There is even violent contention for stray
fiacres—two individuals often getting in
together, and rendering necessary the
interference of the police. The whole secret of
this is, that Paris is then dining out, and
on its way to its entertainers. There is
profound stillness for the next two hours
or so.

At a quarter past five the hurly-burly
bursts out afresh. Again the cabriolets are
hurrying in all directions. All the streets
are choked. Plays and operas are just
beginning. Cafes are filling fast. From that
time up to nine there is the most perfect
repose abroad. The whole city might be
taken to be enjoying its siesta. But at
nine it wakes again—carriages are rolling
once more. Persons of quality are now
paying short visits. At eleven all the world is
busy supping. This ends the Paris day—a
busy, bustling day.

CHIPS.

WORKERS IN KENT STREET.

WE find that our visit to the poor in Kent
Street * was made under the guidance of a
worthy labourer on their behalf, who fixed
his mind and ours—with very pardonable
zeal—a little too exclusively upon his individual
working ground. It is fit and necessary
that the heart of a minister of the church
should be intently fixed on his own duty; but
our duty is—as opportunity permits—to work
with all good Christians, in every good cause.
We learn that, apart from the Church of
England, there are men labouring with all
their hearts in and about this particular
street, on behalf of Turpin's corner.
Although the ragged school formed in
connection with the church has been quashed
by the loss of its room, there is, close by, in
Lansdowne Street, a set of ragged schools
forming an institution, prosperous as regards
efficiency, although in need of funds; professing
itself to be " entirely unconnected, with
any church or chapel. Christians of various
denominations," says the last year's report,
"form the band of teachers; and, on them,
falls the onerous duty of collecting funds for
its support." There is a Sunday evening
school with an attendance of two hundred
and more, a day school with an attendance of
more than a hundred, a boys' evening school,
an elder girls' class, a class for the instruction
of mothers, a clothing club, and a penny
bank.

* See Turpin's Corner, Household Words, No. 424.

The district contains also a large schoolroom
used as a Sunday school in connection
with the Surrey Chapel.

Upon one or two other points, also, we are
glad to be set right. The general desolation,
the foul drainage, are all as we saw, and
as we smelt; but, outside the field of work
that may be occupied by the incumbent,
although still within bounds of his district,
we learn that there are men able and
willing to be of substantial service to their
neighbours. Among the poorer tenants of
the Kent Street houses, are several who find
premises in that district convenient for wholesale
business, and some shopkeepers by no
means destitute of worldly substance.

We are told also that among workers in
Kent Street are too seldom to be reckoned
those on whose behalf the plea of destitution
is urged oftenest. Everywhere, that is true to
some extent. We have no pity for idlers, as such;
we hold all men to be degraded who remove
their hands from honest work that they can
do; but—setting aside the moral influence of
an unwholesome life upon the character,
—there is a depression fought against by
means of drunkenness, a physical state
begotten by inhaled poison engendered in
foul air that helps in abasing into almost
hopeless indolence, the laziness begotten first
by ignorance and its attendant laxity of
principle. We must not be stern judges of
these things. Happy the man who can tread,
erect and firm,

                       from morn till eventide
              The narrow avenue of daily toil
              For daily bread,

who in that avenue can find the narrow way
of life, and make his daily work a daily
worship of Him who has worked from the
beginning. But can such a man—or
anything like such a man—come very often out
of the rank homes that seethe beside our
undrained lanes and alleys? There are millions
to be taught, and millions to be cleansed, before
we shall know all the work that is to be gob
out of the energies of Englishmen.

A HUMAN WAIF.

LAST summer, being at a small watering-
place on the coast, at daylight one morning
I went out in a small lugger manned by
four men, for a sail to the Goodwin Sands. It
was blowing rather fresh, and about four
miles from the land there was a heavy sea
running. Suddenly one of the men called
out, " What's that? " and pointed to some
object a short distance to leeward, and riding
on the crest of a wave. On nearing the
object, it was discovered to be a chest, made
of dark wood, and measuring about two feet
in length by sixteen inches wide, and as many
inches deep. This chest, which was corded
and nailed down, and was very heavy, was,
with some little difficulty, got into the lugger,
whereupon the crew, myself included, became
very curious to know its contents. On
taking off the lid three large pieces of coal
were found. These removed, a layer of linen,
a sheet, presented itself to view: beneath the
sheet was a lady's dressing-gown in which was
wrapped, very carefully, a little infant, a girl,
of about five months old! It was a very pretty
child, as white as marble. I never saw a