The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-01-18
PARIS PREPARED o A SIEGE.
The City Could Not Again BE Starved
Into "a Surrender.


Should the fortunes of war ever again
expose the city of Paris to the hard
ship of a siege the besieger would find
the reduction of the French capital to
be q far more difficult undertaking
than did the German armies in the
winter of 1901. 1t may, indeed, be
doubted whether the city could ever
again be compelled to capitulate. The
fall of Paris. as is well known, was not
accomplished by the German siege bat
teries. but the city was starved into
submission. A recurrence of such an
emergency is supposed to have been
made practically impossible by the de-
velopment of the art of preserving and
COMPRISING a great variety of nutri-
tious foods into the smallest possible
space.
Thus, for example, 40, 900 rations of
preserved vegetables can be placed in q
cubic space measuring only forty inches
each way, n millions of these rations,
together with solid soups and pre-
served meats, are constantly KEEP
ready for the eventual necessity of the
military provisioning of Paris. An
enormous stock of iour and biscuits
is always maintained by the War De-
partment. while the introduction of
compressed fodder and the silo system
have facilitated the storage of sufficient
food for the horses required by the
cavalry as well as by the omnibus and
street railway companies. One of the
gravest causes of distress during the
idSl StESe u GdTlS WAS the scarcity ana
poor quality of milk. Such quantities
of this Indispensable article as could
then be procured were worth their
weight in gold, and the mortality among
infants resulting from their depriva-
ton of this Necessary food reached q
frightfu rate. In the next siege. how
ever. nmilk will not only be plentiful,
but very good. thanks to DIR. Aute-
FACES process of '.pasteurizing'' milk,
which has been adopted by the French
government, and by which milk can
be preserved almost indefinitely abso-
lutely pure and unaltered.
Twenty years ago the art of preserv-
ing meat by means of cold storage was
in its infancy but the French govern
ment has fully awaited itself of every
improvement that has been made in
this direction, and at the first sign of
impending danger the authorities would
be prepared to store hundreds of thou
sands of c~arcasseS of beeves and mutt
ton. The military magazines are al
ways kept filled. but at the approach
of war the numerous warehouses and
buildings which have been indicated for
the purpose and prepared for the stor-
or provisions would be Immediately
brought into requisition. By means of
the Fixary process dressed beef and
other meats can be kept sweet and
fresh for many months, and by new
chemical methods the storage rooms
can be kept cool without the use. Of ice.
In its careful preparation for the dire
emergency of hostile attack the French
government seems to have overlooked
nothing; ven coal, wood, petroleum,
chemicals and a thousand other things
lave been provided in ample quantities..
1t seems almost impossible to believe
that any future siege of Paris could be
prolonged until the War Department
should have exhausted it's fabulous ac-
foundations of provisions, which are
constantly maintained at their proper
level by renewals of stock as fast as
thew ira 1JCQ6 I'm tsThn hast 1oi6 vJ1, nc
O. mice and men, however. gang aft
a-gley."