Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1880-07-15

The restaurants, hotels, and pastrycooks,
shops in Paris, are visited by a special set
of inspectors, whose business II Ia TO ascer-
tain whether the kitchens are clean and the
cooking utensils free from verdigris. The
Grand Hotel and Cafe Anglais are amend
able to this inspection equally with the
meanest eating houses of the suburbs; and
if the inspectors discover any ground of
complaint they visit the house day after
till the owner mends his manners, Butchers,
fishmongers poulterers and pork-butchers
have also set of inspectors specially ap-
pointed to watch over them, and many ex-
cellent laws exist in France for keeping
the premises of these tradesmen in healthy
condition. Thus, the butchers shops must
have nothing wooden in their fixtures ex-
cept the chopping- block. The floor must
be covered with enamel tiles, and in place
of shutters 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 OF pork,
the giant slaughter houses at La Villette
beng sufficient to meet the requirements
of all Paris. Here the cattle and pigs aIe
brought along the outer bouleyards between
ten o'clock at night and nine in the morning,
so that there may be no passing of focks
and herds through the city in broad day
light; and all the delivery of meat must be
effected before ten A. NJ, in carts having
white cloths to cover the quarters of beef
and mutton. Bad meat may be so chop
ped up with pepper, spices and garlic that
all tell-tale flavor will be disguised; but the
meat must be bad, for the pork butchers so
undersell the butchers, that they would ap-
parently have us believe that halt pound
of veal and similar quantity Of ham can
be mixed up with spices and sold as pie,
for about three pence cheaper than pound
of plain veal Let us pass lightly over this
delusion. The inspectors can only do their
best, and if they discover offal or tainted
meat on pork butchers premises they i'm
mediately report the man to the Tribunal
de Simple Police, where he is scolded end
fined; at the same time his shop will be
watched for weeks, till perhaps on some
dark night lad will be discovered stealing
in with a sackful of dead cats, dogs, and
rats, all ready for consignment to those
terrible steam mincing machines, which
make chopped dog look like hashed beef for
you in trice.
Coming now to the pastry cooks, grocers,
and bakers, the honest folks have TO put
up with great deal of inspection, the gro
GERS and bakers in connection with their
weights, the pastry cooks because of the
poisonous colonng matter which they
sometimes put into their sweetmeats. Be
fore the 'liberty of baking" had been de-
creed, which was only about dozen years
ago, absurd raids used to be made upon
bakers to see if they sold pastry, and past
ry cooks were heavily fined if they sold
bread. To this day the bakers form cor
poration governed by rather peculiar laws,
which compel them to sell common bread
in two-pound or four pound loaves accord
ing to the tariff, which never varies in best
or worst wheat seasons. A 'tCaisse de la
Boulangerie" indemnifes the bakers for
the losses they may sustain in time of war
or famine; and they repay the fund out of
the profits they clear in years of plenty.
Thus the gains of the trade lie wholly in
the sale of fancy bread which Is not tariff
ed, and il was because the profits in this
direction were so small that the state ended
by reluctantly conceding the principle that
no harm would be done if bakers took to
baking cakes and tarts in their ovens.
French pastry cooks enjoy the privilege of
selling liquors, wines and beer without a
special license, provided they retail it to
customers who are eating on their premis-
es; but the only ones who seem to make
an extensive use of this faculty are the
proprietors of two or three big Parlsian
houses patronized by the English. These
sell great deal of port and sherry. To
conclude with the inspection Of food, an
admirable feature in connection with it is
the perfect incorruptibility of the agents
employed in this work. They are armed
with very wide powers; they are poorly
paid, and consequently exposed to many
temptations; yet the cases in which they
have been known to abuse their trust are
so rare that they must be regarded as inev-
liable exceptions to a rule of entire blame
lessness. In the halls where quantities of
edibles-and notably fish-are condemned
every day, the market women loathe the
inspectors, but no one ever ventures to ac-
cuse these useful public servants of tamp-
ering with their duty, either for fear or
favor.