The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1878-11-05 00:00:00

A PARISIAN BEGGAR.

In ono of his plousot haus from Paris,
writes :

A I.lv wh 'at I have known for mint years told
me the other day a et ley of a man who did not bog.
She was out for • w .Ik, alone, and ',coking into ono of
the magnificent shops of the Fusses des Fri nick
Turning to survey the next. door reposit .17 of tntnnunt•
—a jeweller's—she became aware of a tall lank man.
of about fifty years of age, with long grey hair stream-
ing Over the ooller of a patched and ragged coat
fastened up to his chin—now by a button from which
the cloth bad rot' ed showing the disc of hone, now by
• pin, now by a bit. 4 thread passel thr .ngh two holes.
She wee certain that he bad no shltt : she looked up
the frayed cuffs of hie CNA, she said, and saw his wrists
and his arms, bare, yellow as old parchment, sharp
-
b .ned, and with inky veins. He wee not shoeless
but the 1 alf-dieconnected upper leathers of hie ho to
scraped the taivement. Rix hat looked as thott.di it
had been boiled in grease. Under one arm he had a
mangy lealter port! lio. from which some papen.
peeped. This m.o. shuffling hi. feet on the stonee.
stool looking at the diemonds an,! rubies In the
jeweller's shop, not with • gaze of fierce and deeperat•
rapacity, but wilt an abstracted exoression. as though
his eyes only were there while his thoighte were miles
away. Then he would shift the mangy leathern portfolio
front one arm to the other, and then resume the survey
of the diamond, and ruble*. The lady of whom I
speak has bdt a slender stock of c .11 laid French .t
her command; but from her porte-monnaie she took •
five-franc piece, touched the ragged man on the arm,
plena 1 the piece .4 money in his hand, and said, "
• plait, Nionsieur." lie looked at her for nnly a
nnonent. with only One glance, in which • kind of
wild astonishment and 'neap tcity even to express
gratitude were mingled, and in an inetent, and as
though by in ,gic. he was -gone. Whither' Pricey..
he wis an inti.ost .r. Possibly be bail" madenn" ferthe
pa t of • dimness d poet, an indigent man of letter., a
ruined speculator, • discharged employe., who. for the
hund with time, had heen nooling his battered heels in
the Mini-terial ante-chamb r with • voluminous otyle•
meat hi gelsv iocee In that mangy es. of leather.
Sts.pecting something of the M.K. I CarefUlly para..]
the Palmate des Prince. during several •liCeeeej••••
afternoons. but I never could catch eight of the ragged
man with the grey lockn and the hat which seemed to
have been boiled in grease. I looked f..r him cub-
gequently in the Pareage. .lee Panoramas and the
Passage Jonffroy, in the Pass ,ge Chouteul and the
Passage du &Immo°, in the Paled. Royal and in the
Place de Is Brnir.e But I have never met wilt him. I dn
beginning to incline n t he b-led that he wis not
an hnpnet d, but only a man desperately poor and
hungry I am beginning to adopt the theory
that dined' he got the in .ney he sped away.
holding it in both his hands, ao to speak, not of the
Passage dee Prinoep, down the Rue de Richelieu, scenes
the Plane du Palais Royal, and through the great
courtyard of the Carrousel, across • bridge, down •
narrow street, into a narro ver inepave, up, five storeys
high. • dim staircase, and into, gayct. with a shelving
roof—a garret with nothing in it but stable with three
legs, • heoken chair, a sack full of Airing. for • be I,
and a gaunt woman with *nue pallid children And
then I f trice him crying, "Fn. entrangem ma donne
cent ems—and now. my children. we will have breed,
and eltorreterie, and wine." " Et quatre sous de tab .e.
pour ce bon teat papa* crieet the shrillest and
weakest voice annum. the pull! children, who are
clapping their hands and union 'it their mother'.
skirts. and bidding her look tite.n la belle d bonse Flake
de ma sous Yes, I fancy the. he brought the money
h one before l.ying out en much me two sou. for •
There was s nnething lii exhil.iting it there intact.
There was more in diecneeind what food should be
bou...ht - I will he b .und, some couch syrup
for la patio -e pride edre, who wee weak at the ched..
There wee more in having some "change out" when
the garret had become a h .11 of fees inc. and the
starving creatures had I artaken of food, and the pipe
had been lit, and the fume. of the eapreal were curling
upwards in a manner soothing to the view, and the
stoemaie renialoicg out of the five francs 0.1111 be
counted with • leisurely and 1 drily air. And, upon
my won!, if the raoced man was indeed an impostor,
do not rru.lot him one halfpenny out .4 his dole. Ate
you quite certain that Ch.s lest twenty thousand
pounds which you made not .4 the Baratarian Lase or
the Tierra del Fuego R tilway were gctten qui.e
h.mestly ?

The Lai of D Merin, the lot t vernor-Genimral of
Caoada, arrived at L loaderry on Monday.
William Parkioson.ll4th Regiment, haa been drowned at
Jermey while meirorate • for • emer.
There bare hese 12,000 death. fr on yellow fever to rim
S aithrwn Stet.% out ii a total of 30,000 cute.
Dr. Herbert Yr neat Pralamil arm oi St. Paul's CatbedraL
end oaa of the most learned Lilts scholars of the day, is
dead.
Her Majesty has decided to meet • eatuim at Balmoral
memory of the late Sir Thomas Bi idoiph. kiwpir of the
Privy Pin..
Ti.. Kin of Chichester ham resigned the post of Ann
&Mum C mai tasionar of the Loa suastical Commissioners.
Tbe salary is LI Sit a year.
Itr. 8 tuthent the art mr, to *aid to he suffering from
Hine.. of • "os it Agri ma" character. Hs esa to perform
at Birmingham Theatre it 'yid this mmek. hut on t
appmr. A telegram say. :—Mr. S iuttmeyn has been
examined he Sir Wan. Jenne, Led prolate, Simpson, and
both demand his sheolute r. tenement for six months.
Positive denial is given, in • telegram from Copenhagen,
an the statement made M • L salon normal:moor, that the
King's consent to the marriage of Princeee Tyra was only
given on condition of the Dab. of Csamberland abdicating
all hie righ.m in the Crewe of ganover.
&beard Person Weeteon the American pedestrian, boo