New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-12-20

has its chief who enjoys the privilege OF buying
and selling rags For this he pays license OF
100 francs. Those who go about the streets
pay small license, and wear non-transferabie
medal Each rag-picker has his beat on which
no one else encroaches, although there are num-
Der of nondescript unattached chhoniers who
follow the more aristocratic members of the pro-
fession, picking up what they may have over
looked Each master chiffOnier has certain
number of pckers attached to him whom he
pays "by the piece" The average daily earn
ings of an industrious worker is about 30 cents,
but since riches consist in limitation OF desires,
this sum is more than sufficient for his simple
wants. If he does not own house. there are
plenty to be obtained for two francs week;
clothing costs nothing when 1t is found in ash
barrels, and so many eatabes are 10 be had for
the searching that considerable surplus is sold
by the chffoniers to cheap restaurants 10 DC
made into soup.
Each hut has small yard enclosed by renee
which harmonizes exactly with the architecture
Of the shanty. In this yard the chinonage Is
dumped to be sorted and classified by the younger
members of the community. Rags, paper, bones
scraps Of food, metal, skins, utensils Of every
description, are assorted with great care before
being sold. One imagine that articles OF
considerable value are not infrequently discovered
This is the respectable aspect Of the rag ana
bone business. These squatters are not at all
badly of compared with the other branch of the
profession, who huddle in horrible tenement
houses, dens of filth and disease, which are oc-
caionally cleared out by the health department
They are very disreputable lot, while their
brethren in the suburbs rather celebrated for
their honesty. "Voulez.vous rire ct amuser?"
Go to a chiffOniers ball. These take place about
three times q week, and are the most nondescrpt
and grotesque looking affairs to be seen anywhere
in the world. The pencil of Dore would alone
do justice TO the scene; language is quite in
adequate to describe it.
The saddest part of Summing is the number
VI children one sees-poor, little, hungry waits,
and here in Paris they are, for several
reasons, worse off than the children of other
slums 1t is a matter of statistics that
the number of Legitimate children in France is out
of all proportion to legitimate births, and it is
not eXaggeration say that at least As per
of the former are pitiessly abandoned by their
mothers. There is an institution in France, known
as the peasant nurse. For a consideration these
people adopt children of shame, but in nine
out Of ten they seized the first opportunity to get
rid of the burden. Sometimes they keep the child
and train him to beg This is only another way of
getting rid Of him, however, for unless the child
brings home money he is so brutality punished that
he soon runs away. The maternal instinct in the
French woman is either developed to an abnormal
extent. it is lacking altogether. She is child
w0rshipper or She is fend. In the lower classes
the latter state of affairs predominates The conse-
quence is that the streets of Paris swarm with
vagrant children. How they live is matter of
conjecture. There few opportunities for pick
ing up pennies in this place Here you never
grocers and tObacconists have the exclusive right
to the products of the semi-Governmental inst-
tuition, the General Match Company, and even if
the street Arab could get hold of few boxes he
would not be allowed to sell them. The backing
of boots and running of errands is monopolized by
a licensed COMMISSIONERS, who wears a brass
badge and is to be found at every street corner
with his shoe-black box and his curious shoulder
contrivance for carrying parcels Begging and
stealing seem to be the only avenues of industry
open to Gavroche" is to veritable gamin
the true child of the pavement, without a home
and lacking parents who might apprentice him to
a trade.
The profession Of ration Anglice burglars as
sistant in the matter Of crawling through areas
and impossible cracks, opening doors and windows.
etc. is one in which the supply fully equals the
demand. The prisons swarm with these infant
criminals, who, poor little wretches more often
fall into the hands Of the police than do the
actual thieves.
That the only true solution Of the problem of the
utilization of these waits is clear to few French
men is witnessed by the generous and noble action
of NJ Gorgcs Bongeau, whose father was murdered
by the Communists.
"There must be no more Communists; that is
ALL" said the bereaved son, and entirely without
assistance he founded the industrial school of Orge-
vile. The inmates are chosen from the prisons.
Petite Roquette, whose annual grst is the scum
of Paris pavements, being preferred. The school
is regular colony. The lads tend their own
cattle, bake their own bread and make their own
cider. They are taught trades, and actually en-
port bricks. The organization is semi-military.
and when not at work the boys wear a neat uni
form No punishments are employed, except Abad
marks exclusion from the play ground, and in ex-
tremc cases bread and water. /. is enough The
school has been in existence fourteen years and
there has been serious trouble. Other instiu-
lions sprnging up to second the efforts OF this
one and it is possible that the days of Gavroche
are numbered.