Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-09-15

of the state and city. guaranteed it against
loss. The lottery attachment induced the
general public to take up a good block of
the bons-as the sheets of twenty tickets
each are Called-so that most Paris families
had their admissions in advance. The great
mass of bOns. paid for at par. remained in
the vaults of the Credit Lyonnais, the
Credit FOncier. the Bank of France, the
Compton National, the Credit lndustriel
and the Societe Generate. AS they are
Needed they are sod to the public passing
through many intermediate hands. For
some reason or other, these powerful es-
Establishments, having the game in their own
hands. nevertheless never attempted to
maintain their price at the par of 20 cents
each. The CurbStone Exchange, called the
Pieds Humides Uhe Wet-Feet Bourse), is a
Caily pandemOnium of bowling, unwashed
ticket hawkers, the Instructors of the
streets and the disgrace of the exhibition.
Supplied each morning with the days
provision Of tickets they hasten to the
Paris sidewalk. where they give themselves
up 10 verItable piracy of solicitation.
Walk down three blocks of the Rue Roy
ale and you will be attacked by twenty of
them-men. women. children. They touch
your clothes. They take you by the arm.
They jeer at strangers. Protected by
common understanding and their numbers,
they make concerted attacks on foreigners
who foolishly show temper Some days the
tickets are cents. some days 4 cents, some
days as high as Il cents, some days as low
as d cents. The hawking of them has all
the outward look of a beggars' carnival
Old women mutter prayers and curses. Chill
dren snive.- ROughS intimdate. Bright
eyed girls do some tempting.
The tolerance OF this immense army-al-
most inevitable now, by force of circum-
stanceS-has encouraged the others. OF
course, it IS only natural that fdkirs should
flock round a fair. Indeed. the fair would
lack something without them But the
hordes of photograph, map, cheap cata-
logue, post card, souvenir and novelty ped
Glers that make the visitors life a burden
are something altogether out of the ordi-
nary. Like the ticket sellers. they have
confidence in their numbers. The police
cannot hantie them. So they too have
adopted humorous practice of guying
such foreigners as happen 10 attract their
attention by vigorous refusals 10 buy: and
any loss of temper is likely to be reyenged
by prolonged boots and insults.
Beggars Pure and Simple
Then come the beggars pure and simple
1t is so easy TO carry couple of begrimed
souvenir albums and pack of post cords
as an excuse that the police seem to have
given up separating them from their more
or less commercial confreres Walking
from the American commssariat, In the
Avenue Rapp, yesterday afternoon, we were
attacked by five beggars pure and simple
not TO speak of sixteen ticket vendors and
eight merchants of maps and souvenirs. all
within the space OF five blocks, across the
Alma bridge and up the Avenue de pAlma
one OF the beggarS. tpsy woman, with a
baby at the breast, defied us when We
threatened her with the police. Calling two
loafers to her aid, the trio followed us
across the bridge to the tune OF Sale An
Slais! "Puree!' and "Degoutant etran-