206 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 



and fifty francs per year, a difference of one-half 

 in favor of the workman at Issoire as compared 

 with the pauper labor of Clermont." 



The workman Jacques read this aloud in the bar- 

 room of the Lion d'Or, and pondered over it a 

 good deal, for the logic was irrefutable ; and yet 

 after all these years he had not four hundred and 

 fifty francs which he could call his own. 



The mayor made a speech to the workingmen, 

 congratulating them on his re-election, and assuring 

 them that " for them and for them alone the octroi 

 was brought to Issoire. It was the pride of Issoire 

 that its workingmen were princes and not paupers. 

 If they paid high prices for articles of necessity, 

 it was only that they might get higher prices in 

 return. You sell more than you buy, and what 

 you sell, the strength of your own right arms, costs 

 you nothing, and, when it is sold, is as much yours 

 as it was before. It is God's bounty to the work- 

 ingman. If these industries which the octroi has 

 built up around you are left unprotected, you too 

 would be left without defence. In the natural com- 

 petition of trade, the rich grow richer and the poor 

 poorer. Without the octroi we should behold here 

 as at Clermont the spectacle of the chariot-wheels 

 of Dives throwing dust into the eyes of Lazarus. 

 But here in Issoire Lazarus is, so to speak, already 

 in Abraham's bosom. The workingmen of Issoire 

 have no truer friend than Issoire's mayor, and to 

 cherish their interests is the dream by day and 

 by night of Issoire's Common Council." 



But we must return to the boot-trade, on which 

 the octroi was first established. The history of that 



