Chapter I

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