A SCENE IN PARIS.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 807, 29 April 1871, Page 3

A SCENE IN PARIS.

A correspondent, writing on the 21st February, describes a visit paid to the warehouse of Messrs Copestake, Moore, and Co., in Paris, at which place the provisions forwarded from London are being distributed. He says: —"The scene was so unexpected and unique that for a nioment it was difficult to realise that there were at least 10,000 human beings who were deliberately bivouacking in the streets of the most beautiful and luxurious capital of Europe for the sole object of being the first to receive some bread and cheese in the mornirg. The queue extended probably half a mile. The extreme end, composed of the last arrivals, were still standing in close, serried ranks, as if they were awaiting an event immediately to come off. The row was four or five deep. Every woman had a ticket, and most of them a basket, and they were laughing and chatting merrily, although they had already been standing in the same spot for several hours. I asked one of them when she expected to arrive at the door of the warehouse where she would receive her portion. 'The day after to-morrow morning, Monsieur," she replied, as calmly as if she was talking of a journey to St. Petersburg. ' What, are you prepared to pass two successive nights in the streets ?' I asked. ' Pourquoi pas !' she said, ' all the others do it." 'Do you think what you receive at last will be worth waiting for for forty-eight hours'?' 'I don't mind waiting any more than my neighbours for what those good English send us; they tell me it is well worth while, and be assured, Monsieur, we shall never forget the generosity which has given us food when we wanted it so much.' I found that these people had come from all the four corners of Paris — from Belleville, from Vaugirard, from the Faubourg St. Antoine; many miles had some of them trudged to wait two days and nights in the streets for a ration of flour, cheese, bacon, and biscuit. I walked along the" whole line and talked to several. From all I beard the same story; not a murmur of discontent at waiting, a great deal about 'ces bons Anglais,' and a most I erfect confidence that what they were going to receive would more than re- . pay them for the discomfort and fatigue they were undergoing. At last we reached the favoured groups who formed the head of the column, and who were the first to be served in the morning. ' How long have you been here V I asked a lady-like young woman in black, evidently of a superior class to those by whom she was surrounded. 1 Since nine o'clock yesterday morning, Monsieur,' she replied. It was now midnight, so that she had been 39 hours in the queue."