The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-02-27 00:00:00

THE FOUNDER OF "THE CALIFORNIA.'

The Paris Correspondent of the Standard writes
"Paris has just lost another celebrity. This time it is
one of the useful, and not ornamental kind. Giles
Cadet—or, as he was commonly called, le *re Cadet—
was 75 years old when he finished his mundane career.
He began life as a journeyman mason, and by dint of
great economy found himself in 1838 the possessor of
a small capital. This he increased by marrying the
widow of a master butcher, and a few months after his
marriage he was struck with an idea which ended in
making his fortune. He started a cheap eating house
in the Chauseee du Maine, one of the poorest quarters
of Paris. He gave it the sign of 'The California,' and
it turned out to him 'a find' which many an explorer
of that colony would like to come across. The
dishes were of a uniform price one penny for
soup, vegetables, or meat, and a halfpenny
extra for wine. The customers brought their
own bread, if they liked, but they were provided
with knives, forks, and spoons, which were prudently
chained to the tables in order not to tempt the appe-
tites of the eaters. The success of the undertaking
• was complete ; customers poured in from all sides; and
in the end pere Caaet retired with sufficient to enjoy
his otium cum dignitate. 'The Calfornia ' was for a
long time one of the curiosities of Paris, and is said to
have reckoned among its guests personages no less dis-
tinguished than Victor Hugo, and Adolphe Thiers !
The eating-house still exists, but it has undergone
a great change since the days of Giles Cadet, and is
now got up in a style more compatible with modern
ideas of luxury, and the singular types of creation
to be met there formerly have emigrated to other
establishments which have sprung up in the wake of
'The California."

ADULTERATION of FOOD and DRUGS.
The Local Government Board Bill relating to this
subject proposes to prohibit, under a penalty of £5O,
the knowing.ly mixing any article of food with any
ingredient or material injurious to health, with intent
that the same may be sold in that state, or knowingly
selling an article so mixed ; and there is a like pro-
hibition in respect to drugs; a second conviction is
to be punished with imprisonment and hard labour.
There is to be a penalty of £2O for knowingly sell-
ing any article of food or any drug which is not of
the nature, substance, and quality of the article
demanded by the purchaser, except in the following
cases—namely, where any matter is mixed therewith
for the purpose of rendering it portable, or of preserv-
ing it ; where a harmless ingredient is mixed with
it for the purpose of rendering it palatable or of
improving its appearance ; where, according to the
usage of trade, it is sold in a mixed state ; where it is the
subject of a patent in force and is supplied in the
state required by the specification ; where British, colo-
nial, or foreign spirits are reduced from their ordinary
strength by persons licensed and paying duties under
the excise; where a drug is compounded either in
conformity with a prescription of a registered medical
practitioner or otherwise according to the usage of
trade; and where the article is unavoidably mixed
with some extraneous matter. But no person is to
sell any
i article mixed for any of the purposes men-
tioned n these exceptions if the matter mixed be
more than is ordinarily required for the purpose; and
no person is to sell any article of food which by the
usage of trade is sold in a mixed state unless the in-
gredients shall be mixed in the proportions required by
such usage. But it will not be an offense to sell an
article mixed with any ingredient not injurious to
health if there be on such article a label
,stating that
it is Raixed. There is a penalty for knowingly ab-
stracting from an article of food for sale any part of
it so as to affect injuriously its quality, or selling
the same so altered without making disclosure of the
alteration. There is a penalty for refusing to sell to a
public officer authorised to procure samples. The Bill
provides that the Courts of Quarter Sessions and
borough authorities may appoint public analysts. Any
person having purchased an article with intent to have
it analyzed is to offer to the seller to divide it into
three parts, one to be returned to the seller, one to be
retained by the purchaser for future comparison, and
the third may be submitted to the analyst. On prose-
cutions the defendant may tender himself or his wife
to be examined on his behalf; and he is to be dis-
charged from the prosecution if he prove that he sold
the article in the state in which he purchased it, and
that 14 kogb,t it with a written =may ot It Doing