THE GINGERBREAD PIG

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 246, 11 July 1919, Page 8

THE GINGERBREAD PIG

— * PEACE' REVIVAL OF OLD-TIME PARIS FESTIVAL. Great crowds were present on a recent Saturday at the opening, of the Pnris Gingerbread Fair, where gingerbread pigs are sold in tile Place de la Nation and Cours de Viucennes, writes the Paris correspondent of tho "Daily News." This .is ono of the oldest fairs in Paris, and had been discontinued during the. war. It lasts for a month, after which gipsy showmen go"on to,the Inyalides and Neuilly Fairs.

"Auvrai eochon de la victoire" reads a sign over a stall .of the gingerbread pigs, aad everywhere one can see that this is. a real Victory Fair. "Vive la pais" one handsome pig has written on him in sugar icing, but he costs a franc. Sweets there are in plenty—at a price. Nougat squares are threepence each, ii'id strips of liquorice twopence. Here one may see "Le Kaiser et Kronprinz avee la dompleur." All ,'tho fun of the fair is here, in spite of the difficulties of demobilisation, some of the showmen still in uniform, and raanv of the old faces missing. At 10 p.m. the Boulevard Voltaire was crowded with people waiting to see the torchlight procession, which, when it arrived, proved disanpointing. Sonic twenty torches, a few coloured lanterns, and a gilded circus enr drawn by two very tired horses, and loaded with many Frenchmen, most of them weiirimr extinguished lanterns for hats, and lliat was nil. Far more excilimr to watch the children bnving their gingcrbiead nigs or risking their nennies al 41)0 soinning targets or at hazard, or riding on the merry-go-round.