Page 993 - les-miserables

CHAPTER VII

THE GAMIN SHOULD

HAVE HIS PLACE IN THE

CLASSIFICATIONS OF INDIA

The body of street Arabs in Paris almost constitutes a
caste. One might almost say: Not every one who wishes to
belong to it can do so.
This word gamin was printed for the first time, and
reached popular speech through the literary tongue, in
1834. It is in a little work entitled Claude Gueux that this
word made its appearance. The horror was lively. The word
passed into circulation.
The elements which constitute the consideration of the
gamins for each other are very various. We have known and
associated with one who was greatly respected and vastly
admired because he had seen a man fall from the top of the
tower of Notre-Dame; another, because he had succeeded in
making his way into the rear courtyard where the statues of
the dome of the Invalides had been temporarily deposited,
and had ‘prigged’ some lead from them; a third, because he

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