Gay life in Paris: how life is enjoyed by the people of that great metropolis — John Shaqi
Gay life in Paris: how life is enjoyed by the people of that great metropolisAnonymous
History
Gay life in Paris: how life is enjoyed by the people of that great metropolis
Anonymous
Paris (France) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
On receipt of 30 cents we will send, postpaid, a large book entitled
“Mabille Unmasked.” It tells of the wickedest place in the world, how
it was started, who have patronized it, and what has happened there. It
is one of the greatest sensational books of the age. A notable feature
is that it is full of pictures taken from life. Send 30 cents, stamps,
to U. S. Supply Co., Box 329, Lynn, Mass. Another sensational book is
entitled “Coney Island Frolics.” It is profusely illustrated. Sent
postpaid for 30 cents by U. S. Supply Co.
Deep In Sin.
At the entrance to the Rue de Trois Portes, the writer made a sudden
move. “Here’s a poor, ragged woman lying stretched out on the sidewalk.
She looks as if she might be dead.”
“Dead drunk,” responded the Chief of Detectives, cynically. “Even
animal life seems suspended. Do you detect a very loathsome smell? It
is a combination of all the drinks and perfumes popular among women of
her kind. She is still young--hardly thirty years old.” Between her
thick lips gleamed fine white teeth. She must have been pretty at one
time.
“How disgusting she looks, all plastered over with mud.”
“She is what they call a ‘sidewalker.’”
“What’s that?”
“It is the slang name for a class of prostitutes whose only home is
the scaffolding round some old house that is being pulled down, or
some new one that is being built. They carry on their trade in the
open air under bridges, in the trenches of the fortifications, in back
alleys, where there are no janitors. Once a week, regularly, this one
fetches up in the station-house. She comes lawfully by her drunkenness.
Her mother died in hospital of delirium tremens. Her father committed
suicide while drunk. She herself has almost got to the end of her rope.
Some day, coming out of a pot-house, she’ll drop dead in the street,
and then she’ll be on show, for the last time, at the Morgue. Although
known to thousands, nobody will claim her body, and she will be turned
over to the medical school for dissection.”
“What was her parents’ business?”
“Her mother’s trade could not be classified. Her father was a
perambulating ‘fence,’ who used to peddle stolen goods from door to
door.”
A Hellish Babel.
A saloon called “The Senate” contained tables almost touching each
other, at which customers, male and female, were packed like herrings
in a barrel.
The uproar was something indescribable. Some were shouting, some were
screaming, some were reciting obscene verses. Five or six indecent
choruses were being sung at the same time. Language of incredible
foulness was roared from one to another, shrieks of drunken laughter
and the crash of broken glass were incessant.
To overhear one’s neighbor, one had to bend his ear right to his mouth.
The solitary waiter, sweating like a runaway horse, was in evil humor.
Woe to the man who stood in his way.
Everything was paid for in advance, and all drinks cost 15 centimes
(7-1/2 cents).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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