Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1843-06-23
THE LAUNDRESS OF PARIS.
A TRUE TALE.

Accessible as Paris has been for years
past 10 our countrymen, and freely as they
have awaited themselves of the facilities for
visiting it, some of our readers may not be
aware Of tho minuler feature of Partisan
humble life; among others, of the difference
OF our own plan for the publication Of linen
and that pursued by our continental neigh
bors. In the first place-,he joint conse-
quence, probably, of fine climate and the
scarcity of fnel-,he operation, instead Of
being carried on, as with us, under cover
with the aid of no. water, takes place in the
open air, and generally in boats or RATS
moored to a river side, where the running
stream is made to perform the office of soap,
and the rubbing prac,ised by our laundress
is replaced by beating with a wooden mallet
"A process not very conducive, in the opin-
ion of our travellers, 10 the durability Of the
articles.
Few Of our countrymen who have visited
Paris can have failed to observe as one of
its mos, singular objects, these amphbious
communities of washer women, ply ing from
morning till night their laborious vocation,
perpetually ascending and descending under
heavy loads of wet linen, the steep stairs
leading to their floating Misunderstanding
in winter the seventies of Notwithstanding
in summer the unwholesome exhalations of
the rivef-and exposed at all seasons to
perpetual damp, which saturates their gar
mcnts, and prcmaiurely st(iens their limbs
yet preserving throughout national cheer
iulness finding vent in many song sharing
with each other in spirit Of cordial fellow
ship, the goods and ills of life; in short,
forming in the mids, of Paris, a peculiar
colony, whose habits, morals and above all,
strong spirit of community, require only to
be known to inspire good will, nay, to COM
mand respect.
Earning at an average little more than
two francs per day-out Of which they are
expected to provide their own mallet, and
tho large leathern apron which their drip-
ping vocation renders necessary--they
nevertheless agree to a deduction of five
sous each from their daily wages, towards
fund for unforeseen calamities, and, above
all, to prevent any of their number, who
may be laid aside by illness, from being
reduced to seek other relief. The greater
part Of them are married women with fam-
lies.
1t is also their custom to elect every year,
at the season Of Mid Lent,a head whom they
style their queen, to preside over little fes-
tivities, and decide disputed points among
the community, the slightes, misconduct or
want Of strict integrity in any Of whose
members is deemed sufficient reason for her
expulsion. This fundamental law of the
aquatic corporation is the moro necessary
and strictly enforced, that the linen intrust-
ed to each (oftcn of great value) being, as it
were, in keeping of all, the least individual
dishonesty would bring suspicion on the
whole sisterhood.
Few things can be more curious and inter-
'es.ing to the observer of popular manners
than the moral aspect of perhaps hundred
women, carrying on, elbow to elbow, their
wholesale vocation, without theft or even a
blunder being ever so much as heard OF
among them; their immense bark, some
times equal IN length to the hull of man Of
war, becoming thus huge depot, rendered
secure by mutual confidence, and guaranteed
by the strictest honor.
One of these vast machines, moored al the
foot Of Quay de la Cite, alongside of the
beautiful P0nt de la Grere, was frequented
by numbers of women from that populous
quarter, who were so famous for whitening
without destroying linen, that their washing
boat was styled the normal school" fol-
Paris laundresses. One of the best work.
women was girl twenty-three, named
Blanche Raymond; endowed with a fine
open smiling countenance, great strength O
body, and uncommon cleverness of hand
She had lost her mother some time before
and being now the only stay of her old bin.
father, a superannuated laborer on the quay
she had 10 work double-tides for their ioin
support; though the old man, by earning