3-039-049 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Pillaging the first vegetable carts at the gates of Paris, 1871. Franco-Prussian War. The market-gardeners' carts, bringing their first loads of potatoes, cabbages, and other vegetables to Paris, by leave of the armistice, were in some instances pillaged by a few disorderly people. This was done the more easily when there was a block and stoppage of the crowded vehicles in the narrow pass between the earthen ramparts at the city gates. M. Jules Pelcoq, our Artist in Paris, contributes a sketch of such an incident, in front of the gate on the road to St. Denis, where the space is narrowed by fortifications on each side, earthworks, palisades, and chevaux-de-frise to resist an assault; beyond this we see a loopholed wall, and the drawbridge let down over the moat. The plunderers have seized the horse's reins, in spite of the driver, and climb upon the cart, throwing down sacks of potatoes, which are carried off by women and others'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.