WHERE THE POOR OF PARIS ARE FED FOR NOTHING.

Otago Witness, Issue 1911, 6 July 1888, Page 31

WHERE THE POOR OF PARIS ARE FED FOR NOTHING.

The noblest and most beneficent of Parisian charities, the Mouthful of Bread, has received a new extension. A vast hall has been erected in the Montmartre quarter, and there every poor creature that makes application receives a large piece of bread and a bowl of hot coffee. The applicants are asked no questions, and need present no tickets. That they are hungry is a sufficient title to relief.

After eating, each person is required to wash his or her bowl at a sink where water is kept perpetually running. They are admitted by squads of 50 at a time, which is as many as can be conveniently accommodated and served at once. A register is kept where anyone may inscribe his or her address, with an account ot whatever may be wanting in the way of clothes. The managers of the institution send to have the statements investigated, and if the application is found worthy of recognition, they generally find means to satisfy the want from the stock of cast-off clothing sent them by the charitable.

Very piteous sometimes are the cases that come under their notice. The other day a man seemingly well dressed, with a silk scarf tied rounc his neck over his closely buttoned coat, presented himself for the ration of bread and coffee. One of the directors took him aside. "My friend," he said, gently, " you have not the air of a person in need of such relief. Our charity is intended solely for the starving." For answer the man threw back his coat. Under it there was neither waistcoat nor flannel, only a thin calico shirt fastened with a pin. He was a teacher of the French language out of work.

Sometimes people faint for want of food before they can be served. For as a rule, the French poor are very proud, and they will put off the evil day of applying for charity in any form as long as they possibly can. Organised efforts are now being made to obtain sufficient funds for the opening of one of these nobly beneficent establishments in each of the Parisian arrondissements.