3-038-968 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Waiting for coke at the gasworks, Barrière d'Italie, Paris, (sketch by balloon post), 1871. The Franco-Prussian War. '...the want of fuel now experienced in the city, [is] almost as severe a privation, in winter, as that of proper food. A store of coke yet existing on the premises of the Gas Company, at the Barriere d'ltalie, is periodically distributed in small rations, by order of the Government, to the poorer classes of the people. Men, women, and children, assembling in great numbers at an early hour of the morning, with their baskets, bags, or scuttles, all too large for the slender portion to be allowed, may be seen awaiting the opening of the office doors; and their anxiety to share this dispensation can only be appreciated when we remember the intense cold of the Christmas week, and when the habits of the Parisians, less warmly clothed and, perhaps, less hardy than the English of the same rank in life, are considered also'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.