PARIS CHARITIES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 107, 15 May 1875, Page 9

PARIS CHARITIES.

The Paris correspondent of the London ' Daily Telegraph ' writes to that journal, February 12 — " This morning is bitterly cold, and with pleasure one reflect that the soup kitchens of Paris are alight again, and almost ready for trade. There are two great societies here, the eldest of which, the Philanthropic, dates from 1870, Louis XVI. was the founder of it, and his grateful people, by one of those quaint impulses which only belong to Parisians, erected to him that same year a pyramid of snow in front of the Louvre. The Philanthropique is still very decidedly aristocratic. Looking dow the list of subscribers, no name but has a title. Princes are more common on that paper even than elsewhere. There are three Dues de la Rochefoucauld — there may a dozen more, but three are named among the patrons of this charity. Returning to the soup kitchen. The Philanthropic Society does hospital work also. Since its foundation it has nursed 200,000 sick persons. But the Boup kitchen now receives chief attention. For five centimes (half a penny) it supplies half a litre of dry cooked vegetables, or seventy grammes of cooked meat, or four decilitrea of bouillon (near half a litre), or ten centimes' worth of bread at bakers' rate for the day. It is evident that you cannot thus sell a penny for a half -penny and make a profit. The tickets are Bold to charitable persons at ten centimes, but there is a considerable loss, of course, which is repaid by the subscriptions. This society has seventeen kitchens ; the other, that of St. Vincent de Paul, has twenty-five, of which five open the whole year round. It is entirely in the hands of clerical people. No money is taken here, as might be expected under the circumstances. But tie poor wretch who can get a ticket given him receives no less than 100 grammes of cooked meat, or half a litre of bouillon, or half a litre of cooked vegetables, or ten centimes' worth of bread at bakers' rate. Each kitchen balances its own accounts, keeps its own profit, if any, and "only comes on the society when in loss. There is no balance sheet or report. The two societies delivered last winter more than 3,000,000 plates. The twenty-three kitchens established by Mme. de Macmahon in March last, which were intended to be but temporary, served 2,000,000 portions more. Curiously enough, it is the kitchen set in the very richest quarter which did most business last year — that in the Rue Malesherbes. This is supposed to be a complinient to the skill of its cooks, who are Sisters of Charity. Say what you like, Parisian beggars will be choosers in the eating way. Besides its kitchens, the Philanthropic Society has given away 12,000 francs' worth of medicines from its six dispensaries, where the doctors attend gratis. Since its foundation the charity has raised and spent 7,900,000 francs, an enormous sum for this country.