; if
at the end of this period the object is not redeemed, it is sold at
public auction. Some of these pledges have been in the establishment for
forty, forty-five, and fifty years, and very many for twenty,--constantly
renewed and never redeemed. When sold, the surplus or _boni_ remaining
after deducting all charges is held at the disposal of the owner of the
pledge for three years, and then turned over to the administration of
the Assistance Publique.

By the law of July 25, 1891, this establishment is permitted to advance
money, at its usual rates, on French Rentes and other bonds and
securities authorized by an ordinance of the Prefet of the Seine. These
loans are not to exceed five hundred francs each, nor to be less than
three francs, and the duration of the loan is for six months, unless
renewed. The capital on which the Mont-de-Piete does business is
borrowed from stockholders or subscribers, to whom it pays interest; one
of the principal of these is the Comedie-Francaise, which, by the famous
decree of Moscow, is required to place two millions of its surplus in
this official benevolent institution.

* * * * *

Much the most important public service of Paris is the Bureau of _Postes
et Telegraphes_, the administration of which is confided to a
Sous-Secretaire d'Etat, and which employs, altogether, nearly thirteen
thousand _fonctionnaires_, male and female. Of the efficiency of the
postal service, the Parisians are justly proud; the telephone service,
on the contrary, since it has passed under the management of the
government, is a source of more earnest and heated complaint on the part
of the unfortunate subscribers than even is usual in other lands before
this aggravating mouthpiece and tube. The earliest postal service in
France, according to the historians, was maintained by the Universite
for the benefit of its students, who were enabled to correspond with
their relatives by means of messengers; this exclusive privilege, long
preserved, was finally combined with the service which Louis XI
established to serve the ends of his crooked policy. The modern postal
service may be said to date from the reign of Louis XIII; and, in its
gradual development, has passed through much the same phases as in other
countries. During the seventeenth century, the central office was
located in some contracted quarters established in front of the
colonnade of the Louvre, and was eventually trans