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Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 421 - Volume 17, New Series, January 24, 1852 by Various
page 25 of 70 (35%)
service, but must know all about them--how the omnibus horses live,
and how many miles they run per diem; what variety of occupations the
porters resort to for a livelihood; and what are the substances, and
their value, that the chiffonniers scrape every morning from the
kennel. Sir Francis is great on pig slaughter-houses, furnished
lodgings, and police-officers. He tells you every particular of his
lodging: how he ascended the stair; what landing-places there were;
what price he was to pay; how the servant brought him too few pieces
of butter to breakfast, and what he said in ordering more; how one day
he perceived a bad smell in his sitting-room, and shifted to a higher
part of the building, where the bad smell did not come; how he finally
paid his account, and how the _concierge_ bade him good-by. All
important information this. An equally true and particular narrative
is given of Sir Francis's object in visiting Paris, which was to
consult an occulist on the subject of his eyes. In going to the
occulist's, we are informed how he left his lodgings at a quarter
before seven o'clock; how he crossed the Place Vendôme, and saw a
sentinel pacing at the foot of Napoleon's Column; how he observed that
the sentinel had the misfortune to have a hole in his greatcoat, which
affords an opportunity too good to be lost for quoting that
little-known verse of Burns's--'If there's a hole in a' your coats,'
&c.; how he then, being done with looking at the sentinel, goes on his
way, crosses the Boulevard des Italiens, and enters the Rue de la
Chaussée d'Antin; how he looks about him till he sees No. 50, and,
having spoken a word to the door-keeper, goes up stairs. Then, he
informs his readers that he rang the doctor's bell; and how, the door
being opened by a boy in livery, he was shewn into a drawing-room.
Here, he tells us, he sat down in company with a number of other
patients, waiting their turn to be called by the doctor. Vastly
amusing all this, but nothing to what follows:--'For a considerable
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