New-York tribune., 1870-12-14
MPNAGERIE DIET.

MRNAGERIE DIET
England" said Talleyrand, "is land OF a
hundred religions and but one gravy"
France, it might be said, has, or had, hund-
red excellent graves, and no religion worth
speaking of. 1t has been renowned for gen.
erations as land Of innmerable entrees. No
other country under the canopy possessed 80
recondite and exhaustive knowledge of the
culinary possibilities of cat, or the latent sue
culence of dray-bOrses. No other people un-
derstood so well how to transmute nettles and
other humble herbaceous growths into human
force and fugacity. Her culinary alchemists
had the art Of extorting nutriment from the
most unpromising substances, as Moses sum-
moned water from the arid rock III
the desert. 1t happens that these mys-
terious ingenuities are now of use to her.
Her cities are beleaguered and Administration,
and her measures of corn and cruises of oil
have given out. She is driven to forage; to
exc out daily sustenance with collOps Of the
strengthening but tenacious donkey, and tim
bales of the lively but unsatisfying rat. But
even in this extremity the native gayety and
yivacity of her people do not desert them.
Like Shakespeare's sexton, who "sung at
grave making" they make the somber back
ground of famine the tapestry whereOn they
embroider o lghtsOme decoration Of quips, and
pleasantries, and puns, and hungry jocosities.
When hunger fell on the old Hebrews in the
wilderness, they sat upon the earth singing
lugubrous songs of lamentation, shifting their
wailing timbrels, and waiting for Quails and
mama. The French accept the lean and bitter
dispensation in airier and more vivacious
mood. They wait upon their cooks as the
Jews waited on Providence, and in the waiting
| interval they amuse themselves with bon nots
and with lively surmise as to the ultimate in
fuences of rat on the constitution.
Famine is q grim and fell spectcr which it
requires no little valor to confront without
blanching. A million Of Britons cOoped up
within the walls of hungry city would below
like so many bulls of Bashan, and their below
ings would tear the concave and startle the
blue profound. A million Americans so en-
yironed would stand defanty upon the battle
Jnents and spit and swear till, having exhausted
| the possibilities of expectoration inlblasphemy,
| they would either fight their way out or strike
the flag and establish communication with the
nearest repository of beans and bacon. The
| Frenchman makes but little noise, wastes no
time in fruitless invocation or imprecation,
but quetly goes to work and cooks things.
The cooking of cats, rats, donkeys, and canary
birds was of course the first and natural
expedient; but even these supplies have
| limit and he has at last descended
upon the collection of animals in the
Jardin des Plantes. The pensiye yak
has fallen. 1t SINNERS in savory sauces and
furnishes forth the repasts of citizen, soldier,
,hn
hippOpotamus the boisterous bear and the
melancholy gnu, are doubtless marked for sac
rifce. So is the gray, sober camel, reft from
his native deserts to swelter in q Gallo pot
or smoke upon Gallo spit; doomed in life
to be softly punched by the walking sticks Of
curious afternoon idlers, and in death to have
his choice portions criticized by middle-aged
gourmets and his five stOmachs seyerally cursed
rs tripe by hungry but fastdiOus pOpulace.
The monkeys are doubtless doomed Likewise
from the plethOric and ponderous cbaboon to
the attenuated and gruesOme chimpanzee. The
pot awaits them soon will the garden of their
captivity be desolate and their various SUBJ
stances variously disagree with those who have
consumed them Neither ostrich, nor eagle,
nor owl, shall escape the Offices of the poulterer
nor the fiery ordeal of the turnspit. Some of
them will avenge themselves upon their con-
sumers by defying digestion and imparting
nightmare instead of nutriment, but there ap-
pears no present prospect that any Of them
will escape.
1t is really no laughing matter, although the
Parisians endeavor to take that vivacious view
of the case. Psychologists tell us that the food
Of a people exerts @ modifying effect upon
their characteristics. Does temporary diet
of lions impart bravery7 That the French
men have never lacked but after late supper
upon the oldest and toughest lion of the col
lection Trochu and his staff might issue from
the walls so bolstered up and invigorated that
the Prussians would flee before them as the
Amalekites fled before the hosts of Joshua.
Does the consumption of owls impart wis
dom7 If 80, q hamper-full ought at once
to be sent 10 the Provisional Govern
ment, with an urgent request to that
body to "get outside" of the birds without
unnecessary delay. Does an exclusive diet of |
mules impart Obstinacyf If so, municipal |
decree ought to ordain the alienation there |
with Of some edible of less determined and |
properties. Possibly Gambetta, in
prolonging useless conflict, the only result !
Of which is to deepen the miseries of France,
impose upon her continually harder terms of |
settlement, and sacrifice legions of her SONS,
may have been impelled thereto by an 0cca-
slonh haricot Of donkey, or Jfiet fanier en-
pdpe'O'ts in which case it. is ~ b. hoped ho