3-038-991 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Municipal canteen at the corner of the Boulevard Poissonnière, Paris, 1871. The Siege of Paris, Franco-Prussian War. '...we present [an illustration]...from the sketches of our clever French Artist, M. Jules Pelcoq, sent out of that city by balloon post. The canteens or booths for the supply of soup, bread, and other provisions...have been much frequented by the poorer classes of the people...Admission is obtained by showing a ticket to the young woman in the box inscribed "Controle,"...in the foreground...[is] a veteran of the National Guard, wearing a pea-jacket with a military band round the left arm, accompanied by a girl, who is feeling in her pocket for the ticket by which he will get in; an itinerant musician...[with] his guitar...under his arm, waits his turn with the woman by his side; an old man covered with a shawl, his head tied up in linen bandages, stands next to him; poor working men's wives and housekeepers, with a few children, are amongst the crowd. The provisions, eatable and drinkable, are served inside the booth upon rough counters of planks...There were about eighty of these cantines municipales, at which a meal could be obtained by the holder of a ticket, granted, on payment of one sou, to every poor person who asked'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.