Year: 1870

VIlhOOOOHLO D OUNfEO IUNu


Many years ago, there lived in
Lyons, France, a wealthy silk-weav-


er, who one bright day met with a


great misfortune, which was no less


than the loss of two valuable serv-


ants. They suddenly disappeared
together, and all inquiries and search


for them proved utterly fruitless;


and, indeed, so well had their tracks


been covered that it was impossible


to trace them beyond a neighboring


corner not fifty yards from the house.


They abstracted many articles of


value and convenience, such as lin


en-, various utensils, bottles of liq-


uor, ETC., and among the rest a boy


of ten years of age, the neglected
and disliked youngest son Of the


family. He was puny, pale, and


spiritless, and fell out with his rela-


tions the moment he appeared among


them, by giving his hollow heart in


all its entirety to his soft-handen,


kind-faced nurse, who for her part


reciprocated as well as a woman
could who had received hundreds of


such affections in her long expert
ence, but only TO see them fade and


die when the givers of them were
able to stand alone. There was a


great hueand-cry raised all over the


empire, and all sorts of proceedings


put into operation for the capture
Of the departed trio; but weeks, then
months, and finally years elapsed, |
and the occurrence faded into some |
thing dim with a few, and with the !
majority was lost altogether.


The silk-Weaver, therefore, who
was enormously wealthy, continued |
to give his famous Sunday dinners
to his select party of fellow-epicures,
who declared that they rather liked
the change in the cooks upon the
whole, though they frequently con
fessed, to his great discomfort, that
the flavor Of some little dish only
suggested the saddening memory of
what it might have been. Barring
this drawback, matters continued
much as before; the vacancy made
by the absence Of fle son, however,
was not filed, as his mother died in
giving him birth.


Some four years after the disap-
pearance, a baker and pastry cook
named Chabussal, who resided and
kept his shop in a sunny street in
London, which we will call Jermyn
street, suddenly sprang into motor
iety and fame. By saying suddenly, /
it is not intended to convey a French
mans idea Of the time in which it is
possible to achieve a city-wide repu-
tation, namely, twenty-four hours
or week, but the more stable and
merited celebrity which may be OBJ
tanned among Englishmen or us
Americans in eight months or a
year. That Chabussal had attained |
his deservingly and securely, there
could be no manner Of doubt; for
his custom, beginning and continu
ing for long time in the purchases
of two or three scores of people, sud
denly blazed into those of a score of |
hundreds, and from ten in the morn
ing until four in the afternoon his
little shop was thronged. The great
body of the crowd came on foot, butt
there was a multitude also came in
liveried carriages, which were re
quired by the police to take their
turns, thus making a
line which often extended for blocks.
The people on the sidewalks, too,
were obliged to make Gordon
which generally was good-naturad,
if customers in advance made their
purchases quickly; and the advent
of every one bearing in his hand the
welI-known pure, white papered par
Gel, with its neat pink ribbon, was
signal for smothered cheer or
clapping of hands. Sometimes
there were wrangles and quarrels,
but the people were mostly too busy
with their calculations of their chan
ces, and of the probable holding out
of the desired article, to have much
to say.


This article was pastry for des-
sert, and which Chabussal had re-
vived from an old idea, and consid-
erablv embellished and placed be-
fore the public. The faky crust
had in its different parts no less
than three distinct and delicate fav
ors, while the creamy interior, with
It's Drowned meringue, was probably
the most devine offering mans pal
ate ever appreciated. The compost
ton of this was ChabussaPs special
work, and was carried on in a little
cabinet with locked door which led
off from his kitchen. He was oblig
ed at first to double the number Of
IS iourneymen in order to prepare
the required amount of pastry, and
finally such was the increase of his
business, and the imperative and
constantly-increasing demands Of
the public, that he was obliged again
to double his force.


With Frenchman's true tact and
foresight, he fatty declined to re
move to larger and more elegant
place, though often pressed to do so


by those busy bodies who love to


coddle an humble mans success,


particularly if it costs them nothing.


He was acutely aware that the vail


ue Of his dessert was much enhanced
by the humbleness of the counter


over which it was sold, and that his


trade would suffer no diminution
were his customers forced to tell