The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-09-28
FRENCH BRUTALITY.
mother Side Showing It's Effects on the
Food of the People.
fsen Francisco ChronicIe.1

I am writing now Of the food OF the French
AvorkiDg people. His bouillOn at eight cents
/ rsr quart Is half water. He never wastes
Hsny. and the making Of yesterday goes
hi with that of to-day, which is
adlpg to quantity but not to quality. His
zmdnary wine is sour, half water, and q
| Slsssfui 10 good for fit Of indigestion. lie
| waters even his cider. Here we strike the
| rotten spot In his b0asted so-called economy.
i he ID ever trying to make something out of
nothing. He IL ingenious In manufacturing
| taetes and favors out OF scraps. His potted
neat on sausage shops, which abound In
every block, contain forty different prepara-
. lions Of meat, and barely is One lit to eat.
There are dozen mixtures, crammed into
oases. They look nice, smell nice and taste
nice for q few minutes, but examine closely
| Tie contents and you find chopped gristle,
hide, cartilage and sinews. 1t Is highly sea-
boned, fills up the stomach and makes pure
blood. You are charmed with the fried fish
| snd potato shops so common and 50 con-
vaient for the worker to purchase q dinner
meals Of those fish and potatoes. The greese
they are cooked In is too rancid. Travellers
. tall what IN admirable and economical ar
nngement in the French family Is the pot aat
tMs the pot Is always On the. fire, always
1teWing and simmering, into which go I'LL the
remnants OF yesterdays dinner, the bones,
| the broth, the scraps, and all this ever turn
| ig out fresh food ior the family. But this Is
| oId food, stale food second hand food. and no
matter how disguised as to taste 1t has lost It's
| Prime element OF strength and nutrition. It
btrue that q French cook can make several
meals out OF an English,nan's beefstsak
haakfast, but no doesn't always In all these
Wmbinations and contrivances add anything
b the strangth-prodneiDg qualities OF the
kWginal beefsteak. [ am disposed to believe
/ That in Paris there is o much greater distinc-
Non between the rich aud poor mans table as
nrrG ttxff hpY in Vf,ry RI Gcv
fanelseo. You may often see the French
workman making his Il o'clock breakfast
II piece OF bread and a glass OF sour wine,
md he does not appear to regard this as an
Indication Of hard times either. Bread and
vine Ia the staple food OF thousands In Paris.
The poor mans child sits eontenteuly atsths
back door. on Its lap plate, and on that plate
piece OF bread, and that bread constitutes
MI OF its morning or noon meal. The work
Ing girl breaks her morning fast with bread,
makes her lunch of 1t ut noon, aud at night
comes home with few sticks Of macearoni,
lnd very seldom a scrap OF meat, wheTewith
the prepares plate OF soup, and this is her
dinner day in aud day out. Those who would
establish anything approaching free trade
with Francs should g. among the French
people, observe how meagrely they live COM
pared with the average American laborer,
and perhaps then they may debate within
themselves on the propriety of competing
with labor run on a semi-starvation. Yes, [
assert that the workers of France DO not get
ssnfflciency or q variety of nutritious food
mat they cheat themselves by putting into
ther stomachs material which fills up but
aoes not strengthen; that much Of their
ooasted economy In feeding themselves con-
asts In the manufacture Of tlavors rather
Than 10 nutrition for blood, bone, nerve and
muscle, and that as d result, while the head
ma si brain Of France, being generously fed, Is
brilliant, the body, represented by the bulk III
we people, being semi-starved, is weak and
putty. Look OF the average physique or a
Paris street car load Of passengers and ask
yourself Ii In America you ever saw SO large
4, proportion Of puffy, wheezy. asthrnatic,
clumsy. understood, badly -put-up men and
women This comes Of generations of
sefn- starvation, bone soup warmed over and
Watered over and over again, and musty sour
vine and water. 1t comes of living on highly
sseeasoned scraps. It comes Of French fiction
Y nat shavings and sawdust will make strong,
healthy men and women. If only seasoned SO
e to resemble the flavor of good, fat beef
and mutton. II won't do. France In feeding
ner bone and sinew, has approached near tho
0nditiOn OF the unfortunate horse whose
economical owner would have taught him to
luosist on shavings had he not died just as
e WAS getting accustomed to such diet
lIWenty-nlne or thirty millions of people have
oeen working and semi-starving In this man
MT for hundreds OF wears