Pickwick Abroad: A Companion to the Pickwick Papers — page 154: what you’re looking at

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' e - 140 portraits of Napoleon: one represents him upon a white horse, another on a sort of blueish one, and a third upon his legs, The French prosecute the fine arts with great dil- igence. In newspaper advertisements, an announcement of acoach or a house for sale, is prefaced by a vignette of a coach or a house ; wine-merchants adopt a small picture of a-person drinking ina cellar, dc., dc. The ladies not only have their portraits painted, but paint their own faces also. The crowds that collect round the picture-shops, are pea favorable to pick-pockets, thieves, uC, SCULPTURE. Effigies of Napoleon abound in Paris. You may purchase a Murat for twelve sous, a Jerome Bonaparte for fifteen, an Emperor of Russia for twenty, and a Great Mogul for twenty-five. Kings are amazingly cheap amongst the sculptors; whence | infer, that all French sculptors are republicans. MUSIC. People, who play barrel-organs in the streets, must be licensed by the Prefect of Police. Dancing bears are generally attend- ed oy big drums and fifes. Charlatans fre- quently employ tambourins and’ fiddles to attract a crowd round their tables in the streets leading out of the Boulevards. Mon- keys not unfrequently accompany the tune of the barrel-organs, in cheerful dances: in- deed, the monkeys in Paris appear particu- larly fond of dancing. PUBLIC EDIFICES. The public edifices of Paris are numerous and beautiful—especially the hotels, eating- houses, and coffee-rooms, The prison for debtors is in the Rue de Clichy: it is a com- fortable and salubrious place, finely situated in one of the most agreeable quarters of Paris, enjoys the advantage of a select neighborhood, and is greatly frequented by the English. POLITICS. It‘is so very unsafe to discuss this subject in Paris, that I failed to obtain any accurate account of the political situation of the French. | MANNERS. These are peculiar. A begger, when he meets a gentleman engaged in the same pro- -fession, takes off his hat and makes a low bow., An individual, who sweeps a crossing co Tad OF 2 PICKWICK ABROAD. : man who was selling matches*thé ‘ot her day. “ A thousand pardons, Madame” exclaimed the street-sweeper. Don’t meition it, Monsieur,” was the match-woman’sireply. near the Madeleine, ran Sreedip titer we LITERATURE. I candidly confess that I am not s.fficient ly acquainted with the language, to read French books; but I know that they are in famous. Their most celebrated men are one Voltaire, who. wrote a Philosophical Dic tionary—Corneille, a play-wright—anu Paul] de Kock, a novelist ‘They have also a bal- lad-composer named Beranger. But Vol- taire’s performance is not to be compared with Grose’s Slang Dictionary—Corneille is not equal to Sniggers, who. writes for the penny theatre in the New Cut—and Beran- ger’s songs are greatly excelled by that famous collection of English ballads popu- | larly known as the hundred songs for a penny. ai? ? “ There, what do you think of that ?” cried Mr. Wegsworth Muffley, as he brought his memyranda toa conclusion, “ I should hope there’s enough for two good thick volumes there !” ' “ Don’t you think you might have said a little mare on some of those subjects ?” asked Mr. Pickwick. . “Qh! I shall swell. the work out, you know,” returned Mr. Muffley.. “ In the com- mencement, you will recollect, that I noted the various points of interest which occurred to me; and then I most impartially put down my own inferences. _Well—from each of these inferences, J shall draw ten more, and so'on. Capital plan, isnt it “ What a sensation it will create in the minds of the English, this new work—no- vum opus—of yours !” ejaculated Mr, Chitty : “there will be the devil to pay—diabolum solvere !” | | “T went down to Greenwich last summer, and staid there for a week or ten days,” said Mr. Wegsworth Muffley ; “ and that tip put a hundred pounds in my pocket.” “ How was that ?” asked Mr. 'Tupman. “Why—1 wrote my Impressions of a Voyage to Greenwich, and Residence in that Town,” was the answer. “ But my crack work was Doings in Dover, with an appeu- dix containing Hints upon Hythe, and he- miniscences of Rye.” — + (CO (A) LNOOKS,E©