he knows how to make grimaces of ten thousand sorts one after
the other without stopping, and at the rate of twenty in a minute. Of
his other attainments, I say little. It is possible that he may have
been to one of the elementary schools set up by the Government; or, it
may be that he knows not how to read; although, by Article 10 of a law
passed in eighteen hundred and thirty-three, it was determined that no
chief town of a department, or chief place of a commune, containing more
than six thousand inhabitants, should be without at least one elementary
school for public instruction.

Such as the boy may be, he is made an apprentice. He needs no act, or,
as you say in England, indenture. His contract has to be attested at the
Prefecture of Police, Bureau of Passports, Section of Livrets. Formerly,
it was the custom in France for the apprentice to be both fed and lodged
by his master; but, as the patron seldom received money with him, he was
mainly fed on cuffs. Apprenticeship in Paris, which is France, begins at
ages differing according to the nature of the trade. If strength be
wanted, the youth is apprenticed at eighteen, but otherwise, perhaps, at
fourteen. There are in Paris nineteen thousand apprentices dispersed
among two hundred and seventy branches of trade.

Of all the apprentices whose number has been just named, only one in five
is bound by a written agreement with his master. The rest have a verbal
understanding. The youths commonly are restless; and, since they are apt
to change their minds, the business of the master is not so much to teach
them as to obtain value for himself as soon as he can out of their
labour. It is the apprentice who is sent out to take orders in the town,
and to play the part of messenger. In consequence of the looseness of
the tie, it often happens that a thoughtless parent, when his son is able
to earn wages, tells the youth that his master is sucking him and
fattening upon his unpaid labour; that he might earn money for the house
at home. The youth is glad to earn, and throws up his apprenticeship for
independent work. It soon occurs to him that his parents are sucking
him, and that his earnings ought to be for himself, and not for them. He
then throws up his home dependence, as he had thrown up dependence on his
master, takes a lodging, falls into careless company, and works on, a
half-skilled labourer, receiving all his life a less income than he could
have assur