Desnoyers's is the Cadran bleu de la Canaille, (the resort of the lower
orders;) but before stepping over the threshold of the cabaret of
Guillotin, even the canaille themselves look twice, as in this repository
are only to be seen prostitutes with their bullies, pick-pockets and
thieves of all classes, some _prigs_ of the lowest grade, and many of
those nocturnal marauders who divide their existence into two parts,
consecrating it to the duties of theft and riot. It may be supposed that
slang is the only language of this delightful society: it is generally in
French, but so perverted from its primitive signification, that there is
not a member of the distinguished "company of forty" who can flatter
himself with a full knowledge of it, and yet the "dons of Guillotin's"
have their purists; those who assert that slang took its rise in the East,
and without thinking for a moment of disputing their talent as
Orientalists, they take that title to themselves without any ceremony; as
also that of Argonauts, when they have completed their studies under the
direction of the galley sergeants, in working, in the port of Toulon, the
dormant navigation on board a vessel in dock.
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