Chap. VIII.] SQUARES, PLACES, ETC. 117 



once the representation of a question of health, a question of 

 morality, and perhaps even of national self-respect. We certainly 

 could boast of the Place Eoyale, which, however, much more 

 closely resembled an unsuccessful attempt than the first step in 

 a happy direction. At present, however, Paris need envy London 

 for nothing. The Squares of St. Jacques, La Boucherie, St. 

 Clothilde, the Temple, Louvois, des Arts et Metiers, and the Pare 

 Monceau are worthy of our city. These masses of vegetation 

 widely distributed amongst the most populous neighbourhoods, 

 cleanse the air by absorbing the miasmatic exhalations, thus 

 enabling everyone to breathe freely. 



" Before the establishment of the Paris squares, the existence 

 of a great number of children was passed in confined and 

 unwholesome districts. The fresh air for them was only the 

 threshold of a vitiated atmosphere. They were obliged to walk 

 far before they could find a patch of verdure or a bit of country. 

 The children went out but little ; it was thought useless to 

 dress them or make them clean, because they never went out 

 of their own neighbourhood, and in this way their early 

 years passed away. How many times have we not noticed with 

 painful emotion these little, ragged, pale creatures, who never 

 apparently thought of the filth in which they were obliged to 

 live ! 



■' Now, thank God, this dark picture has become bright. Within 

 a couple of steps of the poor man's house there are trees, flowers, 

 and gravel-walks where his children can run about, and seats 

 where their parents may sit together and talk. Family ties are 

 strengthened, and the workman soon understands that there are 

 calmer and more moral pleasures than those in the wine-shop. 

 Again, the different degrees of the members of the working-classes 

 meet together on common ground, and parental feeling is developed 

 by emulation. A child must not be allowed to be ragged for fear 

 of its being remarked, and we will answer for it that a woman in 

 whose breast maternal instinct has not been entirely smothered 

 will never take her child into a public place without first paying 

 attention to the cleanliness which is the ornament of the poor. 

 Some time ago, while walking through the Square du Temple, 

 where hundreds of children were running and jumping and filling 

 their lungs with the country air that has thus been brought into 



