by the _Figaro_ for the same charitable purpose, and for those who had distinguished themselves, at the risk of their lives, in saving victims from the flames, realized the sum of one million two hundred and eighteen thousand and fifteen francs, and another, by the _Rappel_, more than fifteen thousand francs. And, finally, the Comtesse de Castellane, who had been the American Miss Gould, gave a million of francs for the purchase of another site and the construction of another edifice for the work of the organized charity of Paris. Among the lighter details of information concerning this illustrious society may be mentioned an article by the Vicomte A. de Royer in a recent number of the _Revue des Revues_ (October, 1898), which undertakes to demonstrate, by means of documents, that, of the forty-five thousand "noble" families in France, only four hundred and fifty are in a position to substantiate a claim to ancient lineage, and that, of the three hundred and forty-six princely families of France, which are all that are left, not one has the right to wear the closed coronet. All the titles of the latter are usurped, and are purely fanciful. No fewer than twenty-five thousand families put the particle _de_ in front of their names without a shadow of right; and it appears that the Republic manufactures another forty of such families every year. When official permission to thus distinguish the family name is refused, it is simply dispensed with. In addition, the Pope gives or sells, on an average, sixty titles of "count" or "prince" every year, and though these are not current, the possessors wear them, just the same. The Paris _Journal_ demanded, indignantly, if M. de Royer thought he was doing a patriotic work in thus closing the French market to American heiresses. To conclude: we quote what M. Henri Lavedan, in his recent work: _Les Jeunes, ou L'Espoir de la France_, gives as a typical conversation between three young men of the highest society in Paris, "the hope of France." The scene is laid in the apartments of D'Allarège, about five o'clock in the afternoon. All three are smoking. The day is declining; they comprehend each other in silence. At intervals, they alternately allow a monosyllable to fall, which is as the affirmation of their absence of thought: BRIOUZE.--"Yes...." (_Puff of smoke._) MONTOIS.--"Yes...." (_Then a black hole of silence. Puffs. Spirals. Sound of carriages. Paris continues its murmur._) MONTOIS.--"Ah! la, la!" D'ALLARÈGE.--"Is it not?" BRIOUZE.--"To whom do you say it?" (_Blue smoke through the nose. Ashes fall from the cigar. And time passes._) D'ALLARÈGE (to Montois).--"And besides that?" MONTOIS.--"Not much." THE BOURGEOIS AND THE LOWER CLASSES FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE PRESENT DAY [Illustration: TWO SANS-CULOTTES. PERIOD, 1792.]