Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-12-24
INSIDE LIFE OF PARIS.
HOW the PeopIe Live.

Those who have known Paris as Paris
was till the other day, commonly known
to foreigners as city of ease and plea
sure, would hardly recognize it under
the aspect it has been presenting during
the past few weeks. Not that Baron
Haussman's s broad boulevards have been
already bombarded-as yet such change
as they have undergone is moral rather
than material one; Paris has none OF
| its former fascinations and few of its or
dinary avocations left to it; with nine
tenths Of its able-bodied population
under arms one can hardly expect it to
be any longer hive of industry or an
abode of pleasure. In little more than
a couple Of months the luxurious city
has been turned into formidable fort
ress, or, more correctly speaking, vast
intrenched camp, bristhng with half a
million Of bayonets among population
quadruple that number-encunlbered,
moreover, with sick, wounded and hope
lessly INDECENT, scantily and even un-
wholesomely fed.
1t is perhaps as well in this capital OF
late hours, says a Paris correspondent OF
the Pail Mall Gazette, that one should
be constrained to 60 to bed early, lulled
to sleep, so to speak, by the booming OF
the cannon; for one is aroused before
daybreak, if not by the same kind OF
music, by the sounding of the revielle,
supplemented by the beating OF the rap
pei and the bawling out of false news by
the hawkers of the cheap morning papers
1t is happy for us not to be Obliged to
sally forth ere it is light on some round
of military duty. In default of this, such
of us as are so inclined can stand in
queue outside the butcher s shop for sew
eral hours, and SO make certain of Sc
curing, SO long as they last, their three
days rations, now reduced to a fraction
over one ounce avoirdupois per diem.
These queues have been one of the most
characteristic inner life features of the
siege. They began to be formed within
ten DAYS or fortnight of our being shut
in, when the price of meat was kept down
by special decree, and the supply of
oxen and sheep distributed to the butch
ers had begun to be limited. They were
first formed in the more populous and
poorer districts, but, before a couple of
days, had spread to the most aristocratic
quarters Of the capital. Originally they
commenced about FIVE o'clock am, in
front of the iron railings that close
in all these establishments; and as
the mornings were then bright and
balmy, the inconvenience was but
trihing. To preserve order and see that
all was fair on the part of the butcher,
who at times supplied his customers with
as much or as little meat, and of just
what kind, as he pleased, armed Ma
tional Guards were posted both outside
and inside the shop. As the crowd began
to increase in numbers, the hours of
waiting heightened, until they extended
far back into the night. In the populous
quarters two o. clock was commonly the
hour when the first dozen women would
assemble. Some came to the rendez-
yous provided with chairs or stools, and
with chaufe-pleds, and at intervals mem
bers of their family would bring them hot
bowls of soup or coffee, or they would
arrange to relieve each other every hour
or so. These proceedings gave rise, and
even now give rise, to endless disputes.
Such as found themselves constrained to
wait standing objected to their neighbors
sitting. Frozen-footed individuals, un-
provided with foot-warmers, grumbled at
those who possessed them; women, whose
husbands were on duty at the ramparts,
and who had no one to bring them
some warm and comforting fluids, pro
tested against refreshments being al
lowed; while as to the practice of one
member of family relieving another,
this gave rise to constant vituperation,
to struggles, to clawings and to blows.
~ DAILY GOSSIP. III
We have of course long since learned
to breakfast not merely without ham,
bacon, bloater, sardines, or eggs, but
without milk and butter likewise. The
f" folio of four pages the only condi-
ment served up with the matutinal meal
owing to the exhaustion Of paper and
the absence Of news, is frequently found
reduced to two, besides which the pa
pers are usually little less than reptitions
of each other, consisting, as their con-
tents for the most part do, ofstereotyped
reports Of some petty reconnaissance
in this direction, or some
skill thrown in that; vacillating leading
articles which one day counsel the ex-
pulsion of every Prussian from the ma
tional soil, and the next hint at famine,
and urge, though not openly, surrender
endless governmental and municipal
DEGREES; instructions how to snstain |
life on an infnitesimal quantity of food
of a novel and non-nutritive, if not of a
repulsive character; precautions that
are still advised to be taken in anticipa-
ton of a bombardment which people
haze already ceased believing in,
together With particulars of the depart
nre of some balloon Or the arrival of
some carrier-pigeon, always, however,
the long -looked-for-news of the
.anid advance on Paris of an army of
,uccor; and prophecies, that one IS
,rewiaa dreadfully tired of, to the effect
hat we in Paris arc on the eve OF great
events. agFroa grae
ttN SCENE IN THE PARKS.
In front of this highly-honored statue
of Strasburg, in the Champ Elysees, is
! table, surmounted by canopy OF tri-
color flags, at which, under the eyes OF
armed National Guards, some municipal
delegate is seated receiving subscrlp-
ions Of money and other valuables for
he casting of 1900 cannon with which
o make the long promised sortie in force
hat is to save Paris. And as if to slim
llate subscriptions, a hundred PAGES dis
ant a; the angle Of the Rues Royale
md de Rivoli, a huge breech-loading
naval gun, mounted upon a carriage, is
posted. OF course, following the ex-
ample Of the Republic of 90, it has been
that all the church bells shall
,e cast into cannon and it has even been
that al every maire offerings of
id copper candlesiicks and eassefoles
Ihould be received for like purpose. !
In the FpileFies Gardens, instesd of
,rowds Of little girls IN the hight Of