, 1874-07-19
ANNENED GEESE.
How the Pate dc FOia Grns IL Pre-.
pnrcd---The Pic Factories at Stras-
burg.

burg.
From tho PaH Mall Gazette.
When the Prussiaps annexed Strasbufg tneJ
gained something more than city OF 80,ooo ln-
habitants 4 frstra;e cathedral and that unique
steeple clock where cock crovs over the heads
Of twelve apostles, skeleton, snd pagan d.
vinity, every day st noon. They acquired some
10000 French geese, who every year waddled
solemnly into the city through the seven castel-
lated DOORS and like patriotic fowls as they we're,
r's greatness~ It Was no slight present. These
lircrs, cased with PeHgord truf1o inside
block tins OF terra-cotta pots from SRzregue-
mines, were scattered oTar the vide world as
pates de foie gras causing the name OF franco
to be blessed by all natives &nd foreigners who
had taste for good things. Nor can it be con-
tended that Strasburg derived less than half her
fame from the sale of these pies. The
French, who deal with history as it suits them,
contend that the pate do foio gras; was we'll
known to tho Romans, Tor that those sacred
geege who were nourished in the Capitol, and
Who warned Manlius. were nothing but geese
kept Ut high diet, like those Of Strasburg, that
their liyers might be enlarged. Without dis
putting that statement, one may say that 1t 1s
only in very recent times that the process OF
nreparinR geese for the pie market has been
brought to perfection II the Roman augnrs dealt
IN goose liver they must have had recourse to
those barbarouH iron coops wherein the bird was
kept imprisoned all but his neck, which protrud-
cd through an aperture and could NOT Do Win
drawn, i lively fire was kept up in the neigh
borhood OF the coops; aud the goose got on aa
he could with three meals day till the time ar
rived for killing him. But this system VAS dis
carded some thirty years ago, because It vas
oruel-not to the goose, but to his owner, who
generally saw four birds out OF hVe dlo prema-
turely Of exhaustion. Surprising We enter into
one OF the most famous foi-gras factories IN q
retired street Of Ssrasburg, we shall sec now
these WORKOUT methods have beon superseded
bv modern improvements. cool yard greets
Us, and bland Frenchman. who has become
Gormanized, like his geese, by tue force Of cir
cunstnnces, points to some hundred feathered
bipeds huddled together in corner and
hieslng a chorus with despairing ener-
py. In former days they would have been
Singing ''Dulce ct decoruna est pro 1'dtr1a
n,opi :" but now it is evident they arc iudulging
in dirge over tho customs duties which they
will be- obliged to pay before being allowed to
reach the breakfaet-tables OF their own people.
Their proprietor explains that they arc all nine
months old, and have cost him, lean Is they are,
about francs so ccntimes apiece; he then
makes q sign to half dozen bare-armed girls,
Who speak no French, and amid considerable
commotion and protest from the remaining
nipety-four, Six geese are collared and marched
away to cellar half underground, where wide
and sloping stone tables are arranged IN tiors 50
tar as the eye can see. In the murky light
thrown in by some twenty sar-holes SO one s can at a.
=
comes apparent that hundreds Of geese are al
ready lying strapped on their backs on the upper
tiers and gnsping hysterio things-probabty
words Of love and encouragement-to one an
other: Our business being for the moment at
the lower tables, the six girls take each goose,
lay him gently but firmly on the stone,
30 that his tail just projects over
tho ledge, and then tie down his
wings. Body. and legs tight with plated
whipco1d, tho legs and wings being well spread
ont to paralyze anything like vigorous gym.
nostics, The birds neck is left free, and 1t
seems that during the first three days he makes
q violent use OF It; bus, toward the fourth day'
| he arrives at the consciousness that BY stfug,
cIing and croakiug he does nothing to amend
Els lot, aud from that time he may be trusted to
lie still for tho next seyen weeks; that Is, till
The hour Of release and killing. Without paus-
inc to sec all the hundred geese tied down. We
nav 70 on at once to the upper tiers, where the
hiris Who have been lying for three. five, or sl1
weeks respectively, arc taking their ease and
| waiting to be fed BY half dozen other Alsat1an
,iTls laden with large wooden bowls: Each os
f1hesa bowls il filed with thick white paste
| msde Of parboiled maize, chestnuts. and buck
Tbeat most nourlshing; and the mode Of ad.
1,;nister1ug tho dinner is for the girl to catct
H. Qoose bJ ths neck, open his bill With ltsle