CHAPTER I.
PROGRESS IN BLACK-BEAD MAKING.
What had become of the mother, who, according to the people ofMontfermeil, appeared to have deserted her child? Where was she; whatwas she doing? After leaving her little Cosette with the Th?nardiers,she had continued her journey and arrived at M. sur M. Fantine had beenaway from her province for ten years, and while she had been slowlydescending from misery to misery, her native town had prospered. Abouttwo years before, one of those industrial facts which are the events ofsmall towns had taken place. The details are important, and we think ituseful to develop them; we might almost say, to understand them.
From time immemorial M. sur M. had as a special trade the imitationof English jet and German black beads. This trade had hitherto onlyvegetated, owing to the dearness of the material, which reacted onthe artisan. At the moment when Fantine returned to M. sur M. anextraordinary transformation had taken place in the production of"black articles." Toward the close of 1815, a man, a stranger, hadsettled in the town, and had the idea of substituting in this tradegum lac for rosin, and in bracelets particularly, scraps of bent platefor welded plate. This slight change was a revolution: it prodigiouslyreduced the cost of the material, which, in the first place, allowedthe wages to be raised, a benefit for the town; secondly, improved themanufacture, an advantage for the consumer; and, thirdly, allowed thegoods to be sold cheap, while tripling them the profit, an advantagefor the manufacturer.
In less than three years the inventor of the process had become rich,which is a good thing, and had made all rich about him, which isbetter. He was a stranger in the department; no one knew anythingabout his origin, and but little about his start. It was said that hehad entered the town with but very little money, a few hundred francsat the most; but with this small capital, placed at the service of aningenious idea, and fertilized by regularity and thought, he made hisown fortune and that of the town. On his arrival at M. sur M. he hadthe dress, manners, and language of a workingman. It appears that onthe very December night when he obscurely entered M. sur M. with hisknapsack on his back, and a knotted stick in his hand, a great firebroke out in the Town Hall. This man rushed into the midst of theflames, and at the risk of his life saved two children who happened tobelong to the captain of gendarmes; hence no one dreamed of asking forhis passport. On this occasion his name was learned; he called himselfFather Madeleine.