THE AMERICANIZATION OF PARIS BY ALEXANDER HUME FORD HERE is a permanent American colony in Paris as large as the metropolis of many a southern or western state. In the summer time and until late fall, the heart of Paris, the very center of France, is more American than French, and the predominant language spoken within sound of the Grand Opera House is English with a nasal twang, while within the great marble edifice itself, an American prima donna holds forth at the head of the French company of singers. In fact, the. American invasion is apparent in almost every part of the gay French capital. Jane Noria, wife of the American Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce in Paris, has, for some time, been the favorite Marguerite of the Grand Opera directors and the public. At the Moulin Rouge, the most famous resort in Paris, "The Belle of New York" has had a long run, and the American cake walk-or "cak-walk" as it is called in France, has been the rage for several seasons. The penny-in-the-slot phonograph parlor has revolutionized Paris-and thereby hangs a tale. When France awarded the Volta prize of $10,000 to Alex. Graham Bell for his invention of the telephone, that astute American spent every cent of this sum perfecting the phonograph, and the company organized to exploit its marvels secured an entire building on the Boulevard des Italiens; here the Parisiennes were invited at a penny apiece to listen to their famous singers, speakers and actors. The penny-in-the-slot idea took like wild fire and the American phonograph parlor gathered in thousands of francs per day. An American company was trying to make its way supplying Paris with elec piece. from American quarries, and the newer hotels are advertised as "American" in every respect. American plumbing is the only kind known to the Parisiennes, and our Harlem flats are being imitated most accurately. Radiators of American make heat the great apartment buildings. The government encourages the adoption of Yankee ideas in the reconstruction of Paris, and quite recently decorated the office baibling erected on the Boulevard des Italiens by a New York life insurance company, and relieved it of taxes because it was the finest business building in Europe. Not only that, but the Paris representative was decorated with the Cross of the Legion of Honor, a decoration given almost at the same time to James Hazen Hyde, not because of the Cambon dinner, but because the insurance company he represented had bought and owned more French government bonds than any one eorporation in the world. The three great American insurance companies own an iming the Opera House. Already the Amermense area of property surroundicanization of the Paris office building has begun. AN AMERICAN PHONOGRAPH COMPANY'S HEADQUARTERS ON Americans are in charge of the Westinghouse plant in the French capital. These two Yankee concerns supply the light and electric power of Paris; moreover, the trol.ey system is American, and the electrie locomotives that haul passenger trains into the greatest depot in Paris do so over twelve mies of Yankee-built electric railway, while the electric cars that take tourists over Paris. to and from the tomb of Napon, are American and operate over rails and equipment brought from Yarkeland. Even the magnificent automobile coupé of the American Consul, bought at a French factory, turned out to be more than half American, every part of its motive machinery having been imported direct. There are two American automobile factories in Paris, and in all electrical work the French depend upon American genius for the initiative. In the building of their houses the Parisiennes are beginning to adopt American ideas. The Countess de Castellane imported her marble palace. piece by The newer office furniture of the Parisiennes is, of course, machine-made AmeriAmerican insurance building on the ean, but in the previously mentioned grand boulevards, there is a commingling of French and American ideas which is rapidly becoming typical of the entire capital. French thrift and Yankee enterprise greet you as you enter the gorvators, lifted by electric power from an geous entresol. There are the Yankee eleAmerican plant, but there is no starter, nor is there any one in the elevators to operate them. In surprise you enter and sit down, at once the doors close and automatically the electric power is turned on. You press a button before you, indicating the floor at which you wish to alight, and up you go. Automatically the elevator is stopped at the right exit, the doors slide open and you walk out; when the doors close behind you of themselves THE PARIS BUILDING OF A NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY It has been decorated by the government and relieved of taxes because it was the most perfect office building in Europe New York quite so tasteful and at the same time resplendent with solid polished mahogany and priceless Turkish rugs as this bit of commercial America in luxurious Paris. It seems almost a bit of impertinence that American newspaper buildings and offices should dominate the chief sites of Paris, relegating the great French journals to the background and rear streets, where they are printed on American. presses and with type set up by Yankee The famous Avenue de l'Opera is almost as American as it is French. Yankee dental parlors occupy whole establishments and their "touters" are as numerous as on Sixth Avenue, New York, or State Street, Chicago. Tiffany has his great display on this avenue; the American Consulate occupies a place in one of the numerous American life insurance buildings on the main French thoroughfare, where whole stores are used for the sale of American shoes, and almost a block THE OFFICE OF A NEW YORK INSURANCE COMPANY IN PARIS The American head of this office received the cross of the Legion of Honor in recognition of his services to France as a reformer of business methods and instigator of the Saturday half-holiday for French workmen ographers is just beginning to gain ground, as is the Saturday half-holiday, which has been inaugurated by the American concerns in Paris and is rapidly spreading to the French houses. The American shoe, however, has made a complete conquest of Paris, and several factories for turning out Yankee shoe-making machinery have been built in the suburbs. As it is, every machine-made shoe in never take to the American folding bed, but certain it is that he is quite content to be awakened by a New England alarm. clock, and in the Americanized flats he may now take a morning hot or cold bath in a Yankee tile bathtub rather than buy his hot water from the man who sells it on the street and brings it upstairstepid-by the pailful. tepid-by the pailful. If the signs on every dead wall of Paris are to be be THE OPERA HOUSE AND THE PARIS OFFICE OF A CHICAGO DAILY NEWSPAPER lieved, the Frenchman is becoming acquainted with our breakfast foods, and certain it is that he reads a newspaper printed on an American press, rides on a Yankee trolley car to his office furnished with American furniture, dictates his work to a Yankee typewriting machine and signs his letters with a Connecticut fountain pen. At lunch it is doubtful if he is not served some of the chilled or canned beef we now send to France in large quantities, and it is pretty certain that his wine is blended with the fiery claret of California. The only mixed drinks available are at the numerous "American" bars, and for the teetotaler there is the American ice cream soda which has at last invaded the candy stores of Paris. In fact, one becomes Americanized in Paris without realizing the insidious fact. Paris shop windows, once the wonder of the universe, decorated semi-annually by high-salaried past masters in the art, are now restocked weekly by indifferent clerks, that the American visitors may see the great variety carried in stock. The one beautiful attractive window on the Avenue de l'Opera is that of an American sewing machine company. Behind its immense plate glass windows are gems of tapestry worked on the American sewing machine. In window lighting and deco rating the American firms in Paris now set the pace for the Frenchmen. Not so long ago London was the headquarters for all things American. Nowadays, however, various German and Mediterranean lines carry the tourist direct to the mainland and the little island off the coast of France is forgotten by the sightseer, who has but a limited amount of time at his disposal and is anxious to reach Paris, and loath to leave it. Moreover, the business houses have discovered that Paris is one day nearer all Europe by mail than is London. The American express companies began the exodus by changing their head offices from London to Paris, and the life insurance companies finding they could secure one franc of business in France for every dollar of American business, followed suit, and then to encourage the movement, the French passed a law that no patent would hold good in France for more than two years unless a factory for the manufacture of the article patented was erected on French soil. No such law exists in England, so there was a rush of American manufacturers to Paris. To stand within the letter of the law, factories for repairing sewing machines, typewriters, typesetting machines, electrical devices and every kind of Yankee-made tool, began to spring up in and about the |