274 THE WORLD'S LUMBER ROOM. 



of the goods which are piled up in and around the huts 

 until they are sold ; but the chiffonnier is personally less 

 dirty than might be expected, and his health is as good 

 as that of other poor people. 



Most of the fraternity have been chiffonniers all their 

 lives, for the calling is hereditary in certain families, and 

 has been so for so many generations that the chiffonniers 

 form a distinct caste, speaking, as Mr. Simmonds says, not 

 a word of real French. 



They have to work hard, making usually two journeys 

 every night from the outskirts to the heart of the city. 

 They have to turn night into day, and to carry heavy loads, 

 and they must go out whatever the weather may be. But 

 if their earnings are but moderate, they are, at all events, 

 regular, and much more certain than those of many callings 

 which rank far higher in the public estimation. 



They are always on very good terms with the police, 

 and though they may be said to be almost outside the pale 

 of civilisation, are usually of no religion, and live and die 

 without having any very certain civil standing, still crimes 

 are almost unknown among them, and they are some of the 

 most peaceable and orderly inhabitants of the unquiet city 

 of Paris. They have never taken any part in the frequent 

 revolutions, they kept tranquil during the Commune, and, 

 it is said, went their nightly rounds and calmly picked 

 their dust-heaps, even during that fearful week in 1871, 

 when one part of the beautiful city was in flames, and 

 Versaillists and Communards were fighting like savages in 

 other quarters. 



In England we have no one who at all answers to the 



