CHAPTER I

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PAGE 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 money was flush, rolls and milk when it was not -- A fortune-teller in the Rue de Tournon -- Her prediction as to the future of Josephine de Beauharnais -- The allowance to students in those days -- The Odeon deserted -- Students' habits -- The Chaumiere -- Rural excursions -- Pere Bonvin's 1

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