CHAPTER V

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The Boulevards in the forties -- The Chinese Baths -- A favourite tobacconist of Alfred de Musset -- The price of cigars -- The diligence still the usual mode of travelling -- Provincials in Paris -- Parliamentary see-saw between M. Thiers and M. Guizot -- Amenities of editors -- An advocate of universal suffrage -- Distribution of gratuitous sausages to the working man on the king's birthday -- The rendezvous of actors in search of an engagement -- Frederick Lemaitre on the eve of appearing in a new part -- The Legitimists begin to leave their seclusion and to mingle with the bourgeoisie -- Alexandre Dumas and Scribe -- The latter's fertility as a playwright -- The National Guards go shooting, in uniform and in companies, on the Plaine Saint-Denis -- Vidocq's private inquiry office in the Rue Vivienne -- No river-side resorts -- The plaster elephant on the Place de la Bastille -- The sentimental romances of Loisa Puget -- The songs of the working classes -- Cheap bread and wine -- How they enjoyed themselves on Sundays and holidays -- Theophile Gautier's pony-carriage -- The hatred of the bourgeoisie -- Nestor Roqueplan's expression of it -- Gavarni's -- M. Thiers' sister keeps a restaurant at the corner of the Rue Drouot -- When he is in power, the members of the Opposition go and dine there, and publish facetious accounts of the entertainment -- All appearances to the contrary, people like Guizot better than Thiers -- But few entries for the race for wealth in those days -- The Rothschilds still live in the Rue Lafitte -- Favourite lounges -- The Boulevards, the Rue Le Peletier, and the Passage de l'Opera -- The Opera -- The Rue Le Peletier and its attractions -- The Restaurant of Paolo Broggi -- The Estaminet du Divan -- Literary waiters and Boniface -- Major Fraser -- The mystery surrounding his origin -- Another mysterious personage -- The Passage de l'Opera is invaded by the stockjobbers, and loses its prestige as a promenade -- Bernard Latte's, the publisher of Donizetti's operas, becomes deserted -- Tortoni's -- Louis-Blanc -- His scruples as an editor -- A few words about duelling -- Two tragic meetings -- Lola Montes -- Her adventurous career -- A celebrated trial -- My first meeting with Gustave Flaubert, the author of "Madame Bovary" and "Salambo" -- Emile de Girardin -- His opinion of duelling -- My decision with regard to it -- The original of "La Dame aux Camelias" -- Her parentage -- Alexandre Dumas gives the diagnosis of her character in connection with his son's play -- L'Homme au Camellia -- M. Lautour-Mezerai, the inventor of children's periodical literature in France -- Auguste Lireux -- He takes the management of the Odeon -- Balzac again -- His schemes, his greed -- Lireux more fortunate with other authors -- Anglophobia on the French stage -- Gallophobia on the English stage 86

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