STRAMGERS IN PARIS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1859, 5 June 1884, Page 3

STRAMGERS IN PARIS.

Theke is nothing a newjcomer to Pa|i^eo\mu<sHjls^he way in'* 1 'which ther English scem^to have settled | dowi| -upon the place. In truth, the English' make thuclt more show in * Paris than could be expected from their numbers. The last census gave, something more thaii 20,000 for them out of a' population exceeding a million and a half. Twenty thousand is a large number, and equal to the population of many a small historic town, but out of the larger number it is only 1 in 75 — a mere drop in a bucket. If one wee to judge from inscriptions on shop fronts, and in shop windows, the number of the English would seem much larger. Shop after shop displays the sign, " English spoken," and English articles figure in many shops almost as much as the offer to speak the English language. Even the grocers, who are purely French, sell English groceries to a quite remarkable extent, and some of their shops are as exclusively English in the nature of the goods exposed for sale as if the shop were in Oxford-street, and not in one of the avenues leading from the Arc dc Trioniphe. All the great English firms that advertise and push seem represented. Huntly and Palmer's biscuits seem to elbow all French biscuits from the field ; Crosse and Bhckwell's jams compete with more than success against French confitures. But what astonishes still more is that in the very land of cognac the brands of Martcll and Hennessy \avcc troib vtoilcx) seem to rule the market. The Americans in Paris aro engaged in building a magnificent church. The designs were ainotiffst Mr Street's last work, and wealthy Americans seem to be showing zeal to make it a real sucfess. Nofc less than £80,000 is to be spent on site and building. But an American doctor assures me that there are not nearly as many American families now resident in Pans as in the days before the troubles of thirteen years ago. It used to be said that "good Ameiicans when they die go to Pans, ' but that was in the days of the Empiie. Now, why should they come? A couple of bundled English workmen were brought over to Paiis to work at the American church. These " strangers in a strange land " were to be pitied. Of course, they knew no word ot French, and at first found some little difficulty in proem ing satisfactory board and lodging. Some benevolent English ladies, who are foremost in all good work, lent them a helping hand, and things went smoother. The men were specially puzzled about the Fiench money, and declined to believe the decimal system to be superior to our own. The special cause of puzzlement was a French habit of still counting small amounts by sous, a method of reckoning which, of course, cuts across the franc and centime system. — "Impressions of Palis." in the Argus.