with
out the commonest necessities in Or
der to ~
DECEIVE YOU AS TO THEIR REAL CONDITION.


A family Of seven persons will &C.
tually live in two small rooms, and
make their beds up late at night on the
floor of the apartment in which, but a
few moments before, they were chatting
with you upon the impossibility Of
economizing in Paris since the " r.
Even they, in their modest style of liv-
ing, find that it takes fortune now to
spend year in Paris. You are
shocked to hear them suggest that
theirs Is a s;mnla mode of life. uon