Belleville values its funicular

Eliminate the “funi”, the old string, which serves everyone and does no harm to anyone, yes, sir, they are there! They are looking for. It's been in the air for a long time now. And it's not for nothing that they invented the N.
The N?

Well yes, the N, what: N “Saint-Fargeau-Louvre”, N bis “Eglise de Belleville-Louvre” and N crossed out “Rue Belleval-Louvre”. They won't make it! Their bus, that's my heh, I'm not saying, but it makes a terrible noise, it hums, it stinks, it zigzags. And, to pass through the suburbs before lunch, when the housewife from rue Compans or from the Belleville Cemetery has gone down to choose her salad in the middle of the street and is arguing with the four-season seller, it is always midday stunned! They will not pass !

And my old Bellevillois challenged me: It’s a project we’re talking about. The omnibuses have had enough of the funicular, it seems. They want engines everywhere. So, in August, we are going to interrupt the funi march for three weeks to do a test. And we will replace it with a bus. If it goes bad, the funicular will have died.
They can always put virtuosos as mechanics! adds a friend.
The funi threatened! The funi disappeared! They couldn't believe it.

-And the price? replied the other. Are they going to leave it at four under the uphill, three under the downhill? At that price, we didn't think twice, for a no, we jumped on the step. Ding! ding! We didn't go up to the top, we were going to buy a dozen eggs for seven cents, a thirteenth into the bargain, or, leaving the free dental clinic, we were going to watch racks being made in a window: 8 francs per tooth, small or large, in pure ivory from Queen Pomaré!

There's only the suburbs for that! Rue des Pyrénées, they have “chevreul” for 2 fr. 50 per pound! We won't take the bus to pick him up, for sure. And then the buses, were they free for the soldiers, like the funi, during the war? It was only him who did it, the “trouffions weren’t racking.” We should keep him, just for that.

From the Place de la République to the Saint-Jean-Baptiste church, there is consternation. Belleville is keen on its funicular:

The only tram of this type that runs in Paris, think! What do we blame him for? He keeps his five or six hundred travelers on two shifts. It goes quickly, it is not cumbersome, and you can count the accidents it causes on your fingers. And then, we're done there! We worry about him, without hurrying we know all the drivers. If necessary, they would dismiss you with a pat on the shoulder, in passing. You will do this with the tanks!
This is a test. It doesn't matter. Belleville refuses to be convinced. The street doesn't make up one section, they say up there. With three cents, we're going downhill: will we have to pay seven cents?

This is progress!
Will progress remake houses It would not remake them so picturesque, with clothing stores which, “for elegance”, defy all competition and invite the customer “to notice the effect of the fabric under the glass” , as if the barge had to live dressed in the window; bazaars where they don't sell, but where they give away curtains for forty-five cents per meter and corsages to choose from a lot for six francs. These houses were inhabited by Parisian women with marmots, when foreigners haunted the Palais-Royal. You have to leave the funi: it is a family friend.
That's true: he carries around kids up to four years old for free...

Will Mr. Mariage hear this argument?

E.B.