The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1907-04-27
PARIS SOUP KITCHENS.
MUCH DONE FOR RELIEF OF POOR
AT FRENCH CAPITAL.
"Soupes PopuIares" Are Great Sue
cess-They Feed Hundreds of Per-
sens Daily Who Would Otherwise
Go Hungry.

sons Daily Who Would otherwise
Go Hungry.
All the machinery. official and prl-
vate, for the relief of the poor OF
Paris has been set in motion, writes
the foreign correspondent OF the New
York Tribune. The office OF the
Mayor Of each Of the score OF wards
into which the city is divided Tor ;.u-
minisSratiye purposes is centre ol
poor relief, but tais official relief taxes
exclusively the form of small pecun-
iary advance, given after due inquiry
into the circumstances o. the applicant
The Mayors office is by no means
as thronged as one might expect. Inc
honest and deserving poor hook upon
it in the light of begging, and the
others taking probably the same view,
find it far more profitable to beg at
the doors of churches and restaurants.
The winter season, therefore, which
bears SO heavily upon the poor, sees
a number of private charities IN OPP
Grafton. not the least useful OF when
are perhaps the -Solpes popuialfes'
or the peoples soup kitchens. 1hese
establishments. which exist in all tne
poorer quarters of Paris, aim only
at supplying as many as possible Oh
the Door OF the parish with a not,
nourishing meal each day. Some OF
these kitchens are entirely Tree, QUIZ
ers make a small charge, two cents
portion.
In every case the hour OF distribu-
ton is early in the morning. Inc
doors are opened at 5 O'Clock. put
long before that time 4 large crowd
has gathered outside the little shanIy
in which the gigantic soup pot Is
installed. A notice outside informs
the clients that each must PROVIDE
himself or herself with some sort OF
vessel in which TO carry Oil the not
soup, for at these kitchens the soup
is not consumed on the premises DUt
carried back to the homes. lie me-!
are narshalled ct one door and the
women at another, TO avid confusion,
soup into the jugs, basins, pots or
pans presented BY the crowd. Inc
yIIe is to shut the doors at 10 o clock,
but this is not always easily Cohe.
A pel:od OF severe weather doubles
and trebles the number CT apfiicaAlS
for the soup, and two hours are bare
ly sufficient to fill all the empty YES
sells Generous are the heipln2s al
ali the Kitchens. The 2 cents charS-
cd bv some of them does not cover
the expenses. The committees, most
" women, wisely spend all their fumes
on the contents OF the stock pot. Inc
kitchens themselves are OF the SIM
plest description. In the 9Th Ward
the stove is installed in large, low
rooted room, in shabby street, next
door to an Office which supplies the
wealthy Parisians with foster mothers
for their infants. A door at the end
of the room leads into small court
ward, in which an ancient pump stands.
Here the vegetables used for the soup
are washed and prepared. In the
kitchen itself there is only the great
stove with its enormous pot. GER
tain weight of meat and bones goes
to the composition of the soup in ev-
cry case, though the bulk of its ingre-
dents is from the vegetable market.
1t always smells most savory and ap-
petizing.
To the French, rich or poor. soup
with bread forms the staff of life.
Among the very poor, indeed, it flg'
ures at each meal. A cup of soup
in the early morning is all the break
fast they ever take; a second edition
of the same soup forms their luncheon,
and they eat it third time at night.
With a daily ration of a pound of
brown bread, which they can purchase
for three cents, and the addition OF
a piece of cheese, perhaps, they are
content. In the humber restaurants
o. the capital, where the road member,
the WAGNER, the bricklayer's assis-
tant and the errand boy take their
meals, the words "bOuilliOn ct bGuf'
(soup and beef are invariably paint
ed on the windows as permanent
daily attraction. The large majority
of the customers will choose these
dishes. The former is the broth flaw
ored with carrots, turnips and onions.
in which the meat has been stewed for
hours. and a great portion of this
SOUP meat can be had for four or
five cents.
One of the most interesting fea-
lures of the recent food congress
which was held in Paris was the read
ing of a statement of the comparative
values of different foodstuffs. This |