The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1892-04-01
THE BEGGARS OF PARIS.
AT ONE TIME THERE WERE
FORTY THOUSAND.
they Elected King ana He'll Regular
Meetings The Strange, Unoanny,
AMI Horribls Ceremonies
They O,sprvid.

pages OF Burke nor the annals of the
Almanach de Gotha bear witness to
That curious historic fact the beggars'
kingdom, yet the record OF its exist
ence is none the less reliable. The
art OF begging is an ancient one From
early Biblical days down to our highly
civilized nineteenth century the royal
race Of beggars has thrivel and fat.
tened and tiourished.
There IS indeed a widespread pref
udce against those unfortunates who
live by their wits, but the prejudice
can hardly be log ically explained. In
the twelfth century the beggars had
become so numerous, especially in
France, as to be dan yer to the state
as well as u pest to society. They
formed o state within the state, band
ed together into corporations. and.
placing themselves outside the law,
lived in open defiance OF it. Brittany
was one OF their strongholds. Here
they held their states general in u
place called Preaux-gueux (tho Beg
CARS Meadow. Race feeling at last
ran so high among the beggars that
they organized themselves into king
dom, and elected a king who was rec
ognized by the beggars all over France,
and whose ninety second successor did
honor to the seventeenth century.
In the reign of Louis XIV the beg
CARS OF Paris alone numbered 40, 900,
and from mere units of disorder they
had become great consolidated
body. They had their places OF meet
ing where they repaired every night
TO display their booty and to discuss
the events OF the day as well as the
problems tOf the morrow. Their
meeting places, OF which there were
eleven in Paris alone, were called
Cours DIES Miracles, in ribald mockery
of the words of the gospel. Behold,
the blind see, the deaf hear and the
lame walk. Here at nightfall came
trooping all the beggars, all the
thieves, all the rogues of Paris.
Every alley was filled with them,
every mysterious side street resounded
to the hurrying tramp OF their feet
and contributed its quota to the great
open sewer of vice. Cripples waving
aloft their crutches, lame men execut-
ing q pas seul with their sticks,
hunchbacks carrying in their arms
their humps deformed men suddenly
become quite stra ght and sound, sick
men suspiciously hale and hearty
tumbling and jostling each other they
came
One Of the most noted of these Cours
des Miracles is described by Victor
Hugo as "a hideous wen on the face
OF Paris, the hospital OF imposture an
immense robing room whittier all the
actors OF the eternal comedy which
theft murder and vice of all kinds are
performing on the streets of Paris re-
sorted to dress and undress, - Readers
of 'Notre Dame de Paris" will re-
member that spacious. Ll.paved area.
the old worm.eaten houses ranged in
circle, like the heads of old hays
watching the witches Sabbath rites
and winking their eyes" 1t is not
easy to forget that world, 'unheard
Of deformed, creeping, crawling fam
>astic." Once within the Cour des
Iiracles all restraint was laid aside.
here, indeed was the perfection of
Communism. Everything was in COM
mon with these people Around their
blazing fires or seated at crazy tables
were werd-looking groups, indeed,
groups that only the grote5que genius
Of Dore could illustrate. In their
midst was their king, seated perhaps,
on a hog5head a cap like clown
upon his head, and for a scepter a cat
o'-nine. tails,
The customs OF these Cours des
Miracles were alike terrible and alb
surd. Woe to the honest man who
ventured into these dread presincts!
Unless he could prove that he was one
of three things-a prig cadger, or
u stroller, in other words, thief, q
beggar or vagrant-he was hanged
without mercy, CIR ngoire the up-
fortunate poet who had the ill luck to
fall in among them, had many a pro-
totype in real life. Having pleaded
in vain that Hsop was Il vagabond,
Homer q beggar and Mercury a thief,
and that therefore he, being poet
(incontestable logicD could not be
called an honest man, he begged as a
last resort to be- admitted into the
guild of thieves. 70 prove his dex-
terity he was ordered to stand on tip
toe upon three-legged stool and pick
the pocket OF a scarecrow decked with
thousand bells that hung from %
suggestive and ominous gibbet If
the bells. gave any sound the unfor-
tunate man lost. We all know the
outcome Another custom of the Cour
des Miracles was the matrimonial
railing, as it were.
No love-lorn gallant waiting for the
fatetul yes from the lips Of his lady
love heard that with more JOY than the
trembling stranger who had unwit-
tiugly strayed in among the beggars,
and who found matrimony the only
alternative to--hanging One by one
the women stepped forward and duly
inspected the candidate for Duptial
honors, IN most cases with a very Wis
ible turning up of noses for it was
considered a fall indeed to marry an
honest man. They opened his purse,