Ballads of a Bohemian by Robert W. (Robert William) Service
page 13 of 211 (06%)
page 13 of 211 (06%)
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You've heard of Julot the ~apache~, and Gigolette, his ~mome~. . . .
Montmartre was their hunting-ground, but Belville was their home. A little chap just like a boy, with smudgy black mustache, -- Yet there was nothing juvenile in Julot the ~apache~. From head to heel as tough as steel, as nimble as a cat, With every trick of twist and kick, a master of ~savate~. And Gigolette was tall and fair, as stupid as a cow, With three combs in the greasy hair she banged upon her brow. You'd see her on the Place Pigalle on any afternoon, A primitive and strapping wench as brazen as the moon. And yet there is a tale that's told of Clichy after dark, And two ~gendarmes~ who swung their arms with Julot for a mark. And oh, but they'd have got him too; they banged and blazed away, When like a flash a woman leapt between them and their prey. She took the medicine meant for him; she came down with a crash . . . "Quick now, and make your get-away, O Julot the ~apache~!" . . . But no! He turned, ran swiftly back, his arms around her met; They nabbed him sobbing like a kid, and kissing Gigolette. Now I'm a reckless painter chap who loves a jamboree, And one night in Cyrano's bar I got upon a spree; And there were trollops all about, and crooks of every kind, But though the place was reeling round I didn't seem to mind. Till down I sank, and all was blank when in the bleary dawn I woke up in my studio to find -- my money gone; Three hundred francs I'd scraped and squeezed to pay my quarter's rent. "Some one has pinched my wad," I wailed; "it never has been spent." And as I racked my brains to seek how I could raise some more, Before my cruel landlord kicked me cowering from the door: A knock . . . "Come in," I gruffly groaned; I did not raise my head, |
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