Washington sentinel., 1853-10-16
Ma sbinaton Sentintl.
From the Paris correspondent OF the Boston POST
Philanthropy.

|
There is near the Barrere des Deux Moulins,
back of the Garden of Plants, an immense
building called the Chateau de Belleville, and
which, during the restoration and the earlier
years of the reign of Louis Philippe, was
known as the English Brewery, from its being
occupied by an English brewing company, at
whose head was an English admiral. To lodge
| their horses and provide places for their vats
and workmen, all the trees in the then park of
the chateau were cut down; the park was at
least some twelve hundred yards in extent.
But Notwithstanding the company's resources,
the enterprise fell through. Frenchmen had
not yet learned to drink beer, and public auc-
ton dispersed everything but the real estate,
which fell into other hands, A distinguished
chemist, M. Dore, became the purchaser; he
demolished the vats and the stables, and rented
4 out the old park as a garden. The gardener
who rented it soon gave it up, as between the
dampness of the soil and the marauding habits
of the neighboring boys, he found he lost money.
M. Dore took it into his head, knowing the pas
sion the Partisan shopkeepers have for flowers
they will go ten miles afoot any Sunday to
| distract themselves digging, hoeing, and raking
piece of ground as large as q small table
cloth-to affix sign to the land, to the effect
| that the whole park was to be let, either in
totaity or per yard, at the will Of the renter.
To his utter surprise, instead of receiving
some well-to-do mercer, from the Rue ST. Denis,
or thriving hosier from the Marais, who should
walk into his laboratory but chibonnier, with
professional dirt on his skin, hottie on his back
and crochet in his hand: and his surprise was
| not lessened when the chi6onnier said he had
come to rent some of the old park. He told
M. Dore, he wished to build himself country
| house. A lease was prepared and signed for
| ten yards at ten cents annually, per yard. AT
| daybreak the next morning, the chifonnier
| was at work, his numerous family (rich men for
| luck, poor men for children) around him,
digging the foundation Of the villa; he bought
materials from demolished houses at ten
sous wheelbarrow load, but he was unskilful
with mortar and stones, he became impatient
and his wife still more so: as it was summer he
resolved to erect tent and live under that
until the country house should be finished. A
few hours suficed for this to be done, and that
night the whole family slept upon the estate.
After three months hard labor the country
house was completed the roof was put on.
| The roof was composed Of old cloth covered
with pitch, and upon which soil was placed; in
the succeeding spring flowers were planted in
| it, and the country house was howered as an
| arbor.
| The news of this marvel spread rapidly
| among the chiffonniers, all of the professions
| longed to have his chez sol, freed from the
! domination of porters' tyranny, and where, for
dollar year, he could lead the life of a landed
proprietor; NJ. Dore's laboratory was beseged
/ by the chiffonniers; the park was full Of life,
houses we're going up in every direction; it
was divided into streets, places, avenues and
passages, like mimic Paris; everything is in
miniature, except the men and women. The
great difficulty was the roofing of these houses,
4 for while materials sold for ten sous the
wheelbarrow load, tiles slate and zinc cost
good deal of money; besides, no one can use
| them unless he be tiler, and this chiffonniers
are not. The experiment of pitched cloth and
| soil had not succeeded, for the rains saturated
the SOIL which, becoming too heavy, broke
down the cloth. A chiffonnier of genius dis
covered the remedy. In Paris everything may
be sold, everything. has its price, from patriots
to potato peel, old tin alone excepted which
,cas pity, for old tin is very abundant here,
since nearly all boxes of goods intended for ex-
portation are lined with it. The chifonniers,
faithful to their profession, picked up what
others despised, and rooted their houses with
the condemned tin. At first they seemed to
be rooted with silver, but after they began to be
oxydated by the rain they produced the most
miserable effect; the houses of the chiffonniers
looked like dog kennels. Cambronne was the
child of genius who suggested tin roofs Like
most sons of genius, he has no home of his
own; he can do everything better than anybody
| else but take care Of and make money. He is
the mason, the carpenter, the tiler, the nurse,
the singer, the story-teller, the drinker, the
lawyer, the judge, the notary, the scribe Of the
place; he. is the adviser, the arbitrator, the
| friend of everybody in the city-he is lodged
and fed by the public.
One day speculator entered the city to
IL A.. Ia L,I
He bought, at four dollars the yard, all the
yards he wanted, and he built houses little
larger than the rest, and his income already
| exceeds $40 a week--for, like our Tzigan, he
! lets out rooms by the week. He will be man
of large fortune one of these days. Others than
chiffonniers live there now; but cannot tell
| you their PROFESSIONALISM are nameless out OF
l the Villa des Chifonniers. If you ask one of
them to explain the conventional cultural
sound they give to it, and he gives an explana-
| ton, you are obliged to crossexamine him to
understand the explanation for example, sup
| pose one tells you he is turfburner, (bynteur
des mottes,) what do you understand? And yet
that is the profession of Nine Favreau, an ex-
cantiniere of the grand armee she carbonizes
| turf to furnish fire for the feetwarmers of the
old women of the Hospice de la Salpetriere
| This is her profession from one years end to
another and consequently, she lives in an at
mosphere to which summers noontide heat in
| Senegal must be as a cool spring morning.
Why attempt to name the others, they would
demand pages of explanation.
| The greatest fraternity and Christian charity
obtains among all the inhabitants of this quar-
ter Some twelve months ago the wife of a
| chihonnier was brought to bed with three twins;
| the newspapers mentioned it, and private char
ity send the mother clothes and food. But she
had no need of them; her neighbors-her poor
neighbors, living by the exercise of nameless
professionalism furnished her with everything
that was necessary, and other mothers, then
nursing their owa children, offered to take
charge of their neighbours. The directors Of
the Charity Fund, nevertheless, sent to her two
goats, to aid her to nourish her children, and
to encourage her to keep them. Fortunately,
the poor children are dead, and now she sells
goats milk to persons in the quarter, which
piyes a great increase to the revenues of the