Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1853-12-06

How SomPeopIe Live In Paris.

1
gosslpping respondent of the New York
Daaty Itmes glyus the following insight to
certain classes iParisan life
The Wakers, Wakeresses- none but
women follow thiprofession- individuals
whose occupations is to rouse from sleep at an
early hour such rsons as have business at the
MARKET and mu be there betimes. Their
wages are two sofa morning for each subscri-
per reused. II sels strange that profession
like this should retire any particular aptitude
or capabihty, but has been found that one
woman will wake,er customers in just half
| the time required another. In times gone
by, when the markpeople lived huddled to-
gether in the fmmeste vicinity of the Halles,
good rere,tteuTe ,uld wait upon fifteen or
twenty subscribers very morning, and thus
earn thirty or tori sous before day break.
But now that the ney4ue de Rivoli has pierced
| the quarter its denilns have been dispersed
and the wakeresses ID it impossible to serve
more than half a don customers day. The
trade is falling into duse.
The Eye Witness il man who lives by crime
not by that whichie commits himself, but
by that perpetrated others. The moment
he hears of a murde or any catastrophe of
that sort, he immediely repairs to the scene
Of the affair, says he nows all about it, picks
up all the details he c, find, adds to them re-
counts it over dozenimes, gets sort of no.
toriety as the indiyidu! that was there when
it happened" leaves 5 name and address at
the nearest wine shoIand awaits the effect.
The examining judgt hears Of this well-in-
formed gentleman, andn view to elucidate the
case, has him at ono sent for. He comes,
and is sworn, and mails total irrelevant de-
position; he tells whatomebody else said that
he thought third pe,on had imagined, and
what he guessed was til motive of the quarrel.
Beyond that he can trow no light on the
affair. But he has cared his two francs-the
wages OF every witness ummoned to testify
and by his earnings in tis way he lives.
The secondhand acitnes hangs about the pal
ace of justice, and as getlemen who have tes.
tfied come from the vaious audience rooms,
ne asks them if they mon to draw their two
francs; if they do not htsupplicates them, for
the love of God, and foYympathy with wife
and the usual number ofchildren, to pass over
to him the paper entitlinIthe bearer to the two
francs in question. Thesecond-hand witness
makes hap-hazard monet enough in this way
to live precariously, and oe in the hospital.
The guardian-aagel is man whose duty it
is to frequent the drinking shops, and the mo-
ment a man gets tipsy, totake him under his
protection, to accompany him home and put
him to bed. The individ ais practicing this
profession are picked ma--men who never
drink themselves--who hive the necessary
moral authority to. force oedience from the
drunken creature they are onveying home
who can defend him against attack, and, more
than all, who can prevent hin from drinking at
the shops they pass on ther way. The price
for this service is ten sous; md there is not an
instance on record Of an Individual thus pro-
tected home and put to bee having failed to
discharge this debt of homo, 1t is a rule at
the drinking shops, that when man cannot
stand, he must be taken off, ind the angel is
straightway called. The angels are kindly
treated by the shopkeepers, wlDse interest it is
that no one OF his customers comes to harm.
They receive the odds and ends of the dinner,
and are recommended to the neighbors when
reliable man for some confidential errand is
wanted. Their honesty is moyerbial, and n
bacchanalian with hundred francs in his
pocket, who is conided to Interchange, is NOR
ally sure Of finding his hundrel francs where
he left them, when he wakes thehext morning.
A rich tippler, lately deceased, who spent
the last years of his life in drinking blue wine
at the barrier, left in his will thousand francs
to each of the guardian angels who alternately
conducted him home after his nightly potations
at the Watering-pot Of Montmartre.
1t may safely be said that not one person out
of hundred of the inhabitants o. Paris is
aware of the existence of such modes of OBJ
tanning living. The writer..of the feuilleton
have abridged, says that he has learned to be
surprised at nothing, and that, if he were told
that there are people who earn their bread by
making tooth-picks out of old moons, he should
accept the narrative with equanimity, and be-
eve it with fanatcism.
The project of police has forbidden wine.
sellers to have Voltaic piles upon their coun-
Lers for the amusement Of their customers, as
one accident has already happened, and as
others would be likely to follow, were the prac.
tice continued.