Produced by Chris Curnow, RichardW, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE Original small caps font is all capitals herein. Original italics is _surrounded with low lines_. See ENDNOTE for more details. ACROBATS AND MOUNTEBANKS. BY HUGUES LE ROUX & JULES GARNIER. TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY A. P. MORTON. WITH 233 ILLUSTRATIONS. [Illustration] LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, LIMITED, 1890. RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BUNGAY. [Illustration] PREFACE. _The Banquistes_ was the first title chosen for this book: it has been altered for two reasons which appeared conclusive after some consideration: the general public would have misunderstood it, and it would certainly have wounded those interested in it, who would have known what it meant. But if we consult an etymological dictionary we shall find that the word SALTIMBANQUE, which is more generally used than BANQUISTE, is derived from a definite root: SALTIMBANQUE, _s. m._, from the Italian word SALTIMBANCO: who vaults on a bench (Latin, SALTARE IN BANCO). In Italian we also find the word CANTIMBANCO, a platform singer. I must add that when, after tracing out the etymology of the words SALTIMBANQUISTE and _banquiste_, we search for the origin of the word _banker_, we shall find that the same radical, BANCO, is the root of these three derivatives. In the old fairs two personages were allowed to erect a small platform, a “banc”—the money-changer and the acrobat. Perhaps the “banc” already served as a spring-board, giving both the BANKER and the BANQUISTE a greater impetus in their leap; perhaps we must even look back to the same date to find the exact origin of the now common expression “LEVER LE PIED” (to abscond). However this may be, after the perusal of this book, it will be readily understood that the contemporary acrobat, established, enriched, emerging into the middle classes, indignantly rejects a slang term which apparently assigns to him the same origin as that of our modern financiers. This intolerance is certainly not the only surprise reserved for the reader of these pages. We claim to lead him to the threshold of an unknown world.