Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1879-09-30
French Meat-Markets.

| Ine restaurants, hotels and pastry-
cooks shops, writes a Paris correspon-
dent, are visited by special set of in
| spectors, whose business it is to ascer-
tain whether the kitchens are clean and
the cooking untensils free from verdi
| girls The Grand Hotel and Cafe An
glais are amenable to this inspection
equally with the meanest eating-houses
of the suburbs; and if the inspectors dis
| cover any ground of complaint thew
visit the house day after day till the
owner mends his manners. Butchers.
| fishmongers, poulterers and pork butch
ers have also set of inspectors specially
| appointed to watch over them, and MANY
| excellent laws exist in France for keep
| ing the premises of these tradesmen in n
| healthy condition. Thus, the butchers
shops must have nothing wooden in
their fixtures except the chopping- block.
The floor must be of stone. the shelves
of marble, the walls must be covered
with enamel tiles, and in place of shut
ters there must be iron bars, that fresh
air may pour into the shop at all hours
of the night. No slaughtering is allowed
on the premises of butchers or pork
butchers, the giant slaughter-house at
La Villette being sufficient to meet the
requirements of all Paris. Here the
cattle and pigs are brought along the
outer boulevards between ten at night
and nine in the morning. SO that there
may be no passing of focks and herds
through tlie city in broad day; and all
the delivery of meat must be effected
before 10 A. NJ, in carts having white
cloths to cover the quarters of beef and
mutton. I had almost forgotten that
Paris is possessed of 1876 horse-fesh shops
which are subjected to the same rules as
the butchers; but here, as in the pork
butchers, the inspectors have difficult
task in trying to prevent offal and putrid
meat from being manufactured into
sausages, gelatine, pies and other indi-
gestibie dainties which Frenchmen love.
| am afraid that the inspectors are not
very successful, and that the proletarian
French sausage will not stand impartial
investigation. The bad meat in it may
be so chopped up with pepper, spices
and garlic that all telltale flavor will be
disguised; but the meat must be bad, for
the pork butchers so undersell the butch
ers, that they would apparently have us
believe that half a pound Of veal and
similar quantity of ham can be mixed
up with spices and sold as pie, for about
three pence cheaper than a pound Of
plain veal! Let US pass lightly over this
QeluS1On. In6 inspectors can only do
their best, and if they discover offal or
tainted meat on pork butchers premi-
ses they Immediately report the man to
the Tribunal de Simple Police, where he
is scolded and fined; at the same time
his shop will be watched for weeks, till
perhaps on some dark night a lad will
be discovered stealing in " ith sackful
of dead cats, dogs and rats, all ready for
consignment to those terrible steam
mincing machines, which make chop
ped dog look like hashed beef for.you in
trice. / should observe, Blythe bye, that
since the siege of Paris taught French
men such a practical lesson as to the ed
ible qualities of animals formerly ban
ished from the dinner table, an inspec-
tor would not quarrel with tradesman
whom he suspected of putting rats into
his pies. He would stipulate that the
rats be fresh, but that is all; for if he
were to object to the label describing
the pie as ''fiae game" the vender
might answer that game is word APP
Piled in French to all varieties of wild
animals, inasmuch that the rat and
mouse-catchers attached to the palaces
Of the late emperor all bore the grand
title of" Chasseur de Menu Gibier''