Summer Musser Workers Revolt: The Great Cat Massacre

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Summer Musser Workers Revolt: The Great Cat Massacre of the Rue Saint-Severin The great cat massacre of the Rue Saint-Séverin follows a group of workers in a printing shop as they find the entertainment of slaughtering alley cats as a means of getting back at their Master and Mistress. After the event, the workers perform re-enactments of the massacre for the sake of laughter. The source for Robert Darnton accounts of the massacre come from Nicholas Contat, who recounted the tales of events through the character Jerome. Both Jerome and Léveillé were apprentices of Jacques Vincent’s printing shop, who found the company of a feline companion more suitable than those of his workers. The room that Jerome and Léveillé were living in was filthy and provided little protection from the …show more content…

However, this was not even the worst part of their treatment. The cook who was supposed to give them the scraps from their master's meal would sell them and replace their food with rotten bits of meat that was meant for the cats instead. The Master’s wife adored the cats to no end; many of the felines had their portraits taken and were even feed roasted fowl for dinner. However, the final straw for the workers came during the night when all of the alley cats howl into the night just above the apprentice's bedroom, making it impossible to get a full night’s sleep. That following day, Léveillé came up with an idea that if they could not get a good night sleep then neither could their master. Léveillé who was skilled in mimicry made his way up to the roof of their master's house and howled all night just like a cat and the plan worked better than he had expected. After several nights of this treatment, the claimed they were bewitched and order the apprentices and journeymen to get rid of the cats. With

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