Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1874-07-17
The small Industries OF Paris.

IhP Nmhll W.
Poverty in France is thousand times
moro active. more ingenious, moro untir-
ing in its efforts after subsistence, than is
that Of any other country. IT IL only after
a long aud sharp struggle that the wrestler
with fate sinks To the earth aud declares
himself vanquishcd. Apart from the mi
mute economy which is praclised in
every branch OF consumption, whether Of
food, or fuel, or clothing, there are nuinor-
Gus odd trades to which the indigont resort
i'm order to gain Il livelihood. Enough has
already been said about the rag pickers
whom one meets so constantly at night,
with their baskets slung on their backs,
and armed with an hon hook and lantern.
Among that class are often to he found
those who have known better days, and !
have been told of one instance where
among their ranks was discovered a once
noted physician, whose professional career
had been ruined by an unfortunate opera
ton, resulting in the death of the patient.
A few weeks ago, Il female rag picker, aged
SO, and Il married woman, committed sui
eide for love, and among the members of
her own profession who were present at the
funeral was an eX-pretect of the Seine, and
n man who had once kept fashionable
store ON the boulevards. There are other
trades, to establish which must have called
for a certain amount of inventive talent
There is the vendcr of smoking tobacco,
whose stock in-tradc il formed fron the
ends of cigars pickle ed up in the streets in
front of the cafes and the theatres, aud
these cigar-ends, chopped mp fine, form the
merchandise. 1t has been estimated that
in Paris the consumption of cigars amounts
to three hundred thousand daily; so a vast
number of cgar-stumps reward daily this
enterprsng dealer and his numerous asso-
ciateS. Then there is the tire-seller and
the "guardian angel The fire-scllcr goes
round with braiser of hot Goals in a little
covered wagon, lined with sheet-iron, and
for a sou he heats up the foot-warners OF
the market women. lie makes his appear
ance at the market as early as O'Clock in
the morning in winter. The guardian
angel" is strong fellow, whose business is
to 20 round to the wine shops and convey
home those consumers who are too drunk
to 90 home by themselves. Some Of the
large taverns have guardian angel" all
to themselves. This celestially-named in
| dividual must not quit the drunkard con-
| tided to his care till he is beyond all dam
ger from the police or from thieves. So
briefly is his primary qualification, and the
first day he is found drunk, he is ignomn
iously discharged. The seeker Of cigar
ends has a companion in the crustseeker,
| 4. Il
too dry, too dirty, or too muldy for human
food, which are 10 be found in the streets
| and the cutters. This bread he sells by
the bag-full to the breeders in the suburbs
of Paris; for French rabbits are very fond
of bread, and consume large quantities of
| it. The dog shearer drives thriving
| trade; il is lie who attends to the toilet of
these won, erful poCdles with white, shay
gy names, aud pink, close cropped binder
quarters, their paws adorned with neat lit
tie frills, and their shorn tails finished of
with a bush-like tuit of white hair, which
attract our attention while trotting at the
heels of their masters or mstrcsscS along
the boulevards. The potato-maker washes,
scrubs, skins, and polishes old potatoes OF
small size till they assume the silky, light
colored skin of new potatoes, and may then
be enveloped in tissue paper, and sold as
the earliest productions of the season. The
ham bone maker, the leech letters, the
bird-feeders, all exercise odd professions.
The item collector is the man who scours
Paris in search of items for the daily
papers, one of which, if found and careful
ly written up, may bring him from one to
two francs. A dreadful accident or fire,
runaway horse, or a mason fallen from a
high scatioding, are TO him precious prizes.
Unfortunately, he is often obliged TO draw
on his Imagination for the material for his
| work.
The most horrible of all these little trades
is indisputably that Of the sorter, or person
| whose business il is to sort over and classi-
fy the rubbish collected by the rag-pickers.
| In the miserable dens where this industry
is carried on, it often happens that the
lamps die out, and refuse to burn, so fetid
is the atmosphere arising from the filthy
masses accumulated there. The sorter
either dies soon, or abandons his profession
for another, for no human life can long en-
dure the miasma engendered by the dirt
in which they are obliged to work.