ANOTHER PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
THE COMPRACHICOS.
I.
Who now knows the word Comprachicos, and who knows its meaning?
The Comprachicos, or Comprapequenos, were a hideous and nondescriptassociation of wanderers, famous in the 17th century, forgotten in the18th, unheard of in the 19th. The Comprachicos are like the "successionpowder," an ancient social characteristic detail. They are part of oldhuman ugliness. To the great eye of history, which sees everythingcollectively, the Comprachicos belong to the colossal fact of slavery.Joseph sold by his brethren is a chapter in their story. TheComprachicos have left their traces in the penal laws of Spain andEngland. You find here and there in the dark confusion of English lawsthe impress of this horrible truth, like the foot-print of a savage in aforest.
Comprachicos, the same as Comprapequenos, is a compound Spanish wordsignifying Child-buyers.
The Comprachicos traded in children. They bought and sold them. They didnot steal them. The kidnapping of children is another branch ofindustry. And what did they make of these children?
Monsters.
Why monsters?
To laugh at.
The populace must needs laugh, and kings too. The mountebank is wantedin the streets, the jester at the Louvre. The one is called a Clown, theother a Fool.
The efforts of man to procure himself pleasure are at times worthy ofthe attention of the philosopher.
What are we sketching in these few preliminary pages? A chapter in themost terrible of books; a book which might be entitled--_The farming ofthe unhappy by the happy_.