Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images available at The Internet Archive) Every attempt has been made to replicate the original as printed. No attempt has been made to correct or normalize the spelling of non-English words. Some typographical errors have been corrected; a list follows the text. The illustrations have been moved from mid-paragraph for ease of reading. (etext transcriber's note) PARIS AND ITS STORY _All rights reserved_ [Illustration: RUE ST. ANTOINE.] PARIS AND ITS STORY BY T. OKEY [Illustration: colophon] ILLUSTRATED BY KATHERINE KIMBALL & O. F. M. WARD 1904 LONDON: J. M. DENT & CO. NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO. "I will not here omit, that I never rail so much against France as to be out of humour with _Paris_; that city has ever had my heart from my infancy; and it has fallen out to me, as of excellent things, that the more of other fine cities I have seen since, the more the beauty of this gains upon my affections. I love it for its own sake, and more for its own native being than the addition of foreign pomp; I love it tenderly even with all its warts and blemishes. I am not a Frenchman but by this great city great in people, great in the felicity or her situation, but above all great and incomparable in variety and diversity of commodities; the glory of France and one of the most noble ornaments of the world." MONTAIGNE. "Quand Dieu eslut nonante et dix royaumes Tot le meillor torna en douce France." COURONNEMENT LOYS. PREFACE