3-066-008 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

A charity fete in the Champs Elysees, 1874. 'In the conduct of such affairs in Paris, it has been remarked, there is a more free admixture of innocent gambling, and various forms of avowed entertainment, with the retail trade of the ordinary staff-keepers. The wheel of fortune, tombola or roulette, is made to revolve briskly and impartially with the ventures of an eager company of bystanders; and many a five-franc piece is staked upon the choice of a certain number, or of a particular colour, with the satisfactory assurance that the gentleman who loses, or who has to pay for a lady companion when she loses, will have contributed to a sainte oeuvre de piété. So it was in the Champs Elysées on the afternoon of Thursday, the 4th June, when a fête villageoise took place in aid of the Maternity Charity of Paris; and this lively scene is delineated by our Artist in the sketch we have now engraved'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.