Street vendors (gutter men, barrow boys) and craftspeople in Paris are an important background of city life and literature. From the XII century their traces can be found in different works by French authors: Villeneuve, Rabelais, Boileau, Scarron, Balzac, Maupassant, Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Huysmans, the Goncourt brothers, Proust… Milkmaids, rag-and-bone men, flower girls, greengrocers, vodka and coffee sellers, waterboys, newsboys appeared in the streets of the city in a certain order and their voices created a symphony, without which Paris would have been deprived of one of its bright colours. While Russian writers, speaking of a “little man”, seeked pity for him, French authors talked about a unique greatness, about a special mission of these characters, whose voices formed the incredible “Paris symphony”.