Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-05-07
PARIS IN 1893.
A Vivid sketch Of the city from
Victor HugO's Last Novel.

Very few of the largest shops were
open. Peripatetic haberdashery and
toy shops were dragged about by women,
lighted by candles, which dropped their
tallow on the merchandise. Open air
shops were kept by ex-nuns in blonde
wigs. The nender, darning stockings
in a stall, was countess; that dress
maker a marchioness. Madame de
Boufflers inhabited a garret, from which
she could look out at her own hotel
Hawkers ran about offering the papers
of news" Persons who wore cravats
that hid their chins were called "the
scrofulous." Street singers swarmed.
The crowd hooted Pitou, the royalist
song writer, and valiant man in the
bargain. They danced the carmagnole
in great circles. They no longer said
gentleman and lady, but citizen and
citizeness They danced in the mined
cloisters with the church lamps lighted
on the affairs, with cross-shaped chande-
liers hanging from the yaulted roofs and
tombs beneath their feet. Blue blue
tyrant's waist.coats we're worn. There
were liberty shirt pins, made of
white, blue and red stenes. The Rue de
Richeleu was called the street law; the
Faubourg OF Glory; a statue of Nature
stood in the Place de la Bastile. At the
Invalides the statues of the saints and
kings were crowned with Phrygian caps.
They played cards on the curb stones at
the crossings. The packs OF cards were
also in full tide Of revolution the kings
were replaced by genii, the queens by
. Of ha In hty
figures representing equity, and the aces
by impersonations of law. They titled
the public gardens the plow worked at
the Tuilleries. With all these excesses
was mingled, especially among the con
quered parties, an indescribable naughty
weariness of life. A man wrote to Fou
quier Finville, Have the goodness to
free me from existence. This is my ad
dress" Newspapers appeared in legions
The hair dressers men curled the wigs of
women in public, while the master read
the Moniteur aloud. People went to
have their fortunes told by Martin, al
No l73 in the Rue d d'Anjou. There was
lack of bread, of Goals, of soap.
Flocks of milch cows might be seen
coming in from the country. At the
Vallee lamb sold at fifteen francs
per pound. An order OF the Com
mune assigned pound of
meat per head every ten days. Peo-
pie stood in rank at the doors of the
butchers shops. One of these files had
remained famous; it reached from a
grocer shop in the Rue des Petit Ca
neau to the middle of the Rue Monitor
gueli. To form line was called hold
ing the cord" from long rope which
was held in the hand of those standing
in the row. Amid this wretchedness,
the women were brave and mild. They
passed entire nights awaiting their turn
to get into the bakers shops. Wood
cost four hundred francs in coin per
cord people could be seen in the
streets saving up their bedsteads. In
the winter the fountains were frozen;
two pals of water cost twenty sous;
every man made himself a water carrier.
A gslden louis was worth 1890 (paper(
francs. A course in a hackney coach
cost 600 francs. After days use of O
carriage, this sort of dialogue might be
heard: Coachman, how much do |
owe your six thousand francs" A
green grocer woman sold 10000 francs
worth of vegetables a day. A beggar
said: "Help me, in the name of charity
1t took 23D francs to finish paying for
my shoes" There was no aattering
among this people. There was the SOM
bre joy Of having made an end Of
thrones. Volunteers abounded; each
street furnished battalion.