Madame de la Chanterie's fund, founded to
restore poor households to their religious and legal status, hunts up
such couples, and with all the more success because it helps them in
their poverty before attacking their unlawful union.
As soon as Madame Hulot had recovered, she returned to her
occupations. And then it was that the admirable Madame de la Chanterie
came to beg that Adeline would add the legalization of these voluntary
unions to the other good works of which she was the instrument.
One of the Baroness' first efforts in this cause was made in the
ominous-looking district, formerly known as la Petite Pologne--Little
Poland--bounded by the Rue du Rocher, Rue de la Pepiniere, and Rue de
Miromenil. There exists there a sort of offshoot of the Faubourg
Saint-Marceau. To give an idea of this part of the town, it is enough
to say that the landlords of some of the houses tenanted by working
men without work, by dangerous characters, and by the very poor
employed in unhealthy toil, dare not demand their rents, and can find
no bailiffs bold enough to evict insolvent lodgers. At the present
time speculating builders, who are fast changing the aspect of this
corner of Paris, and covering the waste ground lying between the Rue
d'Amsterdam and the Rue Faubourg-du-Roule, will no doubt alter the
character of the inhabitants; for the trowel is a more civilizing
agent than is generally supposed. By erecting substantial and handsome
houses, with porters at the doors, by bordering the streets with
footwalks and shops, speculation, while raising the rents, disperses
the squalid class, families bereft of furniture, and lodgers that
cannot pay.
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