Page:The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter.djvu/264

product of nature, every creation of art; whatever issues from the bowels of the earth or the head of man, was an object of commerce for him. His business included every thing; literally, every thing that exists; he even trafficked in the idea. He bought ideas to sell or speculate in them. Known to all literary men and all artists, intimate with the palette and familiar with the desk, he was the very Asmodeus of the arts. He would sell you cigars for a column of your newspaper, slippers for a sonnet, fresh fish for paradoxes; he would talk, for so much an hour, with the people who furnished fashionable gossip to the journals. He would procure you places for the debates in the Chambers, and invitations to parties. He lodged wandering artistlings by the day, week, or month, taking for pay copies of the pictures in the Louvre. The green-room had no mysteries for him. He would get your pieces into the theatre, or yourself into the boudoir of an actress. He had a copy of the “Almanac of Twenty-five Thousand Addresses” in his head, and knew the names, residences, and secrets of all celebrities, even those who were not celebrated.

A few pages copied from his waste-book will give a better idea of the universality of his operations than the most copious explanation could:

“Sold to M. L———, antiquary, the compass which Archimedes used at the seige of Syracuse. 75 fr.

“Bought of M. V———, journalist, the entire works, uncut, of M. X———, Member of the Academy. 10 fr.

“Sold to the same, a criticism of the complete works of M. X———, of the Academy. 30 fr.

“Bought of M. R———, literary man, a critical article on the complete works of M. Y———, of the Academy. 10 fr., plus half a cwt. of charcoal and 4 lbs. of coffee.