The Fat and the Thin

15

Hebert, as the reader will remember, was the furious demagogue with the foul tongue and poisoned pen who edited the Pere Duchesne at the time of the first French Revolution. We had a revival of his politics and his journal in Paris during the Commune of 1871. – Translator.

16

In the sense of illumination of mind. It has been necessary to give a literal translation of this phrase to enable the reader to realise the point of subsequent witticisms in which Clemence and Gavard indulge. – Translator.

17

The little fish-basket for the use of customers, so familiar in London, is not known in Paris. – Translator.

18

Literally “Marjoram.”

19

A basket carried on the back. – Translator.

20

The baskets in which these are sent to Paris are identical with those which in many provinces of Russia serve the moujiks as cradles for their infants. – Translator.

21

An allusion to the “midnight mass” usually celebrated in Roman Catholic churches on Christmas Eve. – Translator.

22

Anotta, which is obtained from the pulp surrounding the seeds of the Bixa Orellana, is used for a good many purposes besides the colouring of butter and cheese. It frequently enters into the composition of chocolate, and is employed to dye nankeen. Police court proceedings have also shown that it is well known to the London milkmen, who are in the habit of adding water to their merchandise. – Translator.

23

The dealers in these scraps are called bijoutiers, or jewellers, whilst the scraps themselves are known as harlequins, the idea being that they are of all colours and shapes when mingled together, thus suggesting harlequin’s variegated attire. – Translator.

24

Particulars of the strange and repulsive trade in harlequins, which even nowadays is not extinct, will be found in Privat d’Anglemont’s well-known book Paris Anecdote, written at the very period with which M. Zola deals in the present work. My father, Henry Vizetelly, also gave some account of it in his Glances Back through Seventy Years, in a chapter describing the odd ways in which certain Parisians contrive to get a living. – Translator.

25

The column erected on the Place de la Bastille in memory of the Revolution of July 1830, by which Charles X was dethroned. – Translator.

26

This is the customary mode of fattening pigeons at the Paris markets. The work is usually done by men who make a specialty of it, and are called gaveurs. – Translator.

27

Most readers will remember that the tobacco trade is a State monopoly in France. The retail tobacconists are merely Government agents. – Translator.