The things we do!

For my own
part, wearied with the difficulty of procuring this poor bread, and
disgusted with that offered to me at the tables d'h?te, I avoided
this kind of food altogether. In the evening I went to the Caf? du
Caveau, where, fortunately, they were kind enough to reserve for me
two of those rolls which are called flutes, and this is the only
bread I have eaten for a week at a time."
But this resource is only for the rich. As for the people, to get
bread fit for dogs, they must stand in a line for hours. And here
they fight for it; "they snatch food from one another." There is no
more work to be had; "the work-rooms are deserted;" often, after
waiting a whole day, the workman returns home empty-handed. When he
does bring back a four-pound loaf it costs him 3 francs 12 sous;
that is, 12 sous for the bread, and 3 francs for the lost day. In
this long line of unemployed, excited men, swaying to and fro before
the shop-door, dark thoughts are fermenting: "if the bakers find no
flour to-night to bake with, we shall have nothing to eat to-
morrow.


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