The weekly ledger., 1857-09-12
The Rag-Seller's Daughter.

The Chifonier is one of the institutions of
Paris. His rags; his hooked stick; his fiery,
twinklng eyes; his basket flung over one
shoulder, and receiving the various offal from
the sale Of which the gatherer derives his
daily crust-all these are too well known, in
these days of travel, to need description
The chffonier's profession-for they dstin-
guish it as professions the general resort
of strangers from the country, who find
themselves in the great city with little mon
ey and no legitimate means Of earning more.
The requisite basket and hooked stick are
easily obtained Certain streets are free to
newcomers, and here the neophite practices,
till some act of fellowship, some display emf
nent shrewdness, or some unusual piece Of
good luck, he obtains regular admission to the
brotherhood of the chiffoniers, and establish
es a kind of squatter sovereignty over GER
tain district.
Twenty-Five years ago, Thomas Bartol left
his native village, in the pleasant Auvcrgne,
and came to Paris TO seek his fortune. But
fortunes do not come even to the seekers in
Paris, and Thomas, after wandering about
the streets vainly looking for honester work,
at last laid out his remaining few sous in the
purchase of decripit chiifoner's route, bas-
ket, and stick, and took regularly to the
streets
Thomas was thirty, sober, shrewd and not
bad-looking He found no gold nor jewelry
among his nightly collections of offal. But
coming home to bis garret one morning, he
found there what proved to him pearl of
great price--a young girl from his native vii
foo. oil alr m Daric
to share his fortunes
OF course there was a wedding, in which
the neighbors Of Thomas took lively part;
and shortly thereafter--two having saved
more than one, as often happensin in the houses
of the poor-Master Thomas Bertol, by that
time the happy father of curly headed little
girl, blessed with bright eyes and many rags,
quilted his garret aud his nocturnal wander
ings, hired roomy vault, and became the
purchaser of the rags and scraps picked up
by his companions and neighbors.
The quarter of Paris frequented by the
chiffonier fraternity is remarkable for the ex-
tremely rickety, tumbedown condition of the
tenements the narrowness of the streets, and
the generally dilapidated appearance of all
the accessories Master Thomas was no ars-
tocrat. He chose his new place in the dark
est, uncomeest street of the quarter, and in
the most rckety house of the street. His
vault was some ten feet beneath the level of
the filthy pavement, with which it was con-
nected by a steep ladder. Here, by the dim
light of small lamp, the quondam chiIonier
and his wife busted themselves in sorting and
packing the rags, broken glass, old iron, brass
pewter, nails and what not, which made up
their queer miscellaneous assortment. Here
the little Marie grew, from a curly-headed
child, tumbIing about among the rags and
catching only semi-oecaslonal glimpses of the
bright sunlight above, into gentle, slender
wasted, graceful maiden, with great wistful
blue eyes, and subdued yet serene smile.
Here, too, the mother-unable to live with
out her native trees and flowers-gradually
faded away, and was lost to the father ere
his little child could feel the loss; and so the
old man-forhe grew early old-quietly went
on sorting his queer goods, now buying, now
selling; ever counting up his small gains, and
casting loving glanees the while at the beau
tiful girl, who was now his book-keeper,
house-keeper and sole companion.
1t was one bright day last June, when my
friend. George La We're, and | had occasion
to take ramble through the chifoner's
quarter, and were struck by the modest beau
ty of a young girl who was sitting at the
head of steep and rickety ladder knitting