The Labor enquirer., 1886-06-19
The ProIetariat of the French
Capital Ready 10 Rise
Again
Against Their OppressOrs at Any
Moment, and to Die for
Liberty.
Notes Taken On the Ground by a Cor.
respondent Of a London
Journal,
From the London Globe.

Carlyle, commenting upon the state O
things Immediately preceding the FRS
Revolution, wrote, ut is singular how
long the rotten will hold together, pro,
viding you do not handle it roughly.
That was in 1887, almost exactly fifty
years after the events which he 80 mar.
vellously and graphically described
tie had been no eyewitness of them
He reconstructed the scenes by the aid
Of his powerful imagination, and even
the French have done him the Justice to
say that nothing could have been more
faithfully reproduced.
Well, terrible as are the pen-and-ink
pictures by Carlyle, they pale before the
reality of the present day. Bright, sun,
lit Paris, with her broad thoroughfares
her swept and garnisheI pavements ly,
ing white under the cloudless sky o.
early spring, her palatial buildings
blinking at the sun with their many
windows, the magnificent shops, the
well-dressed crowds-this Paris is i'm.
measurably more attractive than the
Paris of Louis XVI., if one may Judge by
the old engravinls. But it Is doubtful
indeed, whether any pictures of the
poorer quarters a century ago would
show US a greater amount of misery
wretChedness, and heart'sickening deg
radiation than exists at this hour.
have carefully Derused every line Of
Starving London" for various reasons
Nv first and main motive was to arrive
at a comparison between, not only the
material, but also the moral aud mental
conditions of the Paris and London poor.
| honestly believe that, badly off as they
may be, the former are not in such
pitiful straits for the barest necess4ries
of life as the latter Much Of this may
be owing 10 the ingenuity of the Paris.
ian in picking up his crumbs somehow,
which have already touched upon a
few months ago. But though their ma
teriaI wants NAV be less grinding, the
mental condition of the Paris poor is in
tnitely more desperate.
What struck me most in the writings
Of "An Amateur was the almost utter
absence of impotent reCrimination
against the rich and the powerful. Thev
looked to a revival Of trade in the spring
for a means Of getting out Of their en-
barrasments. Demagogue teaching had
evidently as little affected them as water
does ducks back Above all, there
was not an absolute abandonment Of
hope, and least of all determination to
make an end to their misery by pillage
arson and wholesale murder. O.
course, l am not overlooking one partic-
ular Monday afternoon. But, am GER
tain that it will require something much
more convincing THAI the spouting oI
Socialist leaders to bring the London
proletariat to the conclusion that the
sacking of London would have the eff
feet of permanently improving thei
condition.
Not so here. Men in work, as well a<
men out Of it, openly proclaim that nc
improvement in their lot is possible ex
cept through determined spoliatiOn
whether supported or discountenanceC
by the government. Until then, blanl
despair seems to have claimed them a
their own. DURING my journalistic ca
reer in London l pal m"ny visit t.
model lodging houses-save the mark
in Back Church-land, otherwise Os
horne street, Whitechapel, and else
where; | have been in cellars in anC
about DrurY lane where OutCasts, va
grants and thieves lay huddled togethe
like so many pigs. But some kind o
conversation was going on, notwith
standing the lesser degree of volubilit'
of Englishmen when sober.
There are parlor and tap-r Dom politl
clans in England, but there are no lodg
my house politicians that | know of
The moment Englishmen discuss mat
ters of state, they prove their temporar.
freedom from care. Not so the Frerct
praetariat The hungrier he ls, tn
higher his flight into the realms of Uto
plan legislation Hence my surprise tn
night before last at finding myself II
the company of about 200 artisans, ever
one Of whom is out of work, and who 70
the space of ninety minutes did not Opel
their lips either to me or to each other
1t was quarter to eleven when l en-
tered the place; left it considerable
after midnight.
The locale is familiar to me. 1t is SIT
mated in the Qnarties Mouffetard. Bu
spirit of change had come over th'
whole since l went there last. Their
Was not single woman present now
What such absolute absence of the gen
tier sex means among Frenchmen ca
only be fathomed by those who knoN
France. When they were fighting Of
the barricades in June, l84S, the com
mlssary Of police, summoning the rioter
to surrender, told them at the same tim
to get their women out of the way,
they would not comply with his sum
mons. Nonsense" exclaimed th