The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-03-25
THE SUBSTITUTE.
He was scarcely ten years old when he
was first arrested as a vagabond.
He smoke thus IN the JudOe.

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was first arrested as a vagabond.
He spoke thus to the Judge:
~ am called Jean Francois Lecture, and
for six months 1 was with the man who
sings and plays upon a cord of catgut be-
tween the lanterns at the Place de la Bas-
tile. l sang the refrain with him, and
after that called Here's all the new
songs, ten confines, two sousp He was
always drunk, and used to beat me. That
is why the police picked me up the other
night. Before that 1 was with the man
who sells brushes. My mother was a
laundress; her name was Adele. AZ one
time she lived with a man on the ground
floor at Montmartre. She was good
workwoman and liked me. She made
money. because she had for customers
walters in the cafes, and they use a good
deal of linen. On Sundays she used to
put me to bed early so that she could
90 to the ball. On week days she
sent me to Les Freres, where l
learned TO read. Well, the Sergeant
de Vile whose beat was in our streets
used always to stop before our windows to
talk with her-a good-looking chap, with
a medal from the Crimea. They were
married, aud after that everything went
wrong. lie didn't take to me and turned
mother against me. Every one had a
blow for me, and so, to get out OF the
house, l spent whole DAYS in the Place
Clinchv, where l knew the mountebanks.
Ny iather-ln-law lost his place and my
mother her work She used to 90 out
washing to take care OF him this gave her
a cough-the steam. She is
dead at Lamboisiere. She was good wo-
man. Since that ] have lived with the
seller of brushes and the catgut scraper.
Are you going to send me to PRISON."
lie said this openly, cynically, like a
man. He was little ragged street arab
as tall as a boot, his forehead hidden
under queer mop OF yellow hair.
Nobody claimed him. and they sent
him to the reform school.
Not very intelligent, idle, clumsy with
his hands, the only trade he could learn
there was not good one-that OF reseating
straw chairs. However, he was obedient,
naturally quiet and silent, and he did not
seem to be profoundly corrupted by that
school of vice. But when, in his seven
teenth wear, he was thrown out again on
the streets of Paris, he unhappily found
there his prison comrades, ali great scamps,
exercising their dirty Professionalism
ing dogs 10 catch rats in the sewers, and
black ing shoes on ball nights in the pas
sage OF the opera-amateur wrestlers, who
permitted themselves to be throw by the
Hercules OF the booths-or fishing Z noon
time from RATS; all of these occupations
he followed to some extent, and, some
months after ne came out of the house of
correction, he was arrested again for a
petty theta pair of old shoes prigged
from a chop window. Result: A year in
the prison of Sainte Pelagie, where he
served as valet to the political prisoners.
He lived in much surprise among this
group of prisoners. all very young, negli-
gent in dress. who talked in loud voices,
and carried their heads in a very solemn
fashion. They used to meet in the cell OF
one OF the oldest OF them, fellow of some
thirty wears, already long time in prison
and quite fixture at Salnte Pelagie-a
large cell, the walls covered with cOlored
carlcatures, and from the window of
which one could see all Paris-its roofs, its
spires and its domes and, far away, the
distant line of hills, blue and indistinct
upon the sky. There were upon the walls
some shelves filled with volumes and all
the old parapheInalia of a fencing room;
broken masks, rusty foils, breastplates,
and gloves that were losing their tow. 1t
was there that the politicians" used to
dine together, adding to the ever
lasting "soup and beef" fruit, cheese
and pints of wine which Jean
Francois went out and got by the cana
tumultuous repast interrupted by violent
disputes. and where, during the dessert, the
"Carmagnole" and ga Ira" were sung in
full chorus. They assumed, however, an
air OF great dignity on those days when a
newcomer was brought in amongst them,
at first entertaining him gravely as
a citizen. but on the morrow using
him with afectionate familiarity, and
calling him by his nickname. Great
words were used there: Corporation,
responsibility and phrases quite unintelli-
gible to Jean Francois-such as this, for
example, which he once heardimperiously
put forth by frightful little hunchback
who blotted some writing paper every
night:
ut is done. This is the composition of
the cabinet: Raymond, the bureau of
public instruction; Martial, the interior;
and foreign affairs, myself"
Ills Tune zone, ne WANDERED again
around Paris, watched afar by the police
after the fashion OF cockchafes made by
cruel children to fly at the end of string
He became one of those fugitive and timid
beings whom the law, with sort of
coquetry, arrests and releases by turn
something like those platonic fishers who,
in order that they may not exhaust their
fish pond, throw Immediately back in the
water the fish which has just come out of
the net. Without a suspicion on his part
that so much honor had been done 10 so
sorry a subject, he had a special bundle of
memoranda in the mysterious portfolios of
the Rue de Jerusalem. His name was
written in round hand on the gray paper
OF the cover, and the notes and reports,
carefully classified, gave him his successive
appellations: name, Leturc;" "the
prisoner Lecture" and, at last, ''tbe GRIM
inal Leturc."
He was two years out OF prison, dining
where he could. sleeping in night lodging
houses and sometimes in limekilns and
taking part with his fellows in intermin-
able games of pitch-penny on the boule-
wards near the barriers. He wore greasy
cap on the back of his head, carpet slippers
and a short white blouse. When he had
five sous he had his hair curled. He
danced at Constants at Montparnssse;
bought for two sous to sell for four at the
door of BobIno, the jack of hearts or the
ace Of clubs serving as q countermark;
arnl Il Il, -