Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 August 1878 — American Life in Paris. [ARTICLE]

American Life in Paris.

What is called the American colony in Paris consists of about 2,000 families, a large proportion of them from the South. A great many of them might be regarded almost as permanent residents. A goodly number of them are persons of limited means, who find that they can live so much cheaper here than in an American city that they have concluded to stay. One of these remarked to me to-day: “lean live better in Paris on $3,000 per annum than I could in New York on $6,000.” He then proceeded to detail the difference. In New York he would be regarded as nobody unless he owned or rented a brown-stone front at about $4,000 to $6,000 per annum. Here he could obtain a suite of elegant apartments, in a fashionable neighborhood, at from SBOO to SI,OOO per annum, and make as good an appearance as any one else in his sphere. In New York he would have to pay $lO per week for a coachman, whilst here he could engage a landau, with a fine pair of horses, and a liveried footman thrown in to be always at the reasonable call of his family, for sl2 to sls per week. Then he said he could clothe himself and family at one-half the expense, and much better than he could in New York; that servant hire was not half the cost, and service much better; that there was always amusement here at moderate cost, and a cab at call to take him and family home at all hours of the night for two francs, while in New York such a luxury would cost $5. Then there were little or none of the troubles of housekeeping in Paris, as a family can be fed cheaper than it can feed itself, if satisfied with French living. —Paris Cor. Baltimore American.