is
made of bread, firing, meat, and clothing, and sometimes money is given.
There are sometimes as many as thirty thousand dependent in this manner
for a part of their income upon the state. Hence, bureaus are excellent
institutions, inasmuch as prevention is always easier than cure. To save
struggling families from the humiliation of a complete downfall to the
poor-house, small weekly allowances are made, and in such a way that
their pride need not be touched, for it is often done with such secrecy
that even the intimate friends of the recipients are unaware of the
relation existing between them and the state. Such an arrangement as
this is needed in all the great cities of the world. London suffers from
the want of it. In some places the parish authorities are at liberty to
make grants to poor families, but it is nowhere done with such a system
and with such a delicacy as in Paris.

Another of the charitable institutions of Paris lends money upon movable
effects, the interest charged being very low. This is an excellent
provision for emergencies in the lives of poor persons. There are at
least a million and a half of articles pledged at this institution
yearly, and its receipts are from twenty-six to twenty-eight millions a
year. In winters of famine the public are sometimes allowed to pledge
property without paying any interest upon it when redeemed. The Mont de
Pietie, is the name of this institution, and it has branches all over
Paris, and has in its employ, as clerks and otherwise, three hundred
persons.

There are savings' banks in Paris specially adapted to the wants of the
poor, and to encourage in them the habit of accumulating property,
though in very small sums. A deposit of one franc is received, and one
person cannot hold but two thousand francs at one time in one bank of
the kind. This institution, however, is not superior to those of its
kind in many other countries.

* * * * *

LA MORGUE.

On the southern side of Isle la Cite, there is a small stone building
which is certainly one of the "sights" of Paris. I saw it one day when I
had been to look at Notre Dame, and was on my way home. I was filled
with admiration of the magnificence of the great city, for with Notre
Dame and the Louvre in sight, I could not easily entertain other
sentiments. A little building arrested my attention, and I saw quite a
crowd of persons standing in front of it. It was _La Morgue