The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1886-06-18
THE G.ARCONs OF PARIS.
A SINGULAR UNION OF DIZZINESS
AND ADMINISTRATIVE TALENT.

His Duties of Great yariety-In the Ho.
tells and isestaurants-His Modes of
Giving Change-What Becomes of Them
All When Worn Out? rs .,t .-.sH
1t requires but a limited acquaintance with
the French language to know that "garcon"
means boy. Yet though tine French waiter
of a certain class is always called, yelled at,
growled at and shouted to by that name, he
may in reality represent Shakespeare's seven
ages of man, and half dozen more He
may be stripping of Is, d bachelor of IS, a
married man of 50 or o. white-haired oc-
togenarian in whose hands the dishes rattle
like castanets as he places them ON the table.
He is garcon all the same. His duties are
of great variety, requiring singular and
harmonious union of deftness, agility, muscle
and administrative talent. He is expected to
"sling" hash, Jerk" beer wait upon the table,
make beds and sweep chamber foors-only in
those exposed parts that are not jealously
guarded by the bedsteadS, sofas or bureaus
from the rash and unwarranted intrusion of
the broom.
IN THE HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS
The garcon in the hotels and restaurants Of
France represents degrees of neatness. The
garments in which he waits on the table,
which are theoretically ss white as the drifted
snow, often have an in'ly hue He brings
the soup in bowl and tsirns it in plate, ex-
posing to the gaze thumb not recently
washed. He oscillates his movements and
moods from brisk and garrulous to snail-like
and saturnine At cafes he is inclined to i'm
pertinence, especially if his fees does not
come regularly and in the amounts desired
He is cunning in his modes of giving change,
bringing in place of the second and third class
nothing less than 2sou piece, and in those
that are more fashionable, no smaller coin
than piece of 10 sous, that the guest may be
compelled to give him large pour boire, and
when that individual, protesting not to un-
delstand the fee proces, walks off with all
the coin IN his pocket kS is followed by the
muttered curses of the wspuld-be recipient Of
his bounty.
On steamers the garcoa is a sort OF autocrat,
Or tyrant, who makes himself obnoxious to
the passengers under the pretense of enforcing
the rules of the ship. Lights must be out at
certain hour regardless Of special necessities,
and ports must be closed though the sea is like
a lnillpond and the passengers die of suffoca-
ton, that the garcon on watch may lie down
to sleep without the trouble of having to at
tend to his duties As the port is neared the
rlgOrS OF dlSclpilie are relaxed and the service
becomes more assiduous and polite, that the
pour boire may be enticed from the pockets Of
insulted voyagers. -..
WHAT BECOMES OF THEM ALL?
AS hotels and restaurants, cafes, and wine
and beer shops are plentiful in France, it fol-
lows that the garcons are a numerous class.
Very little is known about them except the
facts stated, though questions are occasionally
asked about the lives they lead when not on
duty. When do they sleep! They are at
work when the first patron comes in the
morning, and they are still at their posts when
the last belated theatre-goer departs after
midnight. Why have they always that singu-
lar soiled whiteness of complexion?
1t is known that garcons are married and
have families, but who has ever seen the wife
or children of one? Why is it secret principle
with them never to sweep under the bed or
place thereon clean sheets! What becomes of
them when they are worn out and are obliged
to yield their places to younger and sprier
men? Are they translated like cats, which
exist in millions, and which, when they die,
never leave their moral remains exposed to
human eyess These questions are not asked
with the expectation that even the most in
telligent reader can find an answer, but to
give voice to a yearning desire to understand
ON the part of many benevolent anthropolog
lists the mysterious individuality of a class
peculiar even in a COUNTRY singularly fertile
in personal eccentricities. Paris Cor. San
Francisco Chronicle,