A Start in Life [0]
A Start in Life
by Honore de Balzac
Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley
DEDICATION
To Laure.
Let the brilliant mind that gave me the subject of this Scene
have the honor of it.
Her brother,
De Balzac
A START IN LIFE
CHAPTER I
THAT WHICH WAS LACKING TO PIERROTIN'S HAPPINESS
Railroads, in a future not far distant, must force certain industries
to disappear forever, and modify several others, more especially those
relating to the different modes of transportation in use around Paris.
Therefore the persons and things which are the elements of this Scene
will soon give to it the character of an archaeological work. Our
nephews ought to be enchanted to learn the social material of an epoch
which they will call the "olden time." The picturesque "coucous" which
stood on the Place de la Concorde, encumbering the Cours-la-Reine,--
coucous which had flourished for a century, and were still numerous in
1830, scarcely exist in 1842, unless on the occasion of some
attractive suburban solemnity, like that of the Grandes Eaux of
Versailles. In 1820, the various celebrated places called the
"Environs of Paris" did not all possess a regular stage-coach service.
Nevertheless, the Touchards, father and son, had acquired a monopoly
of travel and transportation to all the populous towns within a
radius of forty-five miles; and their enterprise constituted a fine
establishment in the rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis. In spite of their
long-standing rights, in spite, too, of their efforts, their capital,
and all the advantages of a powerful centralization, the Touchard
coaches ("messageries") found terrible competition in the coucous for
all points with a circumference of fifteen or twenty miles. The
passion of the Parisian for the country is such that local enterprise
could successfully compete with the Lesser Stage company,--Petites
Messageries, the name given to the Touchard enterprise to distinguish
it from that of the Grandes Messageries of the rue Montmartre. At the
time of which we write, the Touchard success was stimulating
speculators. For every small locality in the neighborhood of Paris
there sprang up schemes of beautiful, rapid, and commodious vehicles,
departing and arriving in Paris at fixed hours, which produced,
naturally, a fierce competition. Beaten on the long distances of
twelve to eighteen miles, the coucou came down to shorter trips, and
so lived on for several years. At last, however, it succumbed to
omnibuses, which demonstrated the possibility of carrying eighteen
persons in a vehicle drawn by two horses. To-day the coucous--if by
chance any of those birds of ponderous flight still linger in the
second-hand carriage-shops--might be made, as to its structure and
arrangement, the subject of learned researches comparable to those of
Cuvier on the animals discovered in the chalk pits of Montmartre.
These petty enterprises, which had struggled since 1822 against the
Touchards, usually found a strong foothold in the good-will and
sympathy of the inhabitants of the districts which they served. The
person undertaking the business as proprietor and conductor was nearly
always an inn-keeper along the route, to whom the beings, things, and
interests with which he had to do were all familiar. He could execute
commissions intelligently; he never asked as much for his little
stages, and therefore obtained more custom than the Touchard coaches.
He managed to elude the necessity of a custom-house permit. If need
were, he was willing to infringe the law as to the number of
passengers he might carry. In short, he possessed the affection of the
masses; and thus it happened that whenever a rival came upon the same
route, if his days for running were not the same as those of the
coucou, travellers would put off their journey to make it with their
long-tried coachman,