Page 71 - down-and-out-in-paris-and-london

XI

s it turned out, I did not break my contract, for it was
Asix weeks before the Auberge de Jehan Cottard even
showed signs of opening. In the meantime I worked at the
Hotel X, four days a week in the cafeterie, one day helping
the waiter on the fourth floor, and one day replacing the
woman who washed up for the dining-room. My day off,
luckily, was Sunday, but sometimes another man was ill and
I had to work that day as well. The hours were from seven in
the morning till two in the afternoon, and from five in the
evening till nine—eleven hours; but it was a fourteen-hour
day when I washed up for the dining-room. By the ordinary
standards of a Paris PLONGEUR, these are exceptionally
short hours. The only hardship of life was the fearful heat
and stuffiness of these labyrinthine cellars. Apart from this
the hotel, which was large and well organized, was consid-
ered a comfortable one.
Our cafeterie was a murky cellar measuring twenty feet
by seven by eight high, and so crowded with coffee-urns,
breadcutters and the like that one could hardly move with-
out banging against something. It was lighted by one dim
electric bulb, and four or five gas-fires that sent out a fierce
red breath. There was a thermometer there, and the tem-
perature never fell below 110 degrees Fahrenheit—it neared
130 at some times of the day. At one end were five service

0 Down and Out in Paris and London