The siege -- The food-supply of Paris -- How and what the
Parisians eat and drink -- Bread, meat, and wine -- Alcoholism --
The waste among the London poor -- The French take a lesson from
the alien -- The Irish at La Villette -- A whisper of the horses
being doomed -- M. Gagne -- The various attempts to introduce
horseflesh -- The journals deliver their opinions -- The supply
of horseflesh as it stood in '70 -- The Academie des Sciences --
Gelatine -- Kitchen gardens on the balcony -- M. Lockroy's
experiment -- M. Pierre Joigneux and the Englishman -- if
cabbages, why not mushrooms? -- There is still a kitchen garden
left -- Cream cheese from the moon, to be fetched by Gambetta --
His departure in a balloon -- Nadar and Napoleon III. --
Carrier-pigeons -- An aerial telegraph -- Offers to cross the
Prussian lines -- The theatres -- A performance at the Cirque
National -- "Le Roi s'amuse," at the Theatre de Montmartre -- A
dejeuner at Durand's -- Weber and Beethoven -- Long winter nights
without fuel or gas -- The price of provisions -- The Parisian's
good-humour -- His wit -- The greed of the shopkeeper -- Culinary
literature -- More's "Utopia" -- An ex-lieutenant of the Foreign
Legion -- He gives us a breakfast -- He delivers a lecture on
food -- Joseph, his servant -- Milk -- The slender resources of
the poor -- I interview an employe of the State Pawnshop --
Statistics -- Hidden provisions -- Bread -- Prices of provisions
-- New Year's Day, and New Year's dinners -- The bombardment --
No more bread -- The end of the siege.
I am not a soldier, nor in the least like one; hence, I have, almost
naturally, neglected to note any of the strategic and military problems
involved in the campaign and the siege. But, ignorant as I am in these
matters, and notwithstanding the repeated failures of General Trochu's
troops to break through the lines of investment, I feel certain, on the
other hand, that the Germans would have never taken Paris by storming
it. Years before, Von Moltke had expressed his opinion to that effect in
his correspondence, not exactly with regard to the French capital, but
with regard to any fortified centre of more than a hundred thousand
inhabitants. Such an agglomeration, even if severely left alone, and
only shut off from the rest of the world, falls by itself. I am giving
the spirit and not the substance of his words.
Consequently, there is no need to say, that, to the mere social
observer, the problems raised by the food-supply were perhaps the most
interesting. Even under normal conditions, the average Parisian in his
method of feeding is worth studying; he is supposed to be one of the
most abstemious creatures on the civilized globe. And yet, I do not
think that he consumes less alcohol than the average Englishman or
German. The Frenchman's alcohol is more diluted; that is all. A drunken
woman is a very rare sight, either in Paris or in the provinces;
nevertheless, there is, probably, not one in a thousand women among the
lower classes who drinks less than her half a bottle of wine per day;
while ladies of high degree generally partake of one if not two glasses
of chartreuse with their coffee, after each of the two principal meals.
_Un grog Americain_ is as often ordered for the lady as for the
gentleman, during the evening visits to the cafe. I am speaking of
gentlewomen by birth and education, and of the spouses of the well-to-do
men, not of the members of the demi-monde and of those below them.
So far, the question of drink, which, after my visit to the wine-depots
at Bercy, assumed an altogether different aspect to my mind. I began to
wonder whether the plethora of wine would not do as much harm as the
expected scarcity of food. My fears were not groundless.
Frenchmen, especially Parisians, not only eat a great quantity of bread,
but they are very particular as to its quality. I have a note showing
that, during the years 1868-69, the consumption per head for every man,
woman, and child amounted to a little more than an English pound per
day, and that very little of this was of "second quality," though the
latter was as good as that sold at many a London baker's as first. I
tasted it myself, because the municipality had made a great point of
introducing it to the lower classes at twopence per quartern less than
the first quality. Nevertheless, the French workman would have none of
it.[83]
[Footnote 83: Goethe, in his journey through France, noticed
that the peasants who drove his carriage invariably refused to
eat the soldiers' bread, which he found to his taste.--EDITOR.]
Even in the humblest restaurants, the bread supplied to customers is of
a superior quality; the ordinary household bread (pain de menage) is
only to be had by specially asking for it; the roll with the
cafe-au-lait in the morning is an institution except with the very poor.
As for meat, I have an idea, in spite of all the doubts thrown upon the
question by English writers, that the Parisian workman in 1870 consumed
as much as his London fellow. The fact of the former having two square
meals a day instead of one, is not sufficiently taken into account by
the casual observer. There are few English artisans whose supper, except
on Sundays, consists of anything more substantial than bread and cheese.
The Frenchman eats meat at twelve a.m. and at six p.m. The nourishment
contained in the scraps, the bones, etc., is generally lost to the
Englishman: not a particle of it is wasted in France. Be that as it may,
the statistics for 1858 show a consumption of close upon eight ounces
(English) of fresh meat per day for every head of the population. Be it
remembered that these statistics are absolutely correct, because a
town-due of over a halfpenny per English pound is paid on the meat
leaving the public slaughter-houses, and killed meat is taxed similarly
at the city gates. Private slaughter-houses there are virtually none.
Allowing for all this, it will be seen that Paris was not much better
off than other capitals would have been if threatened with a siege,
except, perhaps, for the ingenuity of even the humblest French housewife
in making much out of little by means of vegetables, fruit, and
cunningly prepared sauces, for which, nevertheless, butter, milk, lard,
etc., were wanted, which commodities were as likely to fail as all other
things. Nor must one forget to mention the ingenuity displayed in the
public slaughter-houses themselves, in utilizing every possible scrap of
the slaughtered animals for human food. I had occasion, not very long
ago (1883), to go frequently, and for several weeks running, to one of
the poorest quarters in London. I often made the journey on foot, for I
am ashamed to say that, until then, the East End was far more unknown to
me than many an obscure town in France, Italy, Germany, and Spain. The
clever remark of a French sociologist that "the battle of life is fought
below the belt," holds especially good with regard to the lower classes.
Well, I may unhesitatingly say that in no country are the poor left in
greater ignorance with regard to cheap and nourishing food than in
England, if I am to judge by London. The French, the German, the
Italian, the Spanish poor, have a dozen inexpensive and succulent dishes
of which the English poor know absolutely nothing; and still those very
dishes figure on the tables of the well-to-do, and of fashionable
restaurants, as entrees under more or less fantastic names. Is the
English working man so utterly devoid of thrift and of common sense, is
his contempt for the foreigner so great as to make him refuse to take a
lesson from the latter? I think not. I fancy it will depend much on the
manner in which the lesson is conveyed. A little less board-school work
and Sunday-school teaching, fewer Bible classes, and a good many
practical cooking-classes would probably meet the case.
The French, though aware of their incontestable superiority in the way
of preparing food, did not disdain to take a lesson from the alien. They
clearly foresaw the fate in store for the cattle penned in the squares
and public gardens, if compelled to remain there under existing
conditions, and with the inclement season close at hand; consequently,
the authorities enlisted the services of Mr. Wilson, an Irish gentleman
who had been residing in Paris for a number of years, and whose
experience in the salted-provision trade seemed to them very likely to
yield most satisfactory results. Up till then, only thirty head of
cattle had been submitted to his process, from that moment the number is
considerably increased, and it becomes apparent that, in a short while,
there will be few live oxen, sheep, or pigs left in Paris, though, as
yet we are only in the beginning of October. Under Mr. Wilson's able
management, half a hundred Irishmen are at work for many, many hours a
day at the slaughter-house in La Villete, whither flock the Parisians,
at any rate the privileged ones, to watch the preliminaries to the
regime of salt-junk which is staring them in the face. The fodder thus
economized will go to the horses, although there is a whisper in the air
that one eminent savant has recommended their immediate slaughter and
salting also. Of course, such as are wanted for military purposes will
be exempted from this holocaust on the altar of patriotism. M. Gagne,
who has already provided the Parisians with amusement for years, in his
capacity as a perpetual candidate for parliamentary honours, does not
stop at hippophagy; he seriously proposes anthropophagy. "A human being
over sixty is neither useful nor ornamental," he exclaimed at a public
meeting; "and to prove that I mean what I say, I am willing to give
myself as food to my sublime and suffering townsmen." Poor fellow! as
mad as a March hare, but a man of education and with an infinite fund of
sympathy for humanity. He was but moderately provided for at the best of
times; his income was derived from some property in the provinces, and,
as a matter of course, the investment of Paris stopped his supplies of
funds from that quarter. He was of no earthly use in the besieged city,
but he refused to go. He had a small but very valuable collection of
family plate, which went bit by bit to the Mint, not to feed himself but
to feed others, for he was never weary of well-doing. He reminded one
irresistibly of Balzac's hero, "le Pere Goriot," parting with his
treasures to supply his ungrateful daughters, for the Parisians were
ungrateful to him. Mad as he was, no man in possession of all his mental
faculties could have been more sublime.
Whatever the question of human flesh as food may have been to the
Parisians, that of horseflesh was by no means new to them. Since '66,
various attempts had been made to introduce it on a large scale, but,
for once in a way, they were logical in their objections to it. "It is
all very well," wrote a paper, devoted to the improvement of the humbler
classes,--"it is all very well for a few savants to sit round a
well-appointed table to feast upon the succulent parts of a young,
tender, and perfectly healthy horse, especially if the steaks are 'aux
truffes,' and the kidneys stewed in 'Madeira;' but that young, tender,
and perfectly healthy horse would cost more than an equally tender,
young, and perfectly healthy bullock or cow. So, where is the advantage?
In order to obtain that advantage, horses only fit for the knacker's
yard, not fit for human food, would have to be killed, and the
hard-working artisan with his non-vitiated taste, who does not even care
for venison or game when it happens to be 'high,' would certainly not
care for a superannuated charger to be set before him. You might just as
well ask an unsophisticated cannibal to feast upon an invalid. The best
part of 'the warrior on the shelf' is his wooden leg or his wooden arm;
the best part of the superannuated charger is his skin or his hoof, with
or without the shoe; and no human being, whether cannibal or not, can be
expected to make a timber-yard, a tanner's yard, or an old-iron and rag
store of his stomach, even to please faddists."
As a consequence, only two millions of pounds of horseflesh were
"produced" during the first three years succeeding the publication of
that article (1866-69); but it is more than doubtful whether a sixteenth
part of it was consumed as human food--with a knowledge on the part of
the consumers. And during those three years, as if to prove the
writer's words, the public were being constantly fortified in their
dislike with official reports of the seizure of diseased horses on their
way to the four specially appointed slaughter-houses. I remember, that
in one week, twenty-four animals were thus confiscated by the sanitary
inspectors, "the flesh of which," added the _Moniteur_, "would have
probably found its way to the tables of the better class Parisians, in
the shape of Arles, Lorraine, or German sausages. These commodities," it
went on, "are never offered by the manufacturer to the experienced
proprietors of the ham and beef shops (charcutiers), but to fruiterers,
grocers, vendors of so-called dainties, and dealers in preserved
provisions." The article had the effect of arousing the suspicion of the
better classes as well as of the poorer.
The number of "horse-butchers" had decreased by four during the four
years that had elapsed since their first establishment with the
Government's sanction, and the remaining eighteen were not very
prosperous when the siege brought the question to the fore once more.
The public could not afford to be positively hostile to the scheme, but
the assertion of the rare advocates of the system, that they were
enthusiastic, is altogether beside the truth. They had to make the best
of a bad game, that was all. It is a very curious, but positive fact,
nevertheless, that I have heard Parisians speak favourably afterwards of
dog's and cat's flesh, even of rats baked in a pie; I have heard them
say that, for once in a way, even under ordinary circumstances, they
would not mind partaking of those dishes: I have never heard them
express the same good will toward horseflesh. Of course, I am alluding
to those who affected no partisanship, either one way or the other. One
thing is very certain, though: at the end of the siege the sight of a
cat or dog was a rarity in Paris, while by the official reports there
were thirty thousand horses left.
Meanwhile, the Academie de Sciences is attracting notice by the reports
of its sittings, in which the question of food is the only subject
discussed. Professor Dorderone reads a paper on the utilization of beef
and mutton fat; and he communicates a new process with regard to kidney
fat, which, up till then, had withstood the attempts of the most
celebrated chefs for culinary purposes. He professes to have discovered
the means of doing away with the unpleasant taste and smell which have
hitherto militated against its use, he undertakes to give it the
flavour and aroma of the best butter from Brittany and Normandy. M.
Richard, the maire of La Villette, attempts similar experiments with
animal offal, which M. Dumas, the great savant, declares highly
satisfactory. M. Riche, one of the superior officials of the Mint,
transforms bullock's blood into black puddings, which are voted superior
to those hitherto made with pig's blood. The nourishing properties of
gelatine are demonstrated in an equally scientific manner, and the
Academie des Sciences gradually becomes the rendezvous of the fair ones
of Paris, who come to take lessons in the culinary art.
"Mais, monsieur," says one, "maintenant que nous avons du beurre,
veuillez nous dire d'ou viendront nos epinards?"[84]
[Footnote 84: "Mettre du beurre dans ses epinards," means,
figuratively, to increase one's comforts.--EDITOR.]
"Don't let that trouble you, madame," is the answer; "if you will honour
us with your presence next week, one of our learned friends from the
Jardin des Plantes will tell you how to grow salads, and perhaps
asparagus, on your balcony and in front of your windows, in less than a
fortnight."
The learned professor is not trying to mystify his charming
interlocutor; he honestly believes in what he says: and, a week later,
when "the friend from the Jardin des Plantes" has spoken, there is a
wonderful run on all the seed-shops near the Chatelet, every one tries
to borrow flower-pots from his neighbours, and barrow-loads of mould are
being trundled in long lines into Paris. Wherever one goes, the eye
meets careful housewives bending over wooden boxes on the balconies; M.
Philippe Lockroy, the eminent actor and dramatist, the father of M.
Edouard Lockroy, the future minister of the Third Republic, asks
seriously why we should not revive the hanging gardens of Semiramis, and
sets the example by converting his fifth floor balcony into a market
garden, to the discomfiture of his son, who finds his erstwhile bedroom
converted into a storehouse for tools and less agreeable matter. I may
mention that M. Lockroy did not abandon his project after a mere
fleeting attempt, nor when the necessity for it had disappeared, but
that at the hour I write (1883) he has taken a prize for pears grown on
that same balcony.
The mania spreads, and every one becomes, for the time being, a
market-gardener in chambers. Even M. Pierre Joigneux, the well-known
horticulturist, and equally clever writer, is bitten with it. That the
thing was perfectly feasible, was proved subsequently by M. Lockroy, but
the latter did not imitate the nigger who dug up the potatoes an hour
after he had planted them, to see if they were growing. That thoroughly
inexperienced persons should have indulged in such wild fancies is
perhaps not to be wondered at; but M. Joigneux was not one of these, yet
he provided an Englishman, who had come to propose the experiment to
him, with all the necessary funds. "I was perfectly certain that I
should never see him again," he said afterwards; but, with all due
deference, we may take this as a shamefaced denial of his credulity.
"Contrary to my expectations," M. Joigneux went on, when he told us the
tale a few nights afterwards at the Cafe de la Paix--he lived in the Rue
du 4 Septembre,--"my Englishman did come back, accompanied by a porter
who carried the requisite material. I did not interfere with him in the
least, but merely watched him. I knew that in England they did produce
'greenstuff' in that way; though I was also aware of the difference
between a few blades and a serious crop."
Others, more ingenious still, began to argue that if it was possible to
produce vegetables in a fortnight by means of light and a few handfuls
of mould, it could not be difficult to produce mushrooms with a much
thicker layer of mould and in the darkness of a cellar.
Fortunately there is, as yet, a very decent kitchen-garden to fall back
upon. It lies between the fortifications and the forts; it has been
somewhat pillaged at first, but the authorities have organized several
companies of labourers from among those whom they have not been able to
provide with arms, and those who do not dig or delve keep watch against
depredation. They have a very simple uniform--a black kepi with crimson
piping, and a crimson belt round their waists. They are exposed to a
certain danger, for every now and then a stray German bullet lays one of
them low, but, upon the whole, their lot is not a hard one.
"We have still nearly everything we want," writes a facetious
journalist; "and now that good and obliging fellow, Gambetta, is going
to fetch us some cream cheese from the moon for our dessert."
In fact, during the last few days, we have been informed of the Minister
of the Interior's impending departure for Tours by balloon on the 7th of
October, and by twelve o'clock on that day the little Place St. Pierre,
right on the heights of Montmartre, is simply black with people. "The
great statesman," the "hero who is to rouse the provinces to unheard-of
efforts for the deliverance of the sacred soil of France from the
polluting presence of the Teutonic barbarian," has not arrived yet when
I edge my way through the crowd, accompanied by an officer on General
Vinoy's staff, who is a near relative of mine. With the recollection of
my adventure in the Avenue de Clichy fresh upon me, I would not have
ventured to come by myself. There is a military post on the Place St.
Pierre, and I am wondering whether it will turn out to pay honours to
"the great statesman;" and whether Nadar, the famous Nadar, whom I can
see towering above the crowd, and giving instructions, will treat
Gambetta with the same scant courtesy he once treated Louis-Napoleon,
when the latter went to see the ascent of his balloon, "Le Geant," from
the Champ-de-Mars. Nadar's behaviour on that occasion reminds one of
Elizabeth's with the wife of Bishop Parker. "'Madam,'" said the queen,
"I may not call you, and 'mistress' I am loth to call you." Nadar was
too fervent a republican to call Louis-Napoleon "Majesty;" he was too
well-bred to insult his guest by addressing him as "Monsieur:" so, when
he saw the sovereign advancing, he backed towards his car, and, before
he could come up with him, gave orders to "let go."
I do not know whether Gambetta came in a carriage. It did not make its
appearance on the Place St. Pierre; he probably left it, like meaner
mortals, at the foot of the very steep hill. The cheering was immense,
and he took it as if to the manner born. He was accompanied by M.
Spuller, who was to take the journey with him, and who, even at that
time, bore a curious likeness to Mr. Spurgeon. M. Spuller did not appear
to claim any of the cheers for himself, for he kept perfectly stolid.
Gambetta, on the other hand, bowed repeatedly, at which Nadar grinned.
Nadar was always honest, if outspoken. He did not seem particularly
pleased with the business in hand, and was evidently determined to get
it over as soon as possible. Gambetta was still standing up, bowing and
waving his hands, when Nadar gave the order to "let go" the ropes, and
the dictator fell back into the lap of his companion. The balloon rose
rather quickly, and about nine that same night we had the news that the
balloon had safely landed in the Department of the Oise, about twelve
miles from Clermont.
From that moment, the ascent of a balloon with its car containing one or
two, sometimes three, wicker cages of carrier-pigeons, becomes a
favourite spectacle with the Parisians, who would willingly see the
departure of a dozen per day. For each departure means not only the
conveyance of a budget of news from the besieged city to the provinces,
it means the return of the winged messengers with perhaps hopeful
tidings that the provinces are marching to the rescue. I am bound to
say, at the same time, that the terrible anxiety for such rescue did not
arise solely from a wish to escape further physical sufferings and
privations. Three-fourths of the Parisians would have been willing to
put up with worse for the sake of one terrible defeat inflicted upon the
Germans by their levies or by those in the provinces.
But though the gas companies did wonders, fifty-two balloons having been
inflated by them during the siege, they could do no more. Nevertheless,
the experiments continue: the brothers Goddard have established their
head-quarters at the Orleans Railway; MM. Dartois and Yon at the
Northern; Admiral Labrousse, who has already invented an ingenious
gun-carriage, is now busy upon a navigable balloon; the Government
grants a subsidy of forty thousand francs to M. Dupuy de Lome to assist
him in his research; and at the Grande Hotel there is a permanent
exhibition of appliances for navigating the air under the direction of
MM. Horeau and Saint-Felix. The public flock to them, and for a moment
there is the hope that if we ourselves cannot come and go as free as
birds, there will be at least a means of permanent communication with
the outer world that way. M. Granier has proposed to make an aerial
telegraph without the support of poles. The wire is to be enclosed in a
gutta-percha tube filled with hydrogen gas, which will enable it to keep
its altitude a thousand or fifteen hundred meters above the earth. The
cable is to be paid out by balloons. M. Gaston Tissandier, a well-known
authority in such matters, looks favourably upon the experiment; but,
alas, it comes to nothing, and we have to fall back upon less ingenious,
more commonplace means.
In other words, we are offering tempting fees to plucky individuals who
will attempt to cross the Prussian lines. Several do make the attempt,
and for a week or so the newspapers and the walls swarm with
advertisements of a private firm who will forward and receive despatches
at the rate of ten francs per letter. A good many messengers depart; a
good many return almost at once, finding the task impossible; those that
do not return have presumably been shot by the Prussians, for not a
single one reached his destination.
Then we begin to turn our thoughts to the sheep-dog as a carrier of
messengers, or rather to the smuggler's dog, thousands of which are
known to exist on the Belgian and Swiss frontiers. The postal
authorities go even so far as to promise two hundred francs for every
batch of despatches if delivered within twenty-four hours of the
animal's departure from his starting-place, and fifty francs less for
every twenty-four hours' delay; but the animals fall a prey to the
Prussian sentries, not one of them succeeds in reaching the French
outposts. The carrier-pigeon is all we have left.
Still, we are not discouraged; and in less than a month after the
investment, the Parisians begin to clamour for their favourite
amusement--the theatre. There are, of course, many divergencies of
opinion with regard to the fitness of the measure, and we get some
capital articles on the subject, studded with witty sentences and
relieved by historical anecdotes, showing that, whatever they may not
know, French journalists have an inexhaustible fund of parallels when it
becomes a question of the playhouse. "In '92 the Lillois went peacefully
to the theatre while the shells were pouring into the devoted city. Why
should we be less courageous and less cheerful than they?" writes one.
"Nero was fiddling while Rome was burning," writes another, "but Paris
is not on fire yet; and, if it were, the Nero who might be blamed for
the catastrophe is at Wilhelmshoehe, where, we may be sure, he will not
eat a mouthful less for our pangs of hunger. If he does not fiddle, it
is because, like his famous uncle, he has no ear for music."
"Whatever may happen," writes M. Francisque Sarcey in the _Gaulois_,
"art should be considered superior to all things; the theatre is not a
more unseemly pleasure under the circumstances than the perusal of a
good book; and it is just in the darkest and saddest hours of his life
that a man needs a diversion which will, for a little while, at least,
prevent him from brooding upon his sufferings."
To which "Thomas Grimm," of _Le Petit Journal_, who is on the opposite
side, replies: "If I may be allowed to intervene in so grave a question,
I have no hesitation in saying that the time for singing and amusing
ourselves has not arrived. It seems to me very doubtful whether the
spectators would not be constantly thinking of scenes enacted in other
spots than behind the footlights. And in such moments, when they might
concentrate the whole of their attention on the pleasant fiction enacted
before them, the sound of the cannon thundering in the distance would
more than once recall them to the reality."
The ice was virtually broken, and on Sunday, the 23rd of October, the
Cirque National opened its doors for a concert. During the last five
years, as my readers will perceive by the almost involuntary break in
these notes, I had not been so assiduous a frequenter of the theatre and
the concert hall as I used to be, and though I was during the siege
overburdened with business, on the nature of which I need not dwell
here, I felt that I wanted some amusement. The evenings were becoming
chilly, one of my cherished companions was doing his duty with General
Vinoy, and, though I had practically unlimited means at my command for
my necessities, and am by no means sparing of money at any time, I
grudged the price of fuel. As yet, wood only cost six francs the
hundredweight, but it was such wood! If the ancient proverb-coiner had
been seated in front of the hearth in which it was trying to burn, he
might have hesitated to write that "there is no smoke without a fire."
The friendly chats by the fireside, which I had enjoyed for many years,
had almost entirely ceased. Nearly all my familiars were "on duty," and
the few hours they could snatch were either spent in bed, to rest from
the fatigue and discomforts of the night, or else at the cafes and
restaurants, where the news, mostly of an anecdotal kind, was
circulating freely. In fact, the cafes and restaurants, as long as there
was fuel and light, were more amusing during the siege than I had known
them to be at any time. Perhaps the most amusing feature of these
nightly gatherings was the presentation of the bill after dinner. The
prices charged at the Cafe de Paris in its palmiest days were child's
play compared to the actual ones. I have preserved the note of a
breakfast for two at Durand's.
frs.
Hors d'Oeuvres (Radishes and Sausage) 10
Entree (Navarin aux Pommes) 18
Filet de Boeuf aux Champignons 24
Omelette Sucree (3 oeufs) 12
Cafe 1
1 Bouteille de Macon 6
--
Total frs. 71
The bread and butter were included in the hors-d'oeuvres, and I may
remark that the entree and the filet de boeuf were only for one.
Durand's was the cheapest of the five restaurants which still retained
their ordinary clientele. Bignon, Voisin, the Cafes de la Paix and
Anglais were much dearer. The latter gave its patrons white bread as
late as the 16th of December.
I made up my mind, then, to go to that concert at the Cirque National,
and to as many of the entertainments as might be offered. I have rarely
seen such a crowd outside a theatre; and I doubt whether the fact of the
performance being for a charitable purpose had much to do with it,
because, if so, those who were denied admission might have handed their
money at the box-office, but they did not, they only gave the reverse of
their blessing. If charity it was, it did not want to end at home that
afternoon.
The entertainment began with a charity sermon by the Abbe Duquesnay, a
hard-working priest in one of the thickly populated quarters of Paris. I
would willingly give another ten francs to hear a similar sermon. I am
positive that the Abbe had taken Laurence Sterne for his model. I have
never heard anything so brilliant in my life. Not the slightest attempt
at thrusting religion down one's throat. A good many quotations on the
advantages of well-doing, notably that of Shakespeare, admirably
translated, probably by the speaker himself. Then the following to wind
up with: "I do not know of a single curmudgeon who has ever been
converted into what I should call 'a genuine almsgiver,' by myself, or
by my fellow-priests. When he did give, he looked upon the gift as a
loan to the Lord in virtue of that gospel precept which you all know.
Now, my good friends, allow me to give you my view of that sentence: God
is just, and no doubt He will repay the loan with interest, but after He
has settled the account, He will indict the lender before the Highest
tribunal for usury. Consequently, if you have an idea of placing your
money in that way with God as a security, you had better keep it in your
purses."
After this, the orchestra, nine-tenths of whose members are in uniform,
performs the overture to "La Muette de Portici" (Masaniello); Pasdeloup
conducting. Pasdeloup is a naturalized German, whose real name is
Wolfgang, but, in this instance, the public do not seem to mind it; nor
is there any protest against the names of two other Germans on the
programme, Weber's and Beethoven's. On the contrary, the latter's
composition is frantically encored. I believe it is the symphony in _C
Minor_, for it has been wedded to Victor Hugo's words, and it is Madame
Ugalde who sings the stirring hymn "Patria."
There is a story connected with this hymn, which is not generally known.
I give it as it was told to me a day or so afterwards by Auber, who had
it from the lips of Joseph Dartigues, who, at the time of its
occurrence, was the musical critic of the _Journal des Debats_.
Hugo was very young then, and one night he went to the Theatre de
Madame, which has since become the Gymnase. The piece was one of
Scribe's--"La Chatte metamorphosee en Femme;" and Jenny Vertpre, whom
our grandfathers applauded at the St. James Theatre in the thirties, was
to play the principal part. Still, our poet was not particularly struck
with the plot, dialogue, or lyrics; but, all at once, he sat upright in
his seat, at the strains of a "Hindoo invocation." When the music
ceased, Hugo left the house, humming the notes to himself. He was very
fond of music, though he could never reconcile himself to have his
dramas appropriated by the librettists, and gave his consent but very
reluctantly. Next morning, he met Dartigues on the Boulevard des
Italiens, then the Boulevard de Gand. He told him what he had heard, and
recommended the critic to go and judge for himself. "It is so utterly
different from the idiotic stuff one generally hears." Dartigues acted
upon the recommendation. A few days later, they met once more. "Did you
go and hear that music, at the Theatre de Madame?" asked Hugo.
"Yes," was the reply. "I am not surprised at your liking it; it is
Beethoven's."
Curious to relate, Hugo had not as much as heard the name of the great
German composer. The acquaintance with classical music was very limited
in the France of those days. But Hugo never forgot the symphony, and,
later on, in his exile, he wrote the words I had just heard.
The impulse has been given, and from that moment the walls of Paris
display as many bills of theatrical and musical entertainments as if the
Germans were not at the gates. I go to nearly all, and, to my great
regret, hear a great many actors and actresses who have received favours
and honours at the hand of Louis-Napoleon vie with one another in
casting obloquy upon him and his reign. One of the few honourable
exceptions is M. Got, who, being invited to recite Hugo's "Chatiments,"
emphatically refuses "to kick a man when he is down."
At the Theatre-Francais, there is a special box--the erstwhile Imperial
box--for the convalescents, who are being tended in the theatre itself.
But though I went to hear Melchisedec and Taillade, Caron and
Berthelier, there is one performance that stands out vividly from the
rest in my memory. It was a representation of Hugo's "Le Roi s'amuse"
("The Fool's Revenge"), at the theatre at Montmartre. Under ordinary
circumstances, I should probably not have gone so far afield to see any
piece, not even that which was reputed to be _the masterpiece_ of Victor
Hugo, but, in this instance, the temptation was too great. The play had
only been performed in Paris once--on the 22nd of November, 1832; next
day it was suspended by order of the Government. Alexandre Dumas the
elder, Theophile Gautier, Nestor Roqueplan, all of whom were present on
that memorable night, had spoken to me of its beauties. I had often
promised myself to read it, and had never done so. If I had, I should
probably not have gone to Montmartre that night, lest my illusions
should be disturbed. The performance was intended as a tribute to the
genius of the poet, but also as an act of defiance on the part of the
young Republic to the preceding regimes; though why it was not revived
during the Second Republic I have never been able to make out clearly.
My companion and I toiled up the steep Rue des Martyrs, and it was
evident to us, when we got to the Place du Theatre, that something
unusual was going on, for the little square was absolutely black with
people. We managed, however, to elbow our way through, and to get two
stalls. The house was dimly lighted by gas, the deficiency made up, as
far I could see, by lamps in the auditorium, by candles on the stage.
There was not an empty seat anywhere. The overture, consisting of
snatches from "Rigoletto," was received with deafening applause, and
then the curtain rose upon the magnificent hall in the Louvre of
Francois I., with the king surrounded by his courtiers and his
favourites. By his side hobbled Triboulet, his evil genius, as Hugo has
represented him.
My disappointment was great. I had come to admire, not expecting
magnificent scenery, gorgeous costumes, or transcendent acting, but a
spirit of reverence for the immortal creation of a great poet. At that
time I was not sufficiently familiar with provincial art in England to
be able to picture a performance of Shakespeare except under conditions
such as prevail in the best of London theatres. I had read accounts,
however, of strolling companies and their doings, but I doubt whether
the humblest would have been guilty of such utter iconoclasm in the
spirit as well as in the letter as I witnessed that night. It was not
comic, it was absolutely painful. It was not the glazed calico doing
duty for brocade, that made me wince; it was not the anti-macassar
replacing lace that made me gasp for breath: it was the miserable
failure of those behind the footlights, as well as of those in front, to
grasp the meaning of the simplest line. They had been told that this
play was an indictment, not against a libertine king, but against
generations and generations of rulers to whom debauch was as the air
they breathed. And, in order to make the lesson more striking,
Saint-Vallier was represented as an old dotard, Triboulet as a pander,
the king as an amorous Bill Sykes, and Triboulet's daughter as an
hysterical young woman who virtually gloried in her dishonour. I had
seen "Orphee aux Enfers," "La Belle Helene," and "La Grande Duchesse;" I
had heard Schneider at her best and at her worst; I had heard women of
birth and breeding titter, and gentlemen roar, at allusions which would
make a London coalheaver blush;--I had never seen anything so downright
degrading as this performance. And when, at last, the _dramatis personae_
gathered round a bust of Hippocrates--the best substitute for one of
Victor Hugo they could find,--and one of them recited "Les Chatiments,"
I left, hoping that I should never see such an exhibition again. It was
one of the first deliberately planned lessons in "king-hatred" I had
heard. The disciples looked to me very promising, and the Commune, when
it came, was not such a surprise to me, after all. Before then, I had
come to the conclusion that the _barbarians_ outside the gates of Paris
were less to be feared than those inside--the former, at any rate,
believed in a chief; the motto of the others was, "Ni Dieu, ni maitre."
Meanwhile, the long winter nights have come. The stock of gas is pretty
well exhausted, or tantamount to it; wood, similar to that I have
described already, has risen to seven francs fifty centimes the
hundredweight. Beef and mutton have entirely disappeared from the
butchers' stalls. Rats are beginning to be sold at one franc apiece, and
eggs cost thirty francs a dozen. Butter has risen to fifty francs the
half-kilogramme (about seventeen ozs., English). Carrots and potatoes
fetch, the first, forty francs, the second, twenty francs, the peck
(English). I am being told that milk is still to be had, but I have
neither tasted nor seen any for ten days. Personally, I do not feel the
want of it; but in my visits to some of the poor in my neighbourhood I
am confronted by the fact of little ones, between two and three years of
age, being fed on bread soaked in wine, and suffering from various
ailments in consequence.
I am pursuing some inquiries at the various mairies, and find that the
death-rate for October has reached nearly three thousand above the
corresponding month of the previous year. I am furthermore told that not
a third of this increase is due to the direct results of the siege--that
is, to death on the battle-field, or resulting from wounds received
there; typhus and low fever, anaemia, etc., are beginning to ravage the
inhabitants. Worse than all, the authorities have made a mistake with
regard to the influx of strangers. The seventy-five thousand aliens and
Parisians who have left at the beginning of the siege have been replaced
by three times that number, so that Paris has virtually one hundred and
fifty thousand more mouths to feed than it counted upon. "All the women,
children, and old men," says one of my informants, "ought to have been
removed to some provincial centre; it would have cost no more, and would
have left those who remained free for a more energetic defence. And you
will scarcely believe it, monsieur, but here is the register to prove
it; there have been nearly four hundred marriages celebrated during the
past month. It looks to me like tying the Gordian knot with a
vengeance."
One thing I cannot help remarking amidst all this suffering; the
Parisian never ceases to be witty. Among my pensioners there was the
wife of a hard-working, frugal upholsterer, whose trade was absolutely
at a standstill. He was doing his duty on the fortifications; she was
keeping the home together on the meagre pittance allowed to her husband
by the Government, and the rations doled out to her every morning. The
youngest of her three children was barely four weeks old. One morning,
to my great surprise, I found two infants in her lap. "C'est comme ca,
monsieur," she said, with a wan smile. "Andre found it on a doorstep in
the Rue Mogador, and he brought it home, saying, 'It won't make much
difference; Nature laid the table for two infants.'"
The Parisian is a born lounger. Balzac had said, "Flaner est une
science, c'est la gastronomie de l'oeil." Seeing that it is the only
gastronomy they can enjoy under the circumstances, the Parisians take to
it with a vengeance during those months of October and November, and
their favourite halting-places are the rare provision-shops that have
still a fowl, or a goose, or a pigeon in their windows. The sight of a
turkey causes an obstruction, and the would-be purchaser of a rabbit is
mobbed like the winner of a great prize in the lottery. Nine times out
of ten the negotiations do not go beyond the preliminary stage of
inquiring the price, because vendors are obstinate, though polite.
"How much for the rabbit?" says the supposed Nabob, for the very fact of
inquiring implies wealth.
"Forty-five francs, monsieur."
"You are joking. Forty-five francs! It's simply ridiculous," protests
the other one.
"I am not joking, monsieur; and I cannot take a farthing less."
The would-be diner goes away; but he has scarcely gone a few steps, when
the dealer calls him back. "Listen, monsieur," he cries.
Hope revives in the other's breast. His fancy conjures up a savoury
rabbit-stew, and he leaps rather than walks the distance that separates
him from the stall.
"Ventre affame a des oreilles pour sur," says a bystander.[85]
[Footnote 85: The proverb is, "Ventre affame n'a pas
d'oreilles."--EDITOR.]
"Well, how much are you going to take off?"
"I am not going to take off a penny, but I thought I might tell you that
this rabbit plays the drum."
Some of the jokes, though, were not equally innocent, and revealed a
callousness on the part of the perpetrators which it is not pleasant to
have to record. True, they did not affect the very poor, whose poverty
was, as it were, a guarantee against them; but it is a moot point
whether the well-to-do should be shamelessly robbed by the well-to-do
tradesmen for no other reason than to increase the latter's hoard.
Greed, that abominable feature in the character of the French
middle-classes, showed itself again and again under circumstances which
ought to have suspended its manifestations for the time being.
I have already noted that one member of the Academie des Sciences had
insisted upon the benefits to be derived from the extraction of gelatine
from bones. A great number of equally learned men simply scouted the
idea as preposterous, notably Dr. Gannal, the well-known authority on
embalming. His opposition went so far as to prompt him to submit his
family and himself to the "ordeal," as he called it. At the end of a
week, all of them were reduced to mere skeletons; and then, but then
only, Dr. Gannal sent for his learned colleagues to attest the effects.
The drowning man will proverbially cling to a straw; consequently, some
Parisians took to gelatine, undeterred by the clever lampoons, one of
which I quote:
"L'inventeur de la gelatine,
A la chair preferant les os,
Veut desormais que chacun dine
Avec un jeu of dominos."
They, however, did so with their eyes open, and as a last resource; not
so those who were imposed upon, and induced to part with their money for
cleverly imitated calves' heads, which, as a matter of course, merely
left a gluish substance at the bottom of the saucepan, to the
indignation of anxious housewives and irate cooks, one of whom took her
revenge one day by clapping the saucepan and its contents on the head of
the fraudulent dealer, and, while the latter was in an utterly
defenceless state, triumphantly stalking away with two very respectable
fowls. The shopkeeper had the impudence to seek redress in a court of
law. The judge would not so much as listen to him.
Another curious feature of the siege was the sudden passion developed by
cooks for what I must be permitted to call culinary literature. As a
rule, the French cordon-bleu, and even her less accomplished sisters,
do not go for their recipes to cookery-books; theirs is knowledge gained
from actual experience: but at that period such works as, "Le Livre de
Cuisine de Mademoiselle Marguerite," "La Cuisiniere Pratique," etc.,
were to be found on every kitchen table. The cooks had simply taken to
them in despair, not believing a single word of their contents, but on
the chance of finding a hint that might lend itself to the provisions
placed at their disposal. I refrain from giving their criticisms on the
authors: the forcibleness of their language could only be done justice
to by such masters of realism as M. Zola. I have spoken before now of
the uniform good temper of the Parisians under the most trying
circumstances; I beg to append a rider, excluding cooks, but especially
female ones. "C'est comme si on essayait d'enseigner le patinage a la
femme aux jambes de bois du boulevard," said the ministering angel to
one of my bachelor friends. One day, to my great surprise, on calling on
him I found him reading. He was not much given to poring over books,
though his education had been a very good one.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"I am reading More's 'Utopia,'" he said, putting down the volume.
"What do you mean?" I remarked, pointing to the cover, displaying a
young woman bending over stew-pans.
"This is More's 'Utopia,' to me at present. It speaks of things which
will never be realized; supreme de volaille, tournedos a la poivrade,
and so forth. The book wants another chapter," he went on, "a chapter
treating of the food of besieged cities. The Dutch might have written it
centuries ago: at Leyden they were on the point of eating their left
arms, while defending themselves with their right; they could have told
us how to stew the former. If one could add a chapter to that effect,
the book might go through a hundred new editions, and the writer might
make a fortune. It would not do him much good, for he would be expected
to live up to his precepts, and not touch a morsel of that beautiful
kangaroo or elephant I saw yesterday on the Boulevard Haussmann."
At that moment a mutual acquaintance came in. He had been a lieutenant
in the Foreign Legion, and lost his right foot before Constantine.
Noticing our host's doleful looks, he inquired the cause, and we got
another spoken essay on the difficulties of the situation as connected
with the food supply. I may add that, wherever a few men were gathered
together, this became invariably the absorbing topic of conversation.
The ex-lieutenant laughed outright. "You are altogether labouring under
a mistake; there is plenty of food of a kind left, though I admit with
you that the Parisian does not know how to prepare it."
"Will you teach them?" was the query.
"I will not, because they would simply sneer at me. Feeding is simply a
matter of prejudice; and, to prove it to you, I will give you a
breakfast to-morrow morning which you will appreciate. But I am not
going to tell you of what it consists, nor will I do so until two days
after the entertainment."
We accepted the invitation, though I must confess that I was not eager
about it. Nevertheless, next day, about one, we were seated at the
hospitable board of our ex-lieutenant, who, three weeks before, had
dismissed his female servant and was waited upon by an old trooper, with
one arm. Though perfectly respectful, Joseph received us with a broad
grin, which, as the repast progressed, was contracted into a proud
smile. He had evidently co-operated with his master in the concoction of
the dishes, all of which, I am bound to say, were very savoury. In fact,
I was like that new tenant of the house haunted by a laughing ghost. But
for the knowledge that there was something uncanny about it, I would
have been intensely gratified and amused. Our host told us, with great
glee, that Joseph had been up since a quarter-past four that morning;
and that before five he was at the Halles. As we could distinctly taste
the onions in the stew that served as an entree, and as the potatoes
round the next dish were visible to the naked eye, we concluded that the
old trooper had got up so early to buy vegetables, and were
correspondingly grateful. There was no mystery whatsoever about the
fish, and about the entremets. The first was dry cod--but with a sauce
such as I had never tasted before or have since. The latter was a
delicious dish of sweet macaroni, fit to set before a prince. I repeat,
but for my knowledge that there was something uncanny about that meal, I
would have asked permission to come every day. Yet I felt almost equally
convinced that, with regard to one dish, we had been doubly
mystified--that they were larks, which our host had managed to procure
somehow, though I missed the bones.
True to his word, our Amphitryon revealed the real ingredients of the
menu forty-eight hours after. The entree had been composed of very small
mice--field-mice, I think we call them in England; the second dish was
rat. Not a single ounce of butter or lard had been used in the sauces or
for the macaroni. The dried cod was still plentiful enough to be had at
any grocer's or salted provision shop. Instead of butter, Joseph used
horse-marrow. The horse-butchers sold the bones ridiculously cheap, not
having the slightest idea what to do with them. The mice, Joseph caught
round about the fortifications, whither he went almost every day. The
rats he caught in the cellarage of the Halles. He had a cousin there in
a large way of business, and access to the underground part of the
market was never refused to him.
"From what you have tasted at my rooms," concluded the ex-lieutenant,
"you will easily see that our vaunted superiority as cooks is so much
humbug. The dish of cod I gave you, and which you liked so much, may be
seen on the table of the poorest household in Holland and Flanders at
least once, sometimes twice, a week, especially in North-Brabant, where
the good Catholics scarcely ever eat anything else on Fridays. The
sauce, which they call a mustard-sauce, would naturally be better if
made with butter, but you could not taste the difference if the cook
takes care to sprinkle a little saffron in her fat or marrow. Saffron is
a great thing in cooking, and still our best chefs know little or
nothing about it. But for the saffron, you would have detected a slight
odour of musk in the entree you took to be larks. You may almost
disguise anything with saffron, except dog's-flesh. Listen to what I
tell you, and in a month or so, perhaps before, you'll admit the truth
of my words. The moment horseflesh fails, the Parisians will fall back
upon dogs, turning up their noses at cats and rats, though both are a
thousand times superior to the latter. In saying this, I am virtually
libelling the cat and the rat; for 'the friend of man,' be he cooked in
ever so grand a way, is always a detestable dish. His flesh is oily and
flabby; stew him, fry him, do what you will, there is always a flavour
of castor oil about him. The only way to minimize that flavour, to make
him palatable, is to salt, or rather to pepper him; that is, to cut him
up in slices, and leave them for a fortnight, bestrewing them very
liberally with pepper-corns. Then, before 'accommodating' them finally,
put them into boiling water for a while, and throw the water away.
"No such compromises are necessary with 'the fauna of the tiles,' who,
with his larger-sized victim, the rat, has been the most misprized and
misjudged of all animals, from the culinary point of view. Stewed puss
is by far more delicious than stewed rabbit. The flesh of the former
tastes less pungent than that of the latter, and is more tender. As for
the prejudice against cat, well, the Germans have the same prejudice
against rabbit, and while I was in the Foreign Legion there was a
Wurtemberger, a lieutenant, who would not touch bunny, but who would
devour grimalkin. Those who have not tasted couscoussou of cat, prepared
according to the Arabian recipe--though the Arabs won't touch it--have
never tasted anything."[86]
[Footnote 86: The Arab _kuskus_ generally consists of a piece
of mutton baked in a paste with the vegetables of the season,
flavoured with herbs; and the addition of half a dozen
hard-boiled eggs. The whole of the flesh is boned.--EDITOR.]
Our friend said much more, notably with regard to rat and horseflesh;
and then he wound up: "But what is the good? Those who might benefit by
my advice are not here, and, if they were, they would probably scorn it;
I mean the very poor. The only item of animal food which cannot be
adequately replaced by something else yielding as much or nearly as much
nourishment is milk. But, unless an adult be in delicate health or
suffering from ailments to the alleviation and cure of which milk is
absolutely necessary, he may very well go without it for six months. Not
so children. I am only showing you that the poor, with their slender
resources--and Heaven knows they are slender enough--might do better
than they are doing, for cats and rats must still be very plentiful,
only they won't touch them."
The reference to the very poor and their slender resources recurred more
than once that evening, but I knew that the authorities were trying to
do all they could in the way of relieving general and individual
distress, and that they were admirably seconded by private charity,
which not only placed comparatively large sums at their disposal, but
bestirred itself by means of specially appointed committees and
visitors. The rations of meat (horsemeat) and bread distributed were not
sufficient. The first had already fallen to forty-five grammes per day
per head, the second to three hundred and fifty grammes;[87] they were
to fall much lower. Tickets were also distributed for set meals, with
and without meat. There was, furthermore, a distribution of fuel, albeit
that there was really no more fuel to distribute. All the wooden seats
in the public thoroughfares, the scaffoldings before the half-finished
buildings had disappeared. At one of my friend's apartments there was
none but the outer door left, all the others had been replaced by
curtains. They had been chopped up to keep his family warm. The fear of
the terrible landlord may have prevented the poor from imitating this
proceeding. At any rate, I noticed no absent doors in my visits to any
of them. A further supply of meat or bread, even if they had the money,
was out of the question for them; because, though some shops remained
open and their owners were compelled to sell according to the tariff set
forth by the municipality, they had nothing to sell. I remember being in
the Rue Lafayette one morning, near one of those shops, when I saw the
whole of the crowd, that had been waiting there for hours probably, turn
away disappointed. The assistant had just told them that "this morning
we have nothing to sell but preserved truffles."
[Footnote 87: Five hundred French grammes make seventeen ounces
English, and a fraction.--EDITOR.]
At the same time, I am bound to note the fact that, at the slightest
rumours of peace, the usually empty windows became filled with
artistically arranged pyramids of "canned" provisions, at prices
considerably below those charged twenty-four hours before, and even
below those mentioned in the municipal tariff. Frequent attempts were
made by the police to discover the hiding-places for this stock, but
they failed in every instance. Those hiding-places were far away from
the shops, and the shopkeepers themselves were too wary to be caught
napping. A stranger might have safely gone in and offered a hundred
francs for half a dozen tins of their wares. They would have looked a
perfect blank, and told him they had none to sell: and no wonder; their
detection would have meant certain death; no earthly power could have
saved them from the legitimate fury of the populace. And even those who
bought the hidden food at abnormal prices were compelled to preserve
silence, at the risk of seeing their supplies cut off. One thing is
certain, and I can unhesitatingly vouch for it. My name had become known
in connection with several committees for the relief of the poor. On the
25th of January, at 11 a.m., when the negotiations between Bismarck and
M. Jules Favre could have been but in the preliminary stage, I received
a note, brought by hand, from a grocer in the Faubourg Montmartre,
asking me to call personally, as he had something to communicate which
might be to the advantage of my proteges. An hour later, I was at his
establishment, and he offered to sell me five hundred tins of various
provisions and two hundred and fifty boxes of sardines at two francs
each. It was something like double the ordinary price. A little more
than three weeks before that date, I had sent a letter to the same man,
asking him for a similar quantity of goods, which I intended to
distribute as New Year's gifts. The reply was, that he had none, but
that he might _possibly_ procure them at the rate of five francs a tin
and box. I found out afterwards, that the excellent grocer had a son at
the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. I need not point out the logical
deduction.
I am equally certain that there were large quantities of horseflesh,
salted or fresh, hidden somewhere; for, as I have already noted, it was
officially, or at any rate semi-officially stated, that, on the day of
the conclusion of the armistice, there were thirty thousand live horses
in Paris, and the greater part of these would have been slaughtered by
order of the Government, if the measure had been thought expedient, for
there is scarcely any need to say that the pretext of their being wanted
for military purposes would not hold water. A sixth part of them, or
less, would have been amply sufficient for that. In reality, M. Favre
and his colleagues were, by this time, fully convinced that all further
resistance was useless, but they had not the courage to say so frankly,
and they wished to convert the advocates of "resistance to death" to
their side by aggravating the scarcity of the food supply, as if it were
not bad enough already. The horses confiscated by the Government for
food were paid for by them at the rate of between one and two francs per
pound, yet there was no possibility of buying a single pound of
horseflesh, beyond what was distributed at the municipal canteens, for
less than seven or eight francs. Whence this difference?
Butter could be bought for thirty to thirty-five francs per pound, but
such butter! Anything worth eating commanded sixty francs. There was a
kind of grease that fetched two francs per pound, but even the poorest
shrank from it, and preferred to eat dry bread, which was composed as
follows:--
(FOR A LOAF OF 300 GRAMMES.)
75 grammes of wheat.
15 " rye, barley, or peas.
60 " rice.
90 " oats.
30 " chopped straw mixed with starch.
30 " bran.
As for the rest, here are some of the prices--at which, however, things
were not always to be had:--
frs.
A dog or a cat 20
A rat, crow, or sparrow 3 or 4
1 lb. of bear's flesh 12
1 lb. of venison 14
1 lb. of wolf's flesh, or porcupine's 8
A rabbit 40
A fowl 40
A pigeon 25
A goose 80
A turkey 100
1 lb. of ham (very rare) 10
1 lb. of bacon (not so rare) 6
Eggs (each) 5
Haricot beans (per litre) 8
Cabbages (each) 16
Leeks (each) 1
Bushel of carrots (2-3/4 gallons) 75
Bushel of potatoes 35
Bushel of onions 80
Still, until the very last, there occurred, as far as I know, no case of
actual starvation, and I was pretty well posted up in that respect. The
very young and very old suffered most: for the milk that was sold at two
francs per litre was simply disgraceful, three-fourths of it was water;
and beef-tea, or that worthy of the name, was not to be had at any
price. Both commodities were distributed to the poor at the municipal
canteens, on the certificate of a doctor; but the latter, though by no
means hard-hearted, and thoroughly sympathetic with the ills he was
scarcely able to alleviate, had to draw the line somewhere. Of bedding,
bed-linen, and warm underclothing there was little or no lack; but the
cold, for several days, at frequent intervals was severe to a degree.
Our ex-lieutenant's reference to the poor and their slender resources
recurred frequently to my mind for several days after the scene
described above, and set me wondering how far the poor had parted,
finally or temporarily, with their household goods and small valuables
in order to obtain some of the quasi-luxuries I have just enumerated. In
order to get at the truth of the matter, I determined to pay a visit to
the central pawnbroking office in the Rue des Blancs Manteaux. I
provided myself with a letter of introduction to the director, who
placed an official at my disposal. This was towards the latter end of
December.
I transcribe my informant's statement in brief and from memory, but I am
positive as to main facts. Up till the end of August the transactions at
the central office, which virtually include those of the whole of the
capital, presented nothing abnormal, but the moment the investment
became an almost foregone conclusion, there was a positive run on the
Mont-de-Piete. The applicants for loans, however, were by no means of
the poorest or even of the lower-middle class, but the well-to-do
people, whose chief aim was to place their valuables in safety, and who
looked upon the 9-1/2 per cent. interest they had to pay on the advances
received as a premium for warehousing and insurance. They knew that
nothing could be more secure than the fire and burglar proof receptacles
of the Mont-de-Piete, and that, come what might, the State would be
responsible for the value of the articles deposited.
This run ceased when the investment was an accomplished fact, but, as a
matter of course, the financial resources had been put to a severe test,
and, at the time my informant spoke to me, they had dwindled from nearly
eight millions of francs, at which they were computed in the beginning
of August, to about three-quarters of a million. The order of the mayor
of Paris, intended to prevent this, had come too late. The decree of
1863, limiting the maximum of a loan to ten thousand francs at the chief
office, and to five hundred francs at any of the auxiliary ones, had
been suspended in favour of a decision that, during the investment, no
loan should exceed fifty francs.[88] From the 19th of September to the
end of October, the cessation from _all_ labour, and, consequently, the
non-receipt of wages throughout the capital, had to be faced in the
acceptance of thousands of pledges, consisting of household goods,
apparel, etc.; but, curiously enough, workmen's tools and implements
formed but a small proportion of these. At present, the whole of the
business was at a standstill; there was no redemption of pledges, and
few were offered.[89]
[Footnote 88: A similar measure had been decided upon in 1814,
under analogous circumstances, but the maximum was twenty
francs instead of fifty francs.--EDITOR.]
[Footnote 89: A curious feature in connection with the pledging
of tools and implements may be recorded here. At the
termination of the siege, a committee in London transmitted
20,000 francs (L800) for the express purpose of redeeming
these. The Paris committee entrusted with the task, while
grateful for the solicitude shown, rightly considered that it
would not _go_ very far, considering that, at the time, the
Mont-de-Piete held a total of 1,708,549 articles, representing
loans to the amount of 37,502,743 francs. The authorities took
particular pains to publish the receipt of the 20,000 francs,
and the purposes thereof. Within a given time, they returned
6,430 francs to the committee. Only 2,383 tools (or sets of
tools) had been redeemed, representing a lent value of 13,570
francs.]
Meanwhile, Christmas and the New Year were at hand, and not a single
sortie had led to any practical modification of the situation. The cold
was intense. Coal and coke could be obtained for neither money nor love.
The street lamps had not been lighted for nearly a month; up till the
end of October, one had been lighted here and there; then there had been
an attempt to supply the absence of gas by paraffin in the public
thoroughfares, but the stock of mineral oil was also getting lower. Most
of the shops were closed, but, at the advent of the festive season, a
few took down their shutters and made a feeble display of bonbons in
sugar and chocolate, and even of marrons glaces. I doubt whether these
articles found many purchasers. The toy-shops never took the trouble of
exhibiting at all. They were wise in their abstention, for even the most
ignorant Parisian was aware that nine-tenths of the wares in these
establishments hailed from Germany, and he would assuredly have smashed
the windows if they had been offered for sale. Nay, the booths that make
their appearance on the Boulevards at that time of the year displayed
few toys, except of a military kind. It was very touching, in after
years, to hear the lads and lassies refer to the 1st of January, 1871,
as _the New Year's Day without the New Year's gifts_.
Nevertheless, it must not be thought that Paris was given over to
melancholy on these two days. Crowds perambulated the streets and sat in
the cafes. In spite of all that has been said by ultra-patriotic
writers, I am inclined to think that the Parisians no longer cherished
any illusions about the possibility of retrieving their disasters,
though many may have thought that the besiegers would abstain, at the
last moment, from shelling the city. The Government--whether with the
intention of cheering the besieged or for the purpose of exhausting
their stock of provisions as quickly as possible, in order to capitulate
with better grace--had made the city a magnificent New Year's gift of
104,000 kilogrammes of preserved beef,
52,000 " " dried haricot beans,
52,000 " " olive oil,
52,000 " " coffee (not roasted),
52,000 " " chocolate;
which gift elicited the reply of a group of artists and litterateurs
that, though thankful for their more epicurean brethren and sisters,
they, the litterateurs and artists, had fared very well on Christmas Day
and would meet again on New Year's Day to discuss the following menu:--
"Consomme de Cheval au millet.
Brochettes de Foie de Chien a la Maitre d'Hotel.
Emince de Rable de Chat, Sauce Mayonnaise.
Epaules et Filets de Chien braises a la Sauce Tomate.
Civet de Chat aux Champignons.
Cotelettes de Chien aux Champignons.
Gigots de Chien flanques de Ratons.
Sauce Poivrade.
Begonias au Jus.
Plum-pudding au Rhum et a la Moelle de Cheval."
Simultaneously with the publication of the menu, a dealer in the St.
Germain Market put up a new signboard:--
"RESISTANCE A OUTRANCE.
"GRANDE BOUCHERIE CANINE ET FELINE.
"L'heroique Paris brave les Prussiens;
Il ne sera jamais vaincu par la famine!
Quand il aura mange la race chevaline
Il mangera ses rats, et ses chats, et ses chiens."
The proprietor of a cookshop in the Rue de Rome had confined himself to
prose, but prose which, to those who could read it aright, was much
cleverer than the poetry of his transpontine fellow-tradesman.
"VIN A DIX-HUIT SOUS ET EAU-DESSUS,
Rosse Beef.
Rat Gout de Mouton."[90]
[Footnote 90: Here are the two English readings, as far as I am
able to give them:--
"WINE AT EIGHTEEN SOUS THE LITRE AND UPWARDS.
Roast Beef.
Ragout of Mutton."
"WINE AT EIGHTEEN SOUS THE LITRE AND WATER ATOP.
Old Crock's Flesh.
Rat Tasting of Mutton."--EDITOR.]
Personally, I have eaten the flesh of elephants, wolves, cassowaries,
porcupines, bears, kangaroos, rats, cats, and horses. I did not touch
dog's-flesh knowingly after I had been warned by our ex-lieutenant. The
proprietor of the English butcher-shop, M. Debos, who was not an
Englishman at all, supplied most of these strange dishes; for he bought
nearly all the animals from the Zoological Gardens at tremendous prices.
These were only the animals from the Jardin d'Acclimatation in the Bois,
which had been sent as guests to the Jardin des Plantes. The elephants
belonged to the latter establishment, and were sold to M. Debos for
twenty-seven thousand francs. In January I was elected a member of the
Jockey Club, but I had dined there once before by special invitation. I
give the menu as far as I remember:--
"Soupe au Poireau.
Aloyau de Boeuf.
Poule au Riz.
Flageolets aux Jus.
Biscuits de Reims glaces.
Charlotte aux Pommes."
In spite of the hope that Paris would escape being shelled, minute
instructions how to act, in the event of such a calamity, had been
posted on the walls. In fact, if speechifying and the promulgation of
decrees could have saved the city, Trochu first, and the rest
afterwards, would have so saved it. But I have solemnly promised myself
at the outset of these notes not to be betrayed into any criticism of
the military operations, and I will endeavour to keep my promise to
myself.
The first and foremost result of those directions on the part of the
Government was a display of water-butts, filled to the brim, in the
passage, and of sand-heaps in the yard of every building. As the months
went by, and there was no sign of a bombardment, the contents of the
casks became so much solid ice, and the sand-heaps disappeared beneath
the accumulated snow, to be converted into slush and mire at the first
thaw, which gave us, at the same time, a kind of miniature deluge,
because, as a matter of course, the barrels had sprung leaks which were
not attended to at the time.
And when, early on the 5th of January, the first projectiles crashed
down upon some houses in the south of Paris, the people were simply
astonished, but still deluded themselves into the belief that it was a
mistake, that the "trajectory" had been miscalculated, and the shells
had carried farther than was intended. To a certain extent they had good
grounds for their supposition. They had heard the big cannon boom and
roar at frequent intervals ever since the morning of the 27th of
December, and been given to understand that it was merely a big
artillery duel for the possession of the plateau d'Avron, between the
positions of Noisy-le-Grand and Gournay on the enemy's side, and the
forts of Nogent, Rosny, and Noisy on that of the French. They were,
furthermore, under the impression that the shelling of the city would be
preceded by a final summons to surrender: they had got that notion
mostly from their military dramas and popular histories. But there were
men, better informed than the majority of the masses, who made sure
that, if not the Parisians themselves, the foreign consuls and the
aliens under their charge would receive a sufficiently timely notice, in
order to leave the city if they felt so minded.
The 5th of January was a bitterly cold day; it had been freezing hard
during the whole of the night, and, as I wended my way across the Seine,
about noon, the mist, which had been hanging over the river, was slowly
rising in banked and jagged masses, with only a rift here and there for
the pitilessly glacial sun to peer through and mock at our shivering
condition. When I got to the Boulevard Montparnasse, I met several
stretchers, bearing sentries who had been absolutely frozen to within an
ace of death.
I know nothing of the military import of a bombardment, but have been
told that even the greatest strategists only count upon the moral effect
it produces upon the besieged inhabitants. I can only say this: if
Marshal von Moltke took the "moral effect" of his projectiles into his
calculations to accelerate the surrender of Paris, he might have gone on
shelling Paris for a twelvemonth without being one whit nearer his aim;
that is, if I am to judge by the scene I witnessed on that January
morning, before familiarity with the destruction-dealing shells could
have produced the proverbial contempt. At the risk of offending all the
sensation-mongers, foreign and native, with pen or with pencil, I can
honestly say that a broken-down omnibus and a couple of prostrate horses
would have excited as much curiosity as did the sight of the battered
tenements at Vaugirard, Montrouge, and Vanves. On the Chaussee du Maine,
the roadway had been ploughed up for a distance of about half a dozen
yards by a shell; in another spot, a shell had gone clean through the
roof and killed a woman by the side of her husband; in a third, a shell
had carried away part of the wall of a one-storied cottage, and the
whole of the opposite wall: in short, there was more than sufficient
evidence that life was no longer safe within the fortifications, and yet
there was no wailing, no wringing of hands, no heart-rending frenzied
look of despair, either pent up or endeavouring to find vent in shrieks
and yells, nay, not even on the part of the women. There was merely a
kind of undemonstrative contempt--very unlike the usual French way of
manifesting it--blended with a considerable dash of _badauderie_,--for
which word I cannot find an English equivalent, because the Parisian
loafer or idler is unlike any of his European congeners. To grasp the
difference between the former and the latter, one must have had the good
fortune to see the same incident in the streets of Paris, London,
Madrid, Florence, and Rome, Vienna, Berlin, and St. Petersburg, not to
mention Brussels, the Hague, Amsterdam, Munich, and Dresden. The
"Monsieur Prudhomme" of Charles Monnier shows but one facet of the Paris
badaud's character. The nearest approach to him is the middle-class
English tourist on the Continent, who endeavours to explain to his wife
and companions things he does not know himself, and blesses his stars
aloud for having made him an Englishman.
But even the Paris badaud, who is not unlike his Roman predecessor in
his craving for circuses, must have bread; and when the cry arises, a
fortnight later, that "there is no more bread," the siege is virtually
at an end.