Page:Pen And Pencil Sketches - Volume I.djvu/73

40 The fact of my being a foreigner and understanding so little of their language told greatly in my favour with regard to the students’ treatment of me ; but the nouveau, if a Frenchman, or more especially a Parisian, was tormented and persecuted to a degree which in some cases was little if at all short of brutal. There was a cellar reached by a trap-door under part of the atelier floor. Into this the luck- less nouveau would be sometimes conducted, will he, nill he, when he would have squibs and crackers thrown in on him from above, and subsequently, lest possibly his clothes should catch fire, drenched with water! At other times the luckless youth would be “ crucified,” as they called it. This con- sisted in tying him securely by his head and limbs to a ladder, and, preceded by one of their number blowing on an old hunting-horn, he was borne by four students along the suburb, the remainder follow- ing in solemn procession. Now and then ladder and nouveau would be placed against some con- venient blank wall, and left there for a while, exposed to the jeers and laughter of the passers-by.

One day was much like another at the Atelier Picot. The model would sit soon after 8 a.m. ; at 6 in the summer months. After two hours’ work an interval of half an hour was allowed for break- fast. We all went outside the Barrier for this, every- thing being cheaper there than inside. The wealthier