There were a good many foreigners, mostly English and Americans and a few Frenchmen, obviously from the provinces, with only a sprinkling of real Parisians.
Jefferson's acquaintance with the French language was none too profound, and he had to guess at half the words in the article, but he understood enough to follow the writer's arguments.

Yes, it was quite true, he thought, the American idea of life was all wrong.

What was the sense of slaving all one's life, piling up a mass of money one cannot possibly spend, when there is only one life to live?
How much saner the man who is content with enough and enjoys life while he is able to.

These Frenchmen, and indeed all the Continental nations, had solved the problem.

The gaiety of their cities, and this exuberant joy of life they communicated to all about them, were sufficient proofs of it.
Fascinated by the gay scene around him Jefferson laid the newspaper aside.