The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1880-03-03

PeopIe-A Very Curious ;Biu OF Fare to
Select From-CaterpiIlar, Lizard, Grub
and Clay Eaters.
Boston Herald
Civilization mas developed one thing in the
eating habits of peoples which is worthy of
note and that is taste in the preparation and
consumption Of food. 1t is one Of the glories
of our American freedom that boy who is
brought up in the rough log cabin of the
back country may develop into cultivated
gentleman or a rich merchant, and have
aesthetics on the brain. as we'll as the veriest
palace-born prince OF Europe. He may even
become a philanthrophist, and tell people
what they should or should not eat. He
may prefer beef fat to pork fat in the pre-
paration of dishes for his table, and yet turn
with loathing and horror from olemargarine,
which is made from beef fat, because some
microscopist has found in some specimens
of that product examined by him bacteria
and other microscopic organisms
supposed to be injurious to the system. He
may dislike pork, and yet be fond of sausa.
ges If he has travelled, he will tell of the
''real Bologna sausages," which are mado
from the meat of asses. He will not drink wa
ter taken direct from Charles river. 1t is COM
mon river water, he will tell you, and full of
microscopic life. But he will drink the same
water after standing for time in a reservoir,
if it is drawn from the water pipe in his
house. He fears to use vinegar or syrup, or
to wash with soap made of common fat.
They may be impure and injurious. If you
tell him that glucose is harmless, he will look
at you as heather, not knowing that all
starch taken into the stomach is first changed
into glucose in the process of digestion. He
is very fond of honey, and yet honey is quite
largely composed of glucose or grape sugar.
He will tell you, with a smack of his lips
THAT is, if lip-smacking is esthetic,) of the
days when he went gypsying down South,
and had
PEACH AND HONEY
every day, and two or three times a day.
Pickles are his aversion. He sees in every
one a copper cent dissolved, and yet he will
be apt to get more copper from his peach
brandy than from the pickles of commerce.
In meats he will not touch anything that has
the least faint, and vet he will praise the
game at Blanks hotel, which has been kept
until age has made the meat tender He
would look at you with blank astonishment
if YOU suggested monkey flesh as an article
of food, and yet the Chinese (who are the
most civilized people in the WORLDLY eat mon
keys, as do also the natives of Ceylon, the
East Indians, the negroes and whites in Trim
| dad, Dyaks BOrneo, the Africans of the
Gold coast. the Amazon Indians,
and the sborigines of Spanish.
Dutch and French Guianas. He may
tell you that. of course, our Indians may eat
| prairie wolves, skunks and otters but they
are not aesthetic But the Chinese are and
they eat cats and dogs. There is an old story
told of missionary who once dined with an
aesthetic Chinaman. A dish came on the
| table, and the missionary, suspecting it was
feline, said to the Chinaman, "Meaow?" A
shake of the head was the reply, and the
words "Bow-wowl" During the last siege of
Paris it Is said that 5000 cats were eaten.
| A young cat it was found, tasted like a
| squirrel. but was rendered and sweeter.
| After the cats in question were devoured in
Paris they had peace at night. Would
| that cat eating become aesthetic in Amercal
| Dogs are also eaten by the New Zealanders,
the South Sea islanders and some African
tribes, and during the siege of Paris 200
CANNES were butchered, and their flesh sold
| for from two to three francs per pound in the
| market Bow-wowl According to Pliny,
puppies were regarded as a great delicacy by
| the Roman gouarmands. The bear is still
eaten in Europe and America, and the lion
| in Africa. Our esthesic friend would no
doubt turn up his nose at the hedgehog and
| vet it is regarded as princely dish in Bar
oary, and is eaten in Spain and by the Indians
of North America. Kangaroos furnish fla
| vorite meat in Australia and the opossum is
eaten in America, Australia, and the Indian
| islands. The coon as we'll as the possum is
a nocturnal animal, and both are hunted in
| the Southern States with as much gusto as
they were eaten when baked in the pan of
our daddies with sweet potatoes. Seals are
| eaten by Greenlanders, Esquimaux and other
unesthetic people, as is also the blubber
and flesh of the whale and narwhal.
The flesh of the porpoise is said so bea great
dainty with the blubber-eaters, who quaff
its oil as the most delicious of draughts.
Our friend will, perhaps, be Disguised to
| know that mice and rats are eaten in Asia,
Africa, Australia and New Zealand, and are
considered delicate morsals. The taste of
rats is said to be like that of birds. The
Chinese are very partial to rats, and,
| DURING THE SIEGE OF PARIS,
mice and rats made some of the most deli
cious restaurant dishes. Squirrels are eaten
in Australia by the natives, in Sweden, Nor
way, and in Amarica. In the Southern
States the natives learn to be expert rife
men by practcing shooting squirrels on tree
tops. The camel Is eaten In Africa, the musk
OK and raindeer in Siberia and other ex-
treme northern countries. The flesh of the
horse, dear aesthetic friend, is eaten largely
by various nations. The Indian horsemen
of the South American pampas live entirely
on the flesh of their Mares and eat neither
bread, fruit nor vegetables. Horse flesh is
eaten by the Jakuts of northern Siberia, the
Tartars and natives of South America. Mr..
Bicknell. in his paper on "The Horse as
Food for Man." mentions 10 European
States, besides France, where horsefesh is
eaten The Icelanders practiced hippophagy
since the eighth century. The Russians
have always eaten horses, and in Denmark
the people returned to the customs of their
forefathers in 1907. Wurtenburg was the
first of the German States to adopt the
practice, and commenced it in l84l. Bava-
ria, Baden, Hanover, Bohemia, SaxoDv,
Austria and Prussia followed in subsequent
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