3-028-685 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Modern aspects of Paris: the Quartier Latin, 1870. 'This well-known quarter...has become...one of the handsomest portions of that city which claims to be the finest in the world. Here...reside a vast crowd of students of all nations and social conditions - Frenchmen from the departments, Turks and Egyptians, Wallachians and Russians, Brazilians and Flemings, who have come to Paris to attend the lectures of the Schools of Law or Medicine, of the Sorbonne, or of the College of France...The Bohemians...have all but disappeared; and although a very few still remain, they are old and worn out, earning a wretched pittance by obscure literary work...the once celebrated sugar-loaf hat and the famous nankeen trousers are to be seen no more...The Boulevards are thronged by well-dressed crowds...The new generation has suddenly become aware that it is the future of France, and it sees the necessity of studying and working...The "Jeunesse des Ecoles," as the students are called, are divided into Spiritualists and Materialists, and write treatises and pamphlets on the great social and philosophical questions of the day...if the students still drink, and dance, and make love - they also think and talk in earnest'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.