EXPENSIVE LIFE
in the Land of Birds

There was recently a terrible panic in England at a bird market. It is difficult to imagine a terror-panic ravaging the Paris bird market.
It is an asylum of peace. It is an oasis of tranquility. Flanked by a court, the Prefecture and the Hôtel-Dieu, it is, under its Judean trees, a sweet symbol of what poetry can remain in the soul of the civilized, in the shadow of Justice , Police and Death. Winged animals are sold in small cages. A stone's throw away, Théophraste Renaudot, the first of the journalists, seems to want to escape from his bronze armchair. And they are still symbols, if you like.
But the customers at the bird market are not looking for them. Under the sky of pearl and silver, in the breeze which slowly stirs like palm fronds, the broad leaves, still green, of the paulonias, they come, these childless ones. seek the placement of their tenderness. Behind their bars, the critters wait for them, without sadness or cheerfulness.
As for the merchants... some, under their awning supported by iron stakes, have the confidence of established merchants, who have a shop on the street or a gable on the quay; the others are itinerants, hazardous earners, fairground workers. A chickweed seller, his grass at his feet, has a Goya-like face. Boys from the countryside offer linnets and goldfinches. Old ladies, old pensioners - yes, so dignified, so threadbare, so correct, they can only be pensioners - come and go, a cage in their hand. They sell, to live, their last luxury.
The high cost of living is rife in the land of birds. Where is the time when Jenny the worker could, for three francs, buy herself a canary and, for eight, a canary, a feathered tenor from Holland?
The high cost of living is rife in the land of birds. ...But ultimately its rigors are not draconian. And, for 2 fr. 50, if you look hard enough, you can still afford an island warbler. Do you want a canary? It's 15 francs on average. But canaries... ah canaries, they're more expensive, you have to count from 80 to 200 francs, depending on their size and beauty. You have a parrot for 150 francs, a parakeet for 15, 20 or 25 francs. But you won't have the heart to buy just one because, you know, parakeets are "inseparable". And here is a lady with a flowered hat who has just bought two:
- Do you think they will match well? she asks the merchant, worried.
- Surely, madam. See how they seem to love each other.
There are also finches, starlings, bullfinches, hoopoes. There are “cordon bleus”, Bengalis, hummingbirds, “coral beaks”, “silver beaks of amaranths, “pink workers”, “cut necks, terror!” and tragedy of the “collared widows”. Their prices vary, as do their size and plumage.
And there are still chickens, pigeons, guinea pigs and cats in cages..., cats in cages, yes, madam: shudder.
To feed your birds here is millet in branches 1 fr. at 2 fr. 50; hempseed: 1 fr. 60 per liter of canary grass: 1 fr. 50: from the sun: 1 fr. 10: from the shuttle: 2 francs; groundsel, plantain, chickweed to clean them, well-packaged scalded meats to refresh them, cuttlefish bones for them to wipe their beaks, feeders, bathtubs. nests to put them in their bedding. We will give you all this at friendly prices, “because it’s you”.
...I came back from the market, clutching to my heart a crate where two gray, yellow and green canaries were chirping. I have a feeling I'm going to love them.

Men are ugly, men are mean.
Let's live for the little birds!

GEORGES MARTIN.