PARIS MARKETS. 393 



is often sold in Paris at the groceries. I refer to this fact for an 

 opportunity of making a remark, which, hereafter, if it has not 

 now, will have some importance in the United States ; and that 

 is, that where hay, for example, is bought in such small quanti 

 ties, it is likely to be expended with an extreme economy. No 

 observing American comes from the United States to Europe, 

 without soon becoming convinced, that economy of living is no 

 where so little understood as in his own country ; and that for 

 nothing are the Americans more distinguished, than for a reckless 

 waste of the means of subsistence. The refuse of many a family 

 in the United States, even in moderate circumstances, would 

 often support in comfort a poor family in Europe. When persons 

 buy tea by the ounce, and wood by the pound, and hay by the 

 handful, it is quite obvious that these articles will be expended 

 with far more frugality, than where the store is less limited and 

 seems inexhaustible. While meanness is contemptible, a rigid 

 economy, avoiding all waste, is a great virtue. The inhabitants 

 of the United States enjoy an abundance for which they cannot 

 be too grateful ; but which is very little understood in Europe, 

 where, with a large portion of the population, including many 

 in the middle condition of life, it is a constant struggle to live, 

 and to bring even their necessary expenditure within their 

 restricted means ; and where the constant inquiry is, not what 

 they want, but what can they afford, not what they will have, 

 but what can they do without. 



5. HORSE MARKET. Paris, besides its grain and cattle mar 

 kets, has likewise, weekly, its horse market, for the sale of 

 horses, mules, and asses, where immense numbers of every 

 description are brought, and change hands ; and where the 

 morality is probably upon a par with that of the trade in horses 

 in other parts of the world, of the green-spectacle character, as 

 exemplified in the Vicar of Wakefield. 



6. FLOWER MARKETS. The flower markets are another 

 extraordinary feature in Paris. These are held at all seasons of 

 the year, in three different parts of the city, twice a week, and 

 in the most favorable season comprise a collection of flowers and 

 plants as beautiful as the climate admits of. It is stated on good 

 authority, that occasionally there are exposed in a day, in Paris, 



