s in the best taste), were
provided to amuse the frequenters. Many of these _cafes chantants_ were
in the open air along the Champs-Elysees. In bad weather, Paris provided
the pleasure-seeker with the Eldorado, Alcazar d'Hiver, Scala, Gaiete,
Concert du XIXme Siecle, Folies Bobino, Rambuteau, Concert Europeen,
and countless other meeting places where one could be served with a cup
of coffee.

[Illustration: THE CAFE DES MILLE COLONNES IN 1811

From an engraving by Bosredon]

As in London, certain cafes were noted for particular followings, like
the military, students, artists, merchants. The politicians had their
favorite resorts. Says Salvandy:[86]

These were senates in miniature; here mighty political questions
were discussed; here peace and war were decided upon; here generals
were brought to the bar of justice ... distinguished orators were
victoriously refuted, ministers heckled upon their ignorance, their
incapacity, their perfidy, their corruption. The cafe is in reality
a French institution; in them we find all these agitations and
movements of men, the like of which is unknown in the English
tavern. No government can go against the sentiment of the cafes.
The Revolution took place because they were for the Revolution.
Napoleon reigned because they were for glory. The Restoration was
shattered, because they understood the Charter in a different
manner.

In 1700 appeared the _Portefeuille Galant_, containing conversations of
the cafes.

_The Cafes in the French Revolution_

The Palais Royal coffee houses were centers of activity in the days
preceding and following the Revolution. A picture of them in the July
days of 1789 has been left by Arthur Young, who was visiting Paris at
that time:

The coffee houses present yet more singular and astounding
spectacles; they are not only crowded within, but other expectant
crowds are at the doors and windows, listening _a gorge deployee_
to certain orators who from chairs or tables harangue each his
little audience; the eagerness with which they are heard, and the
thunder of applause they receive for every sentiment of more than
common hardiness or violence against the government, cannot easily
be imagined.

The Palais Royal teemed with excited Frenchmen on the fateful Sunday of
July 12, 1789. The moment was a tense one, when, coming out of the Cafe
Foy, Camil