Berkeley

1901 · réf. 60730bd — New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company November 1901. Octavo illustrated khaki cloth hardcover 205 pp. Very Good with light soiling to lower cover and a touch of rubbing to spine and edges; upper cover illustration remarkably bright. “Like a dry brook its cobblestone bed zigzagging past quaint shops and cafes the rue Vaugirard finds its way through the heart of the Latin Quarter. It is only one in a score of other busy little streets that intersect the Quartier Latin; but as I live on the rue Vaugirard or rather just beside it up an alley and in the corner of a picturesque old courtyard leading to the “Lavoir Gabriel” a somewhat angelic name for a huge barn-like structure reeking in suds and steam and noisy with gossiping washerwomen who pay a few sous a day there for the privilege of doing their washing -- and as my studio windows the big one with the north light and the other one a narrow slit reaching from the floor to the high ceiling for the taking in of the big canvases one sees at the Salon -- which are never sold overlook both alley and court I can see the life and bustle below. This is not the Paris of Boulevards ablaze with light and thronged with travelers of the world nor of big hotels and chic restaurants without prices on the menus. In the latter the matre d’hotel makes a mental inventory of you when you arrive; and before you have reached your coffee and cigar or before madame has buttoned her gloves this well-shaved dignified personage has passed sentence on you and you pay according to whatever he thinks you cannot afford. I knew a fellow once who ordered a peach in winter at one of these smart taverns and was obliged to wire home for money the next day. In the Quartier Latin the price is always such an important factor that it is marked plainly and often the garcon will remind you of the cost of the dish you select in case you have not read aright for in this true Bohemia one’s daily fortune is the one necessity so often lacking that any error in regard to its expenditure is a serious matter.” Funk & Wagnalls Company, November 1901. hardcover books