Paris.

Evening Star, Issue 8399, 27 December 1890, Page 2

Paris.

By those who have not lived in it, Paris is popularly Rupposed to be a city of palaces and pleasure. A greater delusion it would be impossible to imagine. Of pleasuro thorp 18, indeed, plenty, but to the majority of itsinhabitants life is aa hard here as anywhortelse, and thJ palaces, Haussmauiaed or otherwise, are ior the most part crowded tenements, incompletely ventilated, and too often badly drained. It is difficult to get accurate statistics regarding houses and their value, but from inquiries I have made I find that the number of private hotels and residential premioeß of a rental of over LI,OOO a year is surprisingly small, considering the reputation for -wealth that Paris baa acquired. There are in this capital altogether 81,291 houses, divided into 1,141,955 tenancies, of which 28,159 are workshops and manufactories, 303,328 are shops and places of business, and 810,468 are appartements or

*« hotela" for haman habitetbion. Half of these appartemenls, or flats, do not bring in a higher rental than Ll2 per annum. That is the average sum which a workman will have to pay for two diminutive rooms on the fifth, sixth, or seventh storey of a crowded tenement, where the only advantage altitude gives is the chance of breathing some of the fresh air of heaven. Of flats ranging in rent from L4O to L6O a year, there are 32,974 ; from L6O to Ll6O rental, 39,775 ; from Ll6O to L4OO rental, 12,222 ; from L4OO to LBOO a year, 1,980; while of inhabited houses, with a rental of over LBOO, there are only 470. Shop rents in the busy parts of the town are enormously dear, causing merchants to charge proportionately for their goods. It will thus be seen that, with perhaps the exception of the districts of the Faubourg Saint Germain, the Champs Elysees, and the Pare Monceau, Paris is essentially a o'/ty of middle-class people and workmen, who, in the matter of rent, taxes, and octroi, have to pay pretty stiffly for the privilege of living in it. Large blocks of buildings belong, not to private individuals, but to insurance companies and banking establishments, who charge what they like, and do not care much whether a shop or an appartement stands on their books empty for a time becauße an applicant refuses to pay an excessive rent, feeling sure that soon they will be able to extort their own terms. Tenants and shopkeepers are gradually being plaoed at the mercy of these incorporated companies, for the means of communication between the centre of Paris and the suburbs is so bad that the population concentrates itself in the districts where business is carried on, or as near to them as possible, a fact of which the owners of property take every advantage. It is estimated that the gross rental of Paris reaches the respectable total of L 30,000,000 a year, while the value of the whole of the property in the Frenoh capital, dwelling-houses, shops, and manufactories, is put down at L 440,000,000. At the present moment there are nearly 49,000 places of business or flats vaoant, or about 2,000 more than at this time two years ago. Speaking generally, it will be found that, taking into consideration the convenience given in exchange for the rental, the average London resident, with his compact house and little bit of garden, bas much more enjoyment for his money than the Frenchman in a similar social position in France, packed up in a small flat on the fifth floor of a tenement for which he pays from LSO to LIOO u year. Much of the Parisians' love of caftx and open-air cafd-coTicerts is due to the; cribbed and confined apartments in which they have to make their homeß.—' Daily/ Telegraph's ' correspondent, September 18