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• X 10th Meeting :: 9th January :: Who is an apprentice ? is_parent of Contat's account of the cat massacre (ID: 6606 :: weight 1) :: TEXTREC ::
  The following account comes from Nicolas Contat, Anecdotes typo-
  
  
  graphiques ou I'on voit la description des coutumes, moeurs et usages singu-
  
  
  Hers des compagnons imprimeurs, ed. Giles Barber (Oxford, 1980), pp.
  
  
  51-53. After a day of exhausting work and disgusting food, the
  
  
  two apprentices retire to their bedroom, a damp and draughty lean-
  
  
  to in a corner of the courtyard. The episode is recounted in the
  
  
  third person, from the viewpoint of Jerome:
  
  
  He is so tired and needs rest so desperately that the shack looks
  
  
  like a palace to him. At last the persecution and misery he has
  
  
  suffered throughout the day have come to an end, and he can relax.
  
  
  But no, some bedeviled cats celebrate a witches' sabbath all night
  
  
  long, making so much noise that they rob him of the brief period
  
  
  of rest allotted to the apprentices before the journeymen arrive for
  
  
  work early the next morning and demand admission by constant
  
  
  ringing of an infernal bell. Then the boys have to get up and cross
  
  
  the courtyard, shivering under their nightshirts, in order to open
  
  
  the door. Those journeymen never let up. No matter what you do,
  
  
  you always make them lose their time and they always treat you as
  
  
  a lazy good-for-nothing. They call for Leveille. Light the fire un-
  
  
  der the cauldron! Fetch water for the dunking-troughs! True, those
  
  
  jobs are supposed to be done by the beginner apprentices, who live
  
  
  at home, but they don't arrive until six or seven. Thus everyone is
  
  
  soon at work—apprentices, journeymen, everyone but the master
  
  
  and the mistress: they alone enjoy the sweetness of sleep. That
  
  
  makes Jerome and Leveille jealous. They resolve that they will not
  
  
  be the only ones to suffer; they want their master and mistress as
  
  
  associates. But how to turn the trick?
  
  
  Leveille has an extraordinary talent for imitating the voices and
  
  
  the smallest gestures of everyone around him. He is a perfect actor;
  
  
  that's the real profession that he has picked up in the printing shop.
  
  
  He also can produce perfect imitations of the cries of dogs and cats.
  
  
  He decides to climb from roof to roof until he reaches a gutter next
  
  
  to the bedroom of the bourgeois and the bourgeoise. From there he
  
  
  can ambush them with a volley of meows. It's an easy job for him:
  
  
  102Workers Revolt
  
  
  he is the son of a roofer and can scramble across roofs like a cat.
  
  
  Our sniper succeeds so well that the whole neighborhood is
  
  
  alarmed. The word spreads that there is witchcraft afoot and that
  
  
  the cats must be the agents of someone casting a spell. It is a case
  
  
  for the cure, who is an intimate of the household and the confessor
  
  
  of Madame. N o one can sleep any more.
  
  
  Leveille stages a sabbath the next night and the night after that.
  
  
  If you didn't know him, you would be convinced he was a witch.
  
  
  Finally, the master and the mistress cannot stand it any longer.
  
  
  "We'd better tell the boys to get rid of those malevolent animals,"
  
  
  they declare. Madame gives them the order, exhorting them to
  
  
  avoid frightening la grise. That is the name of her pet pussy.
  
  
  This lady is impassioned for cats. Many master printers are also.
  
  
  One of them has twenty-five. He has had their portraits painted
  
  
  and feeds them on roast fowl.
  
  
  The hunt is soon organized. The apprentices resolve to make a
  
  
  clean sweep of it, and they are joined by the journeymen. The
  
  
  masters love cats, so consequently they must hate them. This man
  
  
  arms himself with the bar of a press, that one with a stick from the
  
  
  drying-room, others with broom handles. They hang sacks at the
  
  
  windows of the attic and the storerooms to catch the cats who
  
  
  attempt to escape by leaping outdoors. The beaters are named, ev-
  
  
  erything is organized. Leveille and his comrade Jerome preside
  
  
  over the fete, each of them armed with an iron bar from the shop.
  
  
  The first thing they go for is la grise, Madame's pussy. Leveille
  
  
  stuns it with a quick blow on the kidneys, and Jerome finishes it
  
  
  off. Then Leveille stuffs the body in a gutter, for they don't want
  
  
  to get caught: it is a matter of consequence, a murder, which must
  
  
  be kept hidden. The men produce terror on the rooftops. Seized by
  
  
  panic, the cats throw themselves into the sacks. Some are killed on
  
  
  the spot. Others are condemned to be hanged for the amusement
  
  
  of the entire printing shop.
  
  
  Printers know how to laugh; it is their sole occupation.
  
  
  The execution is about to begin. They name a hangman, a troop
  
  
  of guards, even a confessor. Then they pronounce the sentence.
  
  
  In the midst of it all, the mistress arrives. What is her surprise,
  
  
  when she sees the bloody execution! She lets out a scream; then her
  
  
  voice is cut, because she thinks she sees la grise, and she is certain
  
  
  103THE GREAT CAT MASSACRE
  
  
  that such a fate has been reserved for her favorite puss. The work-
  
  
  ers assure her that no one would be capable of such a crime: they
  
  
  have too much respect for the house.
  
  
  The bourgeois arrives. "Ah! The scoundrels," he says. "Instead
  
  
  of working, they are killing cats." Madame to Monsieur: "These
  
  
  wicked men can't kill the masters, so they have killed my pussy.
  
  
  She can't be found. I have called la grise everywhere. They must
  
  
  have hanged her." It seems to her that all the workers' blood
  
  
  would not be sufficient to redeem the insult. The poor grise, a
  
  
  pussy without a peer!
  
  
  Monsieur and Madame retire, leaving the workers in liberty.
  
  
  The printers delight in the disorder; they are beside themselves
  
  
  with joy.
  
  
  What a splendid subject for their laughter, for a belle copie! They
  
  
  will amuse themselves with it for a long time. Leveille will take
  
  
  the leading role and will stage the play at least twenty times. He
  
  
  will mime the master, the mistress, the whole house, heaping ridi-
  
  
  cule on them all. He will spare nothing in his satire. Among print-
  
  
  ers, those who excel in this entertainment are called jobeurs: they
  
  
  provide joberie.
  
  
  Leveille receives many rounds of applause.
  
  
  It should be noted that all the workers are in league against the
  
  
  masters. It is enough to speak badly of them [the masters] to be
  
  
  esteemed by the whole assembly of typographers. Leveille is one of
  
  
  those. In recognition of his merit, he will be pardoned for some
  
  
  previous satires against the workers.

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