The Arcades Project - Operi

they would then deliver alms personally to these people and, in this way, derive a
novel stimulus for their jaded nerves. Each number of this workers' review began
with a summary enumeration of the poor people who had registered with the
editor; details of their plight could be found in the register itself. ... Even after
the February Revolution, at a time when all social classes looked on one another
with distrust, ... La Ruche populaire continued to facilitate personal contacts
between rich and poor . ... This is all the more remarkahle in light of the fact that,
even during this period, all articles in La Ruche populaire were written by actual
workers engaged in some practical occupation." Sigmund Englander, Geschichte
derJranzosischenArbeiter-Associationen (Hamhurg, 1864,), vol. 2, pp. 78-80, 82-
83. [a3,lJ
HThe expansion achieved by industry in Paris during the past thirty years has
given a certain importance to the trade of ragpicker, which occupies the lowest
level on the industrial scale. Men, women, and children can all easily devote themselves
to the practice of this trade, which requires no apprenticeship and ealls for
tools that are as simple as its methods-a basket, a hook, and a lantern comprising
the ragpieker's only equipment. The adult ragpicker, in order to earn 25-40 sous
per day (depending on the season), is ordinarily obliged to make three rounds, two
during the day and one at night; the first two take place from five o'clock in the
morning until nine o'cloek, and from eleven o'clock until [here, there are four
pages missing from the copy in the Bibliotheque Nationale!]. Like salaried workers,
they have a habit of frequenting taverns . ... Like them, and more than them,
they make a show of the expenditures which this habit entails. Among the older
ragpickers and particularly among the older women, spirits hold an attraction like
nothing else . . . . The ragpickers are not always content with ordinary wine in
these taverns; they like to order mulled wine, and they take great offense if this
drink does not contain, along with a strong dose of sugar, the aroma produced hy
the use of lemons." H.-A. Fregier, Des Classes dangereuses de la population