Page 1654 - les-miserables

of the real estate by the mortgagor,’ the playwright who says:
‘The piece was hissed,’ the comedian who says: ‘I’ve made
a hit,’ the philosopher who says: ‘Phenomenal triplicity,’
the huntsman who says: ‘Voileci allais, Voileci fuyant,’ the
phrenologist who says: ‘Amativeness, combativeness, secre-
tiveness,’ the infantry soldier who says: ‘My shooting-iron,’
the cavalry-man who says: ‘My turkey-cock,’ the fencing-
master who says: ‘Tierce, quarte, break,’ the printer who says:
‘My shooting-stick and galley,’—all, printer, fencing-master,
cavalry dragoon, infantry-man, phrenologist, huntsman,
philosopher, comedian, playwright, sheriff, gambler, stock-
broker, and merchant, speak slang. The painter who says:
‘My grinder,’ the notary who says: ‘My Skip-the-Gutter,’
the hairdresser who says: ‘My mealyback,’ the cobbler who
says: ‘My cub,’ talks slang. Strictly speaking, if one abso-
lutely insists on the point, all the different fashions of saying
the right and the left, the sailor’s port and starboard, the
scene-shifter’s court-side, and garden-side, the beadle’s
Gospel-side and Epistle-side, are slang. There is the slang
of the affected lady as well as of the precieuses. The Hotel
Rambouillet nearly adjoins the Cour des Miracles. There
is a slang of duchesses, witness this phrase contained in a
love-letter from a very great lady and a very pretty woman
of the Restoration: ‘You will find in this gossip a fultitude of
reasons why I should libertize.’[40] Diplomatic ciphers are
slang; the pontifical chancellery by using 26 for Rome, grkz-
tntgzyal for despatch, and abfxustgrnogrkzu tu XI. for the
Due de Modena, speaks slang. The physicians of the Middle
Ages who, for carrot, radish, and turnip, said Opoponach,

1654 Les Miserables