Show pestilential PLAGES one of the tenement zi rouses of purr the gay gair yew news PARIS oct OCL 20 1882 PA paris ris still contains many dirty and pestilential courts and streets which h are in trilling striking contrast with its wide and handsome boulevards and avenues one of the filthiest of them thern is called the cite jeanne darc and lies in the arron dis behind the ere hosi hospital pital this cito cite jeanne darc 13 n reality avast a vast tenement bo house use seven semi stories high and seen from a distance is not unlike one of the big barracks that are eo to numerous in the french capital Ona on a closer approach however one discovers that it is constructed of laths baths and plaster it was erected in 1871 far for manufacturing purposes but it has bm since became a tenement house of the lowest order something like a modem modern cour des ies miracles the building is traversed by three A passages nas sages opening on the street between tween which it stands and which give ive access Recess to its interior originally ay these passages were lined with hops but they never found any tiny tenants into these passages open the stairway stairways fourteen in number which give access to the upper part of the building and in the pas passages shags are t the he quarters of the four concierges concierge a who have charge of the property and who watch over the interests of of its proprietor the building will it accommodate about eight hundred tenants tc nants who pay by the month week according as they have the confidence of the concierges the rents are not high in the cite jeanne darc dare the rooms roams are from four to six francs a mont hand for foi CO 60 franca francs avear a tenant cun can procure r a w whole e apartment consisting of two rooms ins and a kitchen many any of the rooms have no d doors rs a circumstance which the concierge conc concierge ierg e explained to tome me as ar aria ing from the fact that the tenants have a custom of using the doom doors fur for firewood fire wood in winter and the landlord has bas given up lie replacing those hae which disappeared d appt ared in I a this manner A peculiarity of ot the cite jean jeanne no darc is that a certain iminter of or vagabonds have adap adopted ed the plan ian of going there every n night ht to sleep beep in iri the vacant rooms w without paying for the accommodation a proceeding which the concierges concie ea are powerless zere to prevent for there are no doors or gates to the entrances of the building and the p passages aia are never lighted the result is that bat t duriez the winter nights the vacant rooms are often crowded with these chance tenants known in the slang ol 01 of r the neighborhood as a rows and fights are of of fre frequent occurrence to which the concierges ell take good care to turn a deavear deaf de car aline of conduct that the regular tenants carefully follow I iliae the interior of the building presents a disgusting appearance the walla walls arc are so damp as its to be fairly fl dripping drip piu with moisture many of afi tho the occue occupied led rooms are used by the tenants lor the combined purposes of work sleeping living ant and the i kitchen the stairways are without rails rail sand nd filled with all sorts of filth the tho windows are mostly with I out cutglass glum glass and stuffed with rags and in in every every part of the house the air air is ia aden with fetid exhalations exha lations al at d that strange ianell which seems to b t inso inseparable parable from abject poverty in III none of the rooms are there any open fireplaces if any means of heating pr cooking exists it is a cracked iron stove so ab abject act is the poverty which seeks shelter elter in the cite jeanne darc that there ia is not a single tenant who has hai even a dog to share his a misery nor whose room is enlivened b by Y the song of a bird or the perfume of a pot of flowers dogs dor birds and flowers are luxuries beyond the attainments of these outcasts casts of tho the life of the capital of modern civilization the reg regular lular tenants of this th u place are not however ow members of the criminal cau classes of the community they are for tho the most part laborers menders of broken Ch inathe in maimed aimed the halt and the blind who live by begging on she treats the women for the most part stay at home where they take lu III sewing jur fur which they are miserably paid the children who are very numerous and always in rags arc ao turned out in the street every mornin morning to beg under the predence pretence pre tence of selling aling lead pencils or h hair air pins a I cannot help wondering bow the Auth authorities orides odthe of the city are going to enforce the newlan new jaw for rompu compulsory tory education BO so as t secure the attendance of fall all the little ones at the schools buti what I wonder won dermore more over is how such a leprous spot aa as the cite jeanno jeanne darc dare is allowed to exist at all |