PROVISIONS IN PARIS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 31, 6 February 1871, Page 4

PROVISIONS IN PARIS.

{Daily News, December 2.) The Daily News correspondent with the army of the Crown Prinze of Saxony remarks that the state of affairs which he found before Paris reminded him very much of what he saw week after week before Metz. The parallel may be extended to more objects than meet the eye in a ride through the siege works. It will be remembered that when the fall of Metz had become a question of days, accounts of tbe highly prosperous state of the besieged became ominously frequent. Fora fortnight before the capitulation a balloon descended every day scattering notes all over the country, all proclaiming thesame fact "Provisions are abundant." It is so with the news from Paris now. Evidence reaches us of the most various kinds, direct and indirect, of the pressure of consumption upon the stores of food, and the consequent distress of the population ; but just as this stress iri most felt we hear of people who have prudently escaped from Paris declaring that " provisions are abundant," ahd that all accounts to the contrary are exaggerated. The difference in the two cases is, tbat we may have many official attestations of the privation existing at Paris, while they were wanting at Metz. In our impression of Friday we referred, on the authority of a Paris journal, to the decree of the French Minister of Agriculture concerning the provisioning of Paris with the flesh of mules aud asse3. The Paris correspondent of the Evening Standard writes, giving a fuller account of -the document than we have seen before: — This decree, he says,, announces that the stock of viands de boucherie (i.e., beef, veal, and mutton) is exhausted, and that henceforth horses, mules, and donkeys ajre no longer to be considered as private property. The owners of such quadrupeds are ordered to make a declaration to the Government which reserves the option of buying them at the rate of 50 centimes to 90 centimes the kilogramme, i.e., from 2£d. to 4Jd. per lb. The sale and slaughter of these animals ore strictly prohibited. This decree the correspondent remarks, is peculiarly significant, and fully accounts for the depression to which the Paris journals gave way on its publication. Just after the decree appeared, the pigeon which bore the news of the recapture of Orleans arrived and raised the spirits of tbe inhabitants, leading them to hope that they might be able to hold out until relief came ; but it did not increase their stock of provisions. The Fly Nuisance. — Among the little discomforts of life is one which is particularly obnoxious to the unfortunate bachelors who are obliged to make their daily meal iv an eating-house or restaurant. It is the nuisance of flies, to which some people are so sensitive that to dine becomes a positive trial, instead of a pleasure. A little attention ou the part of proprietors of dining-rooms would get rid of the evil. In Belgium the butchers use laurel toil on their doorposts and window-frames to such good effect that the flies will not enter the shop. Is not this hint really worth taking ? Acquitted with a Character. — -A judge in a small colony had to try a prisoner on a charge of theft. The prisoner pleaded guilty, but the judge, with that tenderness to criminals which characterises the 'English law, advised him to tak_3 his trial. This was done, and the jury acquitted the prisoner, on which the judge addressed him in his sternest tones — "Prisoner at the bar, you have confessed yotyself a thief, and the jury have found you a liar. Begone from my sight." . What a Grass Paddock will Yield. — It is astonishing what maybe done with a little piece of land when men know what they aro about, and are intent upon carrying their knowledge into effect. For • instance, persons would, not believe how much a small grass paddock will yield, if judiciously treated. We have been informed of an ordinary paddock in the immediate vicinity of this city, consisting of some fourteen acres, on which was kept the year round sixteen cows and a bull. And moreover the, animals were always in good order. The owner ran a fence across the paddock, and used to shut up one half.for two weeks at a time, so that every fo^tnigiit the cattle got a change. On the occurrence of every, shower the man in attendance knocked about and ; distributed the .droppings, of the . cattle, and thus kept the land well and evenly manured. li'Muchlpf.theycatumniafed land ,of Cumberland, if treated in the same 'manner 'would prove equally productive. ; We commend the inßahce"7p"lb©>"tientipn of persons who are in the habit of eoveringC their own indplence; or ignorance under complaints against the materials with- which they ; have, to deal.— Sydney: Mail. ''■?.."■'■''■■'"''.

Every Man his own Dentist. — There is a story extant of an Irishman in Camden who had the toothache. He was a quarryman by profession, and he considered that the best way to rid himself of the afflicted tooth would be to blast it out. So he filled his mouth with powder, fixed a slow match in it, lighted the match, and run round the corner to get out of the way of the blast, and to watch the result. When the explosion occurred he was surprised to find how close it seemed. It was very successful, so far as the tooth was concerned, but when the man went home, the general aspect of his mouth resembled that of tbe Delaware Water Gap. The dentist says he would not undertake to fit him with a new set of teeth of the necessary size for less than 1000 dollars.