Paris herself again in 1878-9 . ut poorly. Rag Fair wasbut a squalid prelude to an exhibition of pig-meat; yet there com-menced, at the Chateau dEau, and continued for at least fivehundred j^ards, one of the most astonishing heterogeneous open-air markets that I have ever beheld. There were a few stalls,and perhaps half a dozen booths ; but in the great majority ofcases the objects on sale were laid out on the bare earth of theBoulevard esplanade. Locks, keys, bolts, bars, fireirons, kitchenutensils, chains, dog-collars, nails, screws, hooks, workmens toolsof every conceivable form and in ever
Paris herself again in 1878-9 . ut poorly. Rag Fair wasbut a squalid prelude to an exhibition of pig-meat; yet there com-menced, at the Chateau dEau, and continued for at least fivehundred j^ards, one of the most astonishing heterogeneous open-air markets that I have ever beheld. There were a few stalls,and perhaps half a dozen booths ; but in the great majority ofcases the objects on sale were laid out on the bare earth of theBoulevard esplanade. Locks, keys, bolts, bars, fireirons, kitchenutensils, chains, dog-collars, nails, screws, hooks, workmens toolsof every conceivable form and in every imaginable stage of rustand dilapidation, shop-counters and fittings, apothecaries jars andnests of dummy drawers for drugs, ragged carpets, lace curtainsand rolls of matting, pottery and glass, umbrellas and sticks, THE GREAT HAM FAHl. 293 cheap prints and photographs, candlesticks and chimney orna-ments, oil-paintings—yes, paintings in oil; hut such picturesand such frames !—all these were displayed in groups and heaps,. in single or in serried rows, on either side the esplanade, whichwas crowded by a multitude of working people, bonnes, children >grisettes, female cooks and housekeepers to petits rentiers, and 294 PARIS HERSELF AGAIN. peasants from the outlying villages, in true villageois sabots, stripednightcaps, and bonnets blancs. There were a few seminarists, anda considerable number of private soldiers. Everything on saleseemed to have been cracked, battered, and broken, re-mendedand re-smashed half a dozen times ; and the merchants who sat,or rather squatted, at the receipt of custom, seemed to have beenin early life either the rank and file of Falstaff s ragged regiment,or the vivandieres and female camp-followers attached to thathistorical corps. I never saw such a Bezesteen of rusty andmouldy rattletraps. The squalor of the scene was only relieved by a sprinkling ofstalls devoted to the sale of bright-coloured lollipops and of ginger-bread—solid wedges o
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