The Davenport gazette. [volume] (Davenport, Scott Co., Iowa) 1841-185?, 1854-01-12
How Some People Live in Paris.

How Some People Live in Paris.
A gossiping correspondent of the New
York Daily Times gives US the following in
sight to certain classes in Partisan life:
The Walers, or Wateresses--for none but
women follow this profession-are ind-
viduals whose occupation it is to arouse from
sleep at an early hour such persons as have
business at the market, and must be there
betimes. Their wages are two sous morn
ing for each subscriber reused. 1t seems
strange that profession like this should re-
quire any particular capability, but it has
been found that one woman will wake her
customers in just half the time required by
another In times gone by, when the mar
ket people lived huddled together in the i'm
mediate vicinity of the Halles, COED rer-
eiHeure would wait upon fifteen or twenty
subscribers every morning, and thus earn
thirty or forty sous before day-break. But
now that the new Rue de Rivoli has pierced
the quarter, its denizens have been dispersed,
and the wakeresses find it impossible to serve
more than halfa dozen customers day. The
trade is falling into disuse.
The Epe Witness is man who lives by
crime-not by that which he commits him.
self, but by that perpetrated by others
The moment he hears of murder, or any
catastrophe of the sort, lie Immediately re-
pairs 10 the scene ofthe affair, says he knows
all about it, picks all the details he can find,
adds to them, recounts it over dozen times,
gets sort of notoricty as the individual
:sthat was there when it happened leaves
his name and address at the nearest wine
shop, and awaits the effect The examining
Judge hears Of this we'll informed gentleman,
and in view to elucidate the case, has him at
once sent for. He comes, and is sworn, and
makes total irrelevant deposition; he tells
what somebody else said that he thought
third person had imagined, and what he
guessed was the motive OF the quarrel Be-
yond that he can throw no light on the al
fair But he has earned his two francs-the
wages of every witness summoned to
'testfy-and by his earnings in this way he
lives.
The second hand ,citness hangs about the
pa lace of justice, and as gentlemen who
have testified, come from the various audi
ence rooms, he asks them if they mean to
draw their two francs; if they do not, he
supplicates them, for the love of God, and
for sympathy with wife and the usual
number of children, to pass over to him the
paper emitting the bearer to the two francs
in question. The second hand witness
makes hap-hazard money enough in this
way to live precariously, and die in hos
pital.
The guardian angel is man whose duty
it is to frequent the drinking shops, and the
moment man gets tipsy, to take him under
his protection, to accompany him home and
put him to bed. The individuals practising
this profession are picked men-men who
never drink themselves-who have the nee
essary moral authority to force obedience
from the drunken creatures they are convey
ing home who can defend them against at
tack, and, more than all, wLo can prevent
him from drinking at the shops they pass on
their way The price for this service is ten
sous; and there is not an instance on record
of an individual thus protected home and
put to bed having failed to discharge this
debt of honor. 1t is rule at the drinking
shops, that when man cannot stand, he
must be taken of, and the angel is straight
way called. The angels are kindly treated
by the shopkeepers whose interest it is that
no one of his customers comes to HARM
Their honesty is proverbial, and baccha-
Italian WIFI q tIuuSU iH HE fcShSss
who is contided to their charge, is moral
ly sure of finding his hundred francs where
he left them, when he wakes the next morn
ing.
A rich tippler, lately deceased, who spent
the last years Of his life in drinking blue
wine at the barrier, left in his will thou
sand francs to each of the guardian angels
who alternately conducted him home after
his nightly polations at the Watering Pot of
Montmartre.
1t may be safely said that not one person
out of hundred of the inhabitants OF Paris
ia aware OF the existence of such modes OF
obtaining living. The writer Of the feuille-
ton have abridged, says that he has learned
to be surprised at nothing, and that. II ne
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 believe it with faaat-
icisn.
THE WAY TO PREPARE FOR New YEARS
We noticed pleasant little incident in