Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 December 1901 — PARIS STREET HAWKERS. [ARTICLE]

PARIS STREET HAWKERS.

Tb* “Camelot'* of the French Metro poll* in Ingenious Creature. The Paris “camelot,” or street hawker, is the most Ingenious creature for turning an honest—or even a dishonest —penny, says the London Graphic. His chief is a man named Hayard, who is known as the “Empereur des Camelots,” and who keeps a shop in the Rue de Croissant, a side street of the Rue Montmantre, the Fleet street of Pari a Hayard will for a few hundred francs produce to order an outburst of popular enthusiasm for any cause—Royalist, Monarchist or Republican, anti-Semitic, Dreyfusard or anti-Dreyfusard; it is a matter of indifference to him and his men. “Vive” this or “A has” that is shouted with vigor, provided the cash is forthcoming. Two francs a head a day is the usual price, but if the cause for which they have to shout is one that can bring the manifestants into collision with the police, the price varies between two and five francs, medical aid and legal assistance being also guaranteed. It is at such times as a royal visit that Hayard reaps a golden harvest. The morning after the announcement of -the arrival of Nicholas 11. he had half a dozen presses going printing oft patriotic verses set to popular tunes, which the “camelots" sell by thousands in every part of the city. Mme. Hayard, aided by a rickety piano, teaches them the melody In batches of twenty or thirty In the courtyard behind the shop. Then there are medals and badgeß, buttons and rosettes of Franco-Rus-sian colors and bearing the portraits of the royal guests. These sell like “hot cakes” at handsome profits. All these dreams of wealth have melted Into thin air under the announcement that the czar and czarina are not coming to Paris. The expenditure on the Chateau of Complegne is reckoned by hundreds of thousands of francs. Over a million francs have already been spent, and the expenditure still continues by hundreds of thousands at a time. The whole chateau has been overhauled from cellar to garret; priceless furniture, rare tapestries and valuable pictures are arriving daily and hourly. It Is proposed that after the departure of the czar the chateau should be left as It will be during his majesty’s visit, but this, I am afraid, is impossible.—New York Press.