OLD IRON & HAM

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 May 1938, Page 9

OLD IRON & HAM

ANNUAL FAIR IN PARIS. Paris has an annual old iron and ham fair, held during Easter Week, dating back many centuries. It takes place each 'year on the Boulevard Richard Lenoir, in the eastern section of the city. Half of it is devoted to tremendously interesting and fascinating dingy junk, and other half to ham and sausages served at clean scrubbed stalls by attendants in spotless white aprons. Remnants of many a home find their way to the old iron fair. The objects are laid out on the ground or set on low stalls, before which a dense crowd passes all day long, drawn there by curiosity or the possibility of a bargain. One can see almost everything imaginable at the Old Iron and Ham Fair, from mouse traps to statues, wooden legs to rusted fountain pens, and furniture and pictures of all kinds. In one corner is a heap of theatrical costumes, in another, religious objects. A praying stool has become the easel for a picture of a Moulin Rouge favourite of forty years ago. and astride an astronomer's telescope is a red haired doll devoid of clothes. Busts of past presidents of France and kings and queens of , other countries ■ stand among domestic trifles. A pair of red Morocco-leather riding boots, with gilt spurs, give colour to a heap of brown blankets, and around the brim of a hat that has .come all the way from Mexico to this Paris junk fair are a number of china ornaments.

There is pathos in the old junk, especially in the remains of elaborate mechanical models over which inventors have.worked for years, some pet dream nursed in hope for the best part of a lifetime.

The Ham part of the fair is a scene of very active life. Hams and sausages and all sorts' of good things to eat, with plenty of sauerkraut, cover the stalls. So many free samples are given away that one has no appetite left for lunch. The stalls are attended for the most part by people wearing the picturesque costumes of the different regions of France. A girl with a white lace cap of Brittany bids you taste succulent sausages on her stall, while at the next stall an Alsatian salesman, with red waistcoat, cuts you off a large slice of tempting ham, and smacks his lips in anticipation of your enjoyment as he watches you put the ham between two slices of bread to your mouth.

The positions occupied by the old Iron and ham sellers are let by the municipal authorities, and the rent collected goes to the upkeep of local schools.