Balzac by Frederick Lawton
page 7 of 293 (02%)
page 7 of 293 (02%)
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and by his fur. Add to these things Bolivar hats and spurs, and the
moustaches of a counter-skipper, and you have the most singular harlequin to be met with on the face of the globe." Among the masses there were changes just as striking. For the moment militarism had disappeared, to the people's unfeigned content, and the Garde Nationale, composed of pot-bellied tradesmen, alone recalled the bright uniforms of the Empire. To make up for the soldier excitements of the _Petit Caporal_, attractions of all kinds tempted the citizen to enjoy himself after his day's toil was finished--menagerie, mountebanks, Franconi circus, Robertson the conjurer in the Jardin des Capucines. At the other end of the city, in the Boulevard du Temple, were Belle Madeleine, the seller of Nanterre cakes, famous throughout Europe, the face contortionist Valsuani, Miette in his egg-dance, Curtius' waxworks. By each street corner were charlatans of one or another sort exchanging jests with the passers-by. It was the period when the Prudhomme type was created, so common in all the skits and caricatures of the day. One of the greatest pleasures of the citizen under the Restoration was to mock at the English. Revenge for Waterloo was found in written and spoken satires. Huge was the success of Sewrin's and Dumersan's _Anglaises pour rire_, with Brunet and Potier travestied as _grandes dames_, dancing a jig so vigorously that they lost their skirts. The same species of _revanche_ was indulged in when Lady Morgan, the novelist, came to France, seeking material for a popular book describing French customs. Henri Beyle (Stendhal) hoaxed her by acting as her cicerone and filling her note-books with absurd information, which she accepted in good faith and carried off as fact. On Sundays the most respectable families used to resort to the _guinguettes_, or _bastringues_, of the suburbs. Belleville had its celebrated Desnoyers establishment. At the Maine gate Mother Sagnet's |
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