Tramps on the banks of the Seine. Paris, about 1937-38.

Source:
Paris en Images, copyright Gaston Paris / Roger-Viollet (RV-844158):
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Gaito Gazdanov's Paris / 41

The list

I was still in my bed when there came an energetic ringing of my doorbell. I put on a bathrobe and slippers and went to open it for I believed it to be one of those beggars who come asking you for money on the pretext of unemployment or bad health, and who are satisfied with two francs.

I was not unaware that my name and address appeared on that mysterious list of people who never refuse charity; it circulated among the tramps and existed in several versions; those listing rich and above all generous people sold at a high price; other versions were less expensive and then again some were exchanged free of charge.

That I occupied one of the last places I learned from a debonair old drunk whose tongue habitually loosened after the first glass.

“You, I can buy you cheap,” he revealed to me with a note of contempt in his voice; “for five francs at most, and if I look scruffy enough, even for three.

“We know, dear sir, that you yourself are broke. Why do you give money to this riffraff?”

I answered, shrugging my shoulders, that the two francs I gave wouldn’t ruin me, and that if a man turns to begging he doesn’t do it for fun.

“That’s true, but regardless, you shouldn’t give anything to anyone. It’s because you are still young, dear sir.” And off he went with his two francs. [131]