The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1878-12-14
A CURIOUS PARIS INDUSTRY.

The Crumbs That Fall from Rich Mems
Tables-Those Who Collect and Those
Who Eat Them-Bighty Thousand
Well-dressed People Who Live on Gar
bage.
Among the curiosities of Paris life are
the small carts that call at the back gates
of the embassies, palaces, restaurants,
hotels, and great houses in general, to
receive the remains of the dinners left,
not by the upper ten thousand only, but
likewise by their servants, and sold
every morning by the cooks to the ennis
saries of a race of costermongers whose
stalls at the great market are furnished
by these stale victuals, which have made
their debut on the tables of the wealthy.
These carts are closed in, but recogniza-
BILE by sort of chimney at the top
which admits of free ventilation. The
secondhand viands are thrown pell-mell
into the carts, and are paid for by weight.
| Imagine the appearance of this pOtp0ur-
ri called Arlequins" when it reaches
the stalls of the market. The first pro-
cess is the triage, or sorting, a work
of no small difficulty when portions
of lobster, besmeared with soup, must
be extracted from the remains of fruit
tarts in which they are imbedded. The
most presentable portions are pared,
cleaned, and laid on a dish; this process
takes place in some remote corner out of
sight; but the selection is soon complet-
ed, and, strange to say, by twelve O clock,
these scraps from the plates of the rich
are eagerly bought up by certain class
of the poor, who prefer their savory fla
vor to more wholesome, simpler and
cleaner food. Whatever cannot be suf-
ficiently pared and arranged for human
food, is disposed of for pet house-dogs,
Italian greyhounds, and such like aristo-
cratic quadrupeds. The bones, however,
found in these deposits, are laid aside
and sold to the manufacturers of con-
centrated meat loZenges, and by them,
after having been boiled down, are got
rid of to the compounders of animal
black, SO much in demand by house
painters. But to return to the Arle-
gums; this trade of buying the remains
of dinners is by no means bad one
Many of those who pursue it retire at
the expiration of a few years, on COM
Portable little incomes of four or five
hundred year.
To witness the preparation of food de-
scribed, as well as similar manipulations,
no less curious and interesting, it will
be necessary to go to the great markets
or H0lie8 centrdJeS, between the hours of
four and five in the morning. This
great market place Is opposite the cele
brated church of St. Eustache. The
cellars are well worth seeing, they are the
receptacles of incalculable quantities Of
fish, fowl, meat, game, cheese, butter,
etc, and may be easily visited upon APP
plication at the overseer's lodge.
The next branch of this trade is the
munerative To collect the crusts
thrown away by schoolboys, or dropped
by these careless youngsters in their
Fairgrounds, trampled on, and, often
times, bedaubed with ink or mud, has
proved to be lucrative occupation. The
least filthy of these soiled and uninviting
fragments are bought by second-rate
bakers, who after having them dried in
an oven, sell them for the "crOYte an
pOt," with which soup all familiar with
French cookery are well acquainted.
Furthermore, these choice bits of old
bread are cut up into three-cOrnered
morsels which, fried in butter, adorn
some of the vegetable dishes we enjoy at
the grand restaurants. But there yet
remains a mass of mud-stained, dust
s0iled scraps, which once were bread
These worked up in mortar and pulver-
lied, are sold as the chapehlre blanche
with which outlets are dressed. There
still, however, remains dust which it has
been impossible to work up; this is black
a,,al ~, tEn roII,onl 70
BILE powder, mixed with honey, to which
is added a few drops of PEPPERMINT, and
sold as infallible cure for toothache, for
which agony it is said to be quite as
efficacious as anything recommended by
the faculty"
Many of the most delicate dishes
found at the innumerable restaurants
are cOncOcted of things which we would
reject as garbage. The soups especially,
of which there are as many varieties as
there are departments in France, are
compounded of materials which we
would never dream of utilizing. Indeed,
there is no part of an animal-hOrse,
cat, rat, goat, or crow-from which GER
tain restaurant in Paris will not serve
you a savory dish, assuring you, of
course, that your horse steak is the best
cut of beef, that the cat is hare, and that
the crow is pigeon.
About eighty thousand of the inhab-
itants of this gay capital rise in the
morning without knowing where or how
they are to get dinner. These poor
wretches, who, for the greater part, have
no regular employment, manage to dress
decently, nevertheless, to keep up APP
pearances, and between six and seven
O'Clock you will find them seated at
some of the cheaper restaurants enjoy
ing the luxury of a twenty-five sous
dinner.