Queue in front of the Moulin de la Galette dance hall, Paris, 1938-39.

Source:
Paris en Images, copyright LAPI / Roger-Viollet (LAPI-44879):
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Gaito Gazdanov's Paris / 31

The ex-student

At the exits of Russian dance halls we’d also find the inevitable beggars whom we knew very well: conspicuous among them was the man with the red beard who always started work in the same scowling manner.

After collecting a few francs and downing two or three glasses at the corner bistro he recovered his good humour, bustled and frisked about in the cold air and shouted in a loud voice “Behold, Moscow in Paris!”

Then he would run toward the people leaving the dance hall crying “Give a franc, your lordship, to the ex-student of the University of St. Petersburg that I am!” [151]