A Start in Life

Start in Life, A

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Title: A Start in Life
Author: Honore de Balzac
Translator: Katharine Prescott Wormeley
Release Date: October 7, 2005 [EBook #1403]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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IN LIFE ***

Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny

A START IN LIFE
BY

HONORE DE BALZAC

Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley

DEDICATION
To Laure.
Let the brilliant mind that gave me the subject of this Scene have the
honor of it.
Her brother,
De Balzac

A START IN LIFE
CHAPTER I
THAT WHICH WAS LACKING TO PIERROTIN'S HAPPINESS
Railroads, in a future not far distant, must force certain industries to
disappear forever, and modify several others, more especially those
relating to the different modes of transportation in use around Paris.
Therefore the persons and things which are the elements of this Scene
will soon give to it the character of an archaeological work. Our
nephews ought to be enchanted to learn the social material of an epoch
which they will call the "olden time." The picturesque "coucous" which
stood on the Place de la Concorde, encumbering the Cours-la-Reine,
--coucous which had flourished for a century, and were still numerous
in 1830, scarcely exist in 1842, unless on the occasion of some
attractive suburban solemnity, like that of the Grandes Eaux of
Versailles. In 1820, the various celebrated places called the "Environs
of Paris" did not all possess a regular stage-coach service.

Nevertheless, the Touchards, father and son, had acquired a monopoly
of travel and transportation to all the populous towns within a radius of
forty-five miles; and their enterprise constituted a fine establishment in
the rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis. In spite of their long-standing rights,
in spite, too, of their efforts, their capital, and all the advantages of a
powerful centralization, the Touchard coaches ("messageries") found
terrible competition in the coucous for all points with a circumference
of fifteen or twenty miles. The passion of the Parisian for the country is
such that local enterprise could successfully compete with the Lesser
Stage company,--Petites Messageries, the name given to the Touchard
enterprise to distinguish it from that of the Grandes Messageries of the
rue Montmartre. At the time of which we write, the Touchard success
was stimulating speculators. For every small locality in the
neighborhood of Paris there sprang up schemes of beautiful, rapid, and
commodious vehicles, departing and arriving in Paris at fixed hours,
which produced, naturally, a fierce competition. Beaten on the long
distances of twelve to eighteen miles, the coucou came down to shorter
trips, and so lived on for several years. At last, however, it succumbed
to omnibuses, which demonstrated the possibility of carrying eighteen
persons in a vehicle drawn by two horses. To-day the coucous--if by
chance any of those birds of ponderous flight still linger in the
second-hand carriage-shops--might be made, as to its structure and
arrangement, the subject of learned researches comparable to those of
Cuvier on the animals discovered in the chalk pits of Montmartre.
These petty enterprises, which had struggled since 1822 against the
Touchards, usually found a strong foothold in the good-will and
sympathy of the inhabitants of the districts which they served. The
person undertaking the business as proprietor and conductor was nearly
always an inn-keeper along the route, to whom the beings, things, and
interests with which he had to do were all familiar. He could execute
commissions intelligently; he never asked as much for his little stages,
and therefore obtained more custom than the Touchard coaches. He
managed to elude the necessity of a custom-house permit. If need were,
he was willing to infringe the law as to the number of passengers he
might carry. In short, he possessed the affection of the masses; and thus
it happened that whenever a rival came upon the same route, if his days

for running were not the same as those of the coucou, travellers would
put off their journey to make it with their long-tried coachman,
although his vehicle and his horses might be in a far from reassuring
condition.
One of the lines which the Touchards, father and son, endeavored to
monopolize, and the one most stoutly disputed (as indeed it still is), is
that of Paris to Beaumont-sur-Oise,--a line extremely profitable, for
three rival enterprises worked it in 1822. In vain the Touchards lowered
their price; in vain they constructed better coaches and started oftener.
Competition still continued, so