Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1880-06-05
Pate.de.FOie.Gras,

The annexation of Strasbourg has not
only given to Prussia city of eighty
thousand souls and cathedral of the
first order, but it has the privilege of
receiving yearly one hundred and fifty
thousand French geese within its walls,
who go there to offer their livers as holo-
causts to the grandeur of their country.
This is no trifling gift. The 1ivers, put in
tin boxes or in china pots, with accom-
paniments of trutf1es, circulate through
out the entire world under the title of
pates-de-foie-gr and cause the
name of France to be blessed to all the
lovers of good things. Strasbourg owes
half of its renown to the sale of these
pates. SavaHts may remember that the
old Capital of Alsace once possessed a
celebrated university, where Goethe
was raised; churchmen can talk with
pride of the famous cathedral whose
tower measures one hundred and forty
five metres in height; mechanics, of its
wonderful clock; and strategists boast
of it's magnificent Notifications; but for
all refined people, and for all the legions
of cordo,as-bleus who have elevated cook
ing to the rank of science or art,
Strasbourg is renowned for the sacrifice
and the tenderness of its geese. The
French, who arrange history to suit
themselves, pretend that the pate-de-
foie-gras was known to the Romans;
for, they state, the sacred geese who
lived at the Capitol were kept on a diet
like those of Strasbourg, in order to en-
large their livers. Without contesting
this allegation, it may be stated with
certainty that it is only at recent
period that the raising of geese with a
view of the fabrication of the pates has
been carried to is present degree of per-
fection. If the Romans trafficked in the
Ivers of geese, they doubtless had re-
course to iron cages, which were until
recently employed, wherein the bird
was imprisoned while its neck passed
through an opening without the power
of withdrawing it. The animal had three
meals per diem, and lived as well as it
could in its confined situation, until the
hour arrived for it to be killed. This
system was abandoned thirty years ago,
as it presented serious inconvenience
to the master, who generally saw three
out of every four of his geese die from
exhaustion. Those who visit one of the
most famous establishments of foies-
gras in Strasbourg will perceive how
these old methods have been transformed
by modern ameliorations.
LII d ldIS0, COOl ydlu,
who has become Germanized, with his
geese, by force of circumstances, points
with his finger to several hundred of
these animals crowded in corner, and
who are screeching to split ones head.
Formerly, it might have been supposed
that they were saying in chorus, Dulce
ct decorun est pro patria a7aori; at pres
ent, it is possible they are lamenting on
account of being obliged to pay custom
house duties before figuring on the
tables of their old compatriots. Their
proprietor explains that they are nine
months old, and that each one cost nine
francs fifty centimes. Then on sig
nal to the women with naked arms, and
despite the protestations of the winged
band. six geese are caught and taken
to sort Of cave, where the eye per-
ceives rows of large and inclined stone
tables. In the dim light produced by
some twenty air-holes pierced in the
wall, one can scarcely distinguish the
objects. Gradually, however, it is dis
covered that hundreds of geese are ex-
tended on their backs and bound to the
tables, while the air is pierced with
strange sounds-perhaps words of en-
couragement and tenderness that they
are murmuring to each other. In the
meantime each of the women has
taken goose and placed it on the
stone-the tail extending over the edge.
The wings, the feet, the body, are now
spread out, and fastened on the table
by strong hgatures, which oppose al
gymnastics neck alone having its
liberty. During the first days it ap
pears that the animal makes strong eff
forts to recover it's liberty, but grad
ually becomes convinced of the inutility
of these attempts and from that mo-
ment its resignation is assured during
the seven following weeks, when it il
released from its agony by death. II
the interval it is nourished with thick
paste made of half-boiled corn-meal
chestnuts and buckwheat meal, which
is forced down it's throat by the thumb
the composition being made into ball:
or pills. The bird, thus refreshed re
sumes it's inclined pose and digests it.
food until the next repast, which ar
rives two hours afterwards, as they ar.
allowed six meals day.
But new solemn, dig
nifed, and thoughtful-ha entered the
room, and designates the animals wht
are .' finished (mures). 1t is he t.
) whom is confded the responsibility o
J distinguishing those who will die TWEEN
ty-four hours later, if they are no
sooner dispatched. A goose whicl
} dies naturally is good for nothing
must be killed at the precise momen
) when nature is weary of keeping it alive
: and the coup d'el necessary for thi
psychological discovery is only &C
quired after q long period. Thus, tn
5 masters in this art are of equa
, importance (receiving the sam
salary) as connoisseurs in diamonds
2 Ours was not five minute
' in the cave before he condemned fou
of his company to the sacrifice. The
7 had stomachs shaped like gourds, an
seemed to utter sigh of satisfaction
when two men detached them and car
ried them across the yard into anothe
room, filled with knives and blocks
l Then a stroke of the cleaver on tn
! head,-an incision with a knife. Les
c than ten minutes after the passage fror
one room to the other, the victims al
living in a corner, while their liverS al