Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 421 - Volume 17, New Series, January 24, 1852 by Various
page 25 of 70 (35%)
page 25 of 70 (35%)
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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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