The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1906-07-05

now pointing his finger at u.s. The
two taller gentlemen are noble peers
from the court of the gracious Queen
Victoria, who has sent these lords to
buy some of my choicest gems for her
illnstrious granddaughter. And that
other gentleman is 4 member of the
court of Son Excellence, Monsieur le
praesident des Etats Unis, who has
come to select some of my diamonds
for Monsieur Roosevelt's daughter, la
belle Alice! am now"
Here-and greatly to our chsgrin-
our versatile friend received the sign
that policeman had turned the near
est corner, and the amusing street |
vender quickly jumped off his low ped
estal and disappeared IN the crowd.
The policeman might easily have
caught him; but the Partisan police |
does not run-st least, not after a
camelote.
By strange coincidence we came
across this identical camelote on an
other street that same afternoon.
This time he was praising, to an ad-
miring crowd, the excellence Of al
alleged self-invented mustache curler.
We stopped to listen, when one Of my
friends made the faux pas to speak a
few words in German to me. Very
imprudent; for it is by no means ad-
visable to speak German on Paris
street corner, as we found out very
quickly. The words were hardly
spoken, when flsttering expressions
like spies, traitors, Prussians, knock
them down, ETC., were heard on all
sides, and really feared that we
would have to pass thru very un-
pleasant experience, when 10, the little
camelote, the very fellow who, an hour
before, had pronounced himself such
an enraged German-hater, came to our
assistance He was off his box in an
instant, and, spreading out his arms,
as if for our protection, he placed him
self before us, faced the crowd and
shouted:
5 "What are you doing, Parisiansp Do
. you want to insult the very best
r friends we have in the world, who hate
D the Prussians almost as much as we
s do? Are your ears full of wax, that
: you cannot distinguish Bohemian from
b Germanp These gentilhommes are
g from Prague. I,myself, shall consider
q it great honor to conduct them safely
:. to their nearby hotel. You just wait
here three minutes, and then will
Q be back. But before 60, these gentil.
+ hommes ought to have your apology
+? and so call for three cheers for nos
il amis, Messieurs les Austriches!'
: The cheers were given with will
: We politely raised our hats in &C.
I? acknowledgement of the compliment, and
J. departed with our little camelote
q friend, who entertained us with 9
j. description of the merits of his mus
= tache curler; but never even mentioned
y that it was due to him alone that VIZ
Y were saved from insult-if not from
u worse. Well, we did not buy his curl
q ers; but we had been so favorably i'm
70 pressed by his excellent business
y ability and tact, that each of us pressed
Q, fve-franc piece in his hand, whe1
10 we bade him good-by.
y The Partisan camelotes are unli
It censed street peddlers. There are thou
d sands of them in Paris, and the,
n constitute quasi-organization, elec
.! their own "king," whose orders the.
< follow implicitly, and rely for thei
i success in business much more on th
s. ability to amuse the public, than OF
le the quality or cheapness of thei
h wares. Most cameIotes are quick
n witted. sharp at repartee, and endowe'
"a with good tact and with fair dose o
N human knowledge, ss is shown ii
o! my above brief narration Of person
ID ally experienced incident. When tn
Parisians are amused, they are libera
= buyers, and that is the reason VIII
! many camelotes are very prosperou
- in business.
!. Somehow or other, the Paris munic
= pality will not issue licenses to thes
peddlers; perhaps, because many Q
nd them do not have perfectly clea
Il police record. The populace, however
= = is always to be found on the side Q
the csmelote, and strongly againi