ed to himself by a few years of early perseverance.

When I was apprentice, eight years ago, I found that to be a good
workman, it was needful to design and model. "Come with me," said my
comrade Gredinot, "I will show you a good school." It was a winter
evening; our work was over; and, with leave of the patron, we left our
shop in the Rue Saint Martin, and went by Saint Saviour to the Rue
Montorgueil. We bought as we went about twelve pounds of modelling clay.
At the upper end of the street, my friend Gredinot turned up a dark
passage. I followed him. A single lamp glimmered in the court to which
it led us. We went up a few steps to the schoolroom. "Here we are,"
said Gredinot, in opening the door. We entered, carrying our caps.
There was a low room lighted by flaring oil lamps; but in it were busts
and statues of such beauty that it seemed to me to be the most delightful
chamber in the world. Boys and youths and a few men, all in blouses like
ourselves, laboured there. We threw our clay upon a public heap in a
wooden trough near the door. There was only that mud to pay, and there
were our own tools to take. Everything else was free. Gredinot
introduced me to the master, and I learnt to model from that night.
There are other schools--the school of Arts and Trades in the Rue St.
Martin, and the Special and Gratuitous School of Design in the Rue du
Tourraine, in connection, as I think, with the School of Fine Arts. I
might number the museums and the libraries, and I may make mention also
of the prizes of the Academy of Industry and of the Society for the
Encouragement of National Industry.

The apprentice when out of his time goes to the prefecture of police.
There he must obtain a livret, which must have on the face of it the seal
of the prefecture, the full name of the admitted workman, his age, his
place of birth, and a description of his person, his trade, and the name
of the master who employs him. The French workman is taboo, until he is
registered by the police and can produce his livret. The book costs him
twopence halfpenny. Its first entry is a record of the completion of his
apprenticeship. Afterwards every fresh engagement must be set down in
it, with the dates of its beginning and its end, each stamped by the
prefecture. The employer of a workman holds his livret as a pledge.
When he receives money in advance, the sum is written in his book, and it
is a debt there chargeable as a deduction