THE DWELLINGS OF THE POOR IN PARIS.


In view of the possible approach of cholera, and the sanitary
precautions that even the most neglectful of authorities are constrained
to take, it is of some interest to us, says the _Building News_, to know
how the poor are housed in the city of Paris, which contains, more than
any city in the world, the opposite poles of luxurious magnificence
and of sordid, bestial poverty. The statistics of the Parisian working
classes in the way of lodgings are not of an encouraging nature, and
reflect great discredit on the powers that be, who can be stern enough
in the case of any political question, but are blind to the spectacle
of fellow creatures living the life of beasts under their very eyes. In
1880, the Prefect of Police gave licenses to 21,219 arrivals in the city
of French origin, and to 7,344 foreigners. In the succeeding year,
the former had increased to 22,061, while the latter had somewhat
diminished, being only 5,493. There was a census taken in 1881, from
which it appeared that Paris contained 677,253 operatives and 255,604
employes and clerks, while out of every 1,000 inhabitants, 322 only
were born in the city, and 565 came from the departments or the French
colonies. The foreign element in the working classes has increased
very rapidly, numbering 119,349 in 1876, to which by 1881 there was an
addition of 44,689. To every 1,000 inhabitants, Paris now numbers 75
foreigners, though in 1876 the proportion was only 60. It may not be
amiss to state that the annual increase of the Paris population is at
the rate of 56,043 persons, and that in the five years 1876-81, the city
received 280,217 additional mouths. The total population of the capital
is 2,239,928, of whom 1,113,326 are males.

Returning to the poorer classes, we find that in 1872 they were