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 PARIS 93 prices for other articles in the desolate mar- kets; but the following "quotations" in francs for the third week in January, rather moderate than exaggerated, are historically accurate : a chicken, 40 francs; a rabbit, 50 ; a good onion, , very fine, 1 ; a turkey, 150 ; a goose, 140 ; a cat, 12 to 18; dog, 3 a pound. Rat, cat, and dog butcher shops were not uncommon. Ele- phant, while it lasted, was 40 francs a pound for choice pieces. Wood, green and very scarce, cost from 7 to 10 francs the 100 Ibs. ; charcoal was nearly and stone coal quite unobtainable. All that kept these prices from rising still higher was, that they were already out of reach of the empty or thin purses of the larger part of the two millions. The number of deaths during the 19 weeks of investment and the four weeks next following, i. e., from Sept. 18, 1870, to Feb. 24, 1871, was 64,154. The number of deaths in the corresponding period of the pre- ceding twelvemonth was 21,978. The high- est weekly bill of mortality was 4,761. A par- tial communication with the outer world was maintained by balloons and carrier pigeons. Of 62 postal balloons sent out, bearing in all 159 persons and 18,000 Ibs. of written and printed matter, only seven fell into the hands of the enemy, two are supposed to have been borne out by wind currents and lost at sea, and one landed in Norway. The return post by carrier pigeons, consisting of brief despatches micro- scopically reduced by photographic process, was scanty and precarious. Of 85 post-office mes- sengers attempting to pass the lines, only eight succeeded in getting out, and only three in en- tering. There was one fortnight in which no news of any description reached the city from without. (See AEKONAUTICS.) Among the pub- lic buildings burned during the commune insur- rection were the prefecture of police, grenier cTabondance, ministry of finances, hotel de ville, the palaces of the council of state, Tuileries, and legion of honor, and the Palais Royal. The last two have been restored. The column of the place Vendome, which was thrown down just before the week of blood, has been re- constructed. Several public libraries, of which the most important were those of the Louvre and of the h6tel de ville, and many valuable works of art, were also burned. The insurrec- tion of March, following on the revolution of September, confirmed a majority of the na- tional assembly in their fear of Paris, which, after being the seat of every successively sitting and unseated government, from that of Louis XVI. to that of Louis Napoleon, is now (by the constitutional enactments of February, 1875) legally decapitalized in favor of Versailles, -wlu-iv the national assembly has held its ses- sions and the chief of state has had his ordi- nary official residence since the peace with the Germans. The ministries, however, remain in ind the administrative machinery which controls the affairs of the country is still worked from its old centre. In 1873 the municipal authorities resolved to undertake several great schemes of improvement and public works, for which 7,000,000 francs were appropriated in June of that year, and large sums have since been added. These designs involve the length- ening of many of the present important ave- nues and streets, and the laying out of a large number of new ones; the rebuilding of the Tuileries, hotel de ville, and other edifices ; im- provements in the fortifications, &c. Most of these works are now in progress. The prin- cipal recent event in connection with the great edifices of Paris has been the opening of the grand opera house, which took place with much ceremony and success on Jan. 5, 1875. PARIS, also called ALEXANDER, a Trojan prince, second son of Priam and Hecuba. His mother having dreamed during pregnancy that she brought forth a flaming torch which set fire to the city, he was immediately after his birth exposed on Mt. Ida, where a she bear suckled him for five days. A shepherd then took him home and brought him up as his own child. He grew up handsome, accom- plished, and valiant, and when a dispute arose between Juno, Minerva, and Venus for the golden apple inscribed " To the fairest," which Eris (Strife) threw among the assembled divin- ities, Paris was selected by Jupiter to decide the quarrel. He awarded the prize of beauty to Venus, who promised him in return the fairest of women for his wife. Afterward the secret of his parentage was declared by his sister, the prophetess Cassandra, and he was received by Priam as his son. Hearing of the surpassing charms of Helen, the wife of Mene- laus, king of Sparta, he sailed to Greece with a fleet, and, aided by Venus, carried her off to Troy. This led to the siege of Troy, in which Paris showed little of his accustomed courage, but he twice met Menelausin conflict; once he fled, and again he was defeated, but was borne away by Venus. According to one account he killed Achilles. Being wounded by Phyloctetes with an arrow of Hercules, Paris repaired to his long deserted wife CEnone, whom he had married before the abduction of Helen ; but she refused to heal him, and he returned to Troy. (Enone repented and fol- lowed him with remedies, but being too late killed herself in despair. PARIS, Alexis Panlin, a French author, born at Avenay, department of Marne, March 25, 1800. He early went to Paris, translated Byron's works and Moore's memoirs (15 vols., 1827- '32), was employed in the royal library, of which he became one of the directors, and was elected to the academy of inscriptions and belles-lettres. A chair of mediaeval philology and literature was established for him at the college de France in 1853. He has edited Les grandes chroniques de St. Denis (6 vols., 1836- '8), Historiettes de Tallemant des Eeaux (in conjunction with Monmerqu6, 9 vols., 3d ed., 1860), Les romans de la table ronde (1868 et seq.), and other works. He is a member of the commission to continue the Histoire litte-