[70] There were martyrs to conviction on both sides in the Dreyfus case, as there were under the last empire.
[71] More than once during the Dreyfus affair the Quartier seemed to be on the verge of an eruption; but the lying, contemptible manœuvres of Dreyfusards and anti-Dreyfusards alike threw cold water on both its military and its anti-military enthusiasm.
[72] Haraucourt has recently been elevated to the position of librarian of one of the principal libraries of Paris.
[73] Jacques Le Lorrain has just died of consumption. A short time before his death he had the happiness of having his remarkable poetical play Don Quixote performed at the Théâtre Victor Hugo.
[74] The Salons were held in the Louvre at this period.
[75] Dèche and purée (the latter akin to the Americanism “in the soup”) are Bohemian slang for misère.
[76] A law which commutes the penalty, but without expunging the condemnation from the record.
[77] Since these lines were written, word has come, alas! that Bibi is dead.
[78] The Cabaret du Père Lunette—on the edge of the Latin Quarter—and its near neighbour, the Château Rouge (also called La Guillotine), were notorious criminal resorts in the days, not so very remote, before the piercing of the rue Lagrange and the enlarging of the Place Maubert rendered innocuous one of the most dangerous corners of Paris. The Château Rouge was recently demolished, and the Père Lunette ceased several years back to be anything but an insipid show-place for tourists. Neither has ever been an organic part of the Quartier life.
[79] Practical joker seems to be the only possible translation of the word fumiste, but it is a most inadequate one.