429

CHAPTER XXIV.

Some men of the Commune -- Cluseret -- His opinion of Rossel --
His opinion of Bergeret -- What Cluseret was fighting for --
Thiers and Abraham Lincoln -- Raoul Rigault on horseback --
Theophile Ferre -- Ferre and Gil-Peres, the actor -- The comic
men of the Commune -- Gambon -- Jourde, one of the most valuable
of the lot -- His financial abilities -- His endeavours to save
-- Jourde at Godillot's -- Colonel Maxime Lisbonne -- The
Editor's recollections of him -- General Dombrowski and General
la Cecilia -- A soiree at the Tuileries -- A gala-performance at
the Opera Comique -- The death-knell of the Commune 462

AN ENGLISHMAN IN PARIS.

CHAPTER I.

The Quartier-Latin in the late thirties -- The difference between
then and now -- A caricature on the walls of Paris -- I am
anxious to be introduced to the quarter whence it emanated -- I
am taken to "La Childebert," and make the acquaintance of the
original of the caricature -- The story of Bouginier and his nose
-- Dantan as a caricaturist -- He abandons that branch of art
after he has made Madame Malibran burst into tears at the sight
of her statuette -- How Bouginier came to be immortalized on the
facade of the Passage du Caire -- One of the first co-operative
societies in France -- An artists' hive -- The origin of "La
Childebert" -- Its tenants in my time -- The proprietress --
Madame Chanfort, the providence of poor painters -- Her portraits
sold after her death -- High jinks at "La Childebert" -- The
Childebertians and their peacefully inclined neighbours --
Gratuitous baths and compulsory douches at "La Childebert" -- The
proprietress is called upon to repair the roof -- The
Childebertians bivouac on the Place St. Germain-des-Pres -- They
start a "Society for the Conversion of the Mahometans" -- The
public subscribe liberally -- What becomes of the subscriptions?
-- My visits to "La Childebert" breed a taste for the other
amusements of the Quartier-Latin -- Bobino and its entertainments
-- The audience -- The manager -- His stereotyped speech -- The
reply in chorus -- Woe to the bourgeois-intruder -- Stove-pipe
hats a rarity in the Quartier-Latin -- The dress of the
collegians -- Their mode of living -- Suppers when mone