The terms are not idle ones. Like many of the
words and phrases of slang they are based on the clearest conception
of the merits of the case. An ogre or ogress without a daughter, real
or adopted, lacks the first requisite for doing a successful business.
The ogre or ogress has his or her especial workmen, who go out and
scour the streets, bringing home their load, and being paid in board
and lodging simply. When there is a daughter in the business the
workmen are her husbands. The process of divorce is easy, and consists
simply in the ragpicker's returning with his _hotte_ (_la hotte_ is
the basket which hangs on the back) to some other ogre or ogress after
his daily or nightly tour of the streets. Marriage among the
ragpickers of Paris is so rare an incident as to be virtually no part
of their plan of life.
The Paris ragpicker is seldom seen in the streets by day: his most
profitable season is the night. And what meagre pickings are his at
the best! what despicable bits of paper, of twine, of coal-refuse, of
rejected food, bones, potato-skins, he gathers carefully in his hoard!
A bit of paper no larger than a postage-stamp he saves. A crust of
bread no bigger than a walnut is a prize, for rare are the households
in Paris in which a crust that is large enough to be visible to the
naked eye is allowed to be thrown into the street.
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