The Newtown bee., 1880-12-08
THE ABATTOIRS.
A Visit to the Great Slaughter Houses
 of Paris.

A Visit to the Great Slaughter Houses | of Paris.
 A correspondent of the New York HerdId has been visiting the Paris slaughter houses at La Villette, and he writes about these unique institutions as follows:
 In company with a few gentlemen of robust stomachs and inquiring minds M. Leon Chotteau. M. Cerrel (French consul at Chicago), and one or two others-I lately went over the whole of the La Villette abattoirs. We crossed the Rue de Flandres, and passing | through an open door presently entered the great courtyard of the abattoirs. Men anc women in gory garments were vending their way briskly toward number of long, low buildings which were gory, their brooches and gowns were gory- Gore dripped from the butchers knives they had stuck in their wristbands, and their faces were smeared with gore. But they looked innocent and gay despite it all. and I dare say were very good sort of people o take cup of tea with. At lodge just within the abattoir precincts, we were shortly joined by an inspector, under whose courteous direction we made the round of the establishment.
 
 great deal of interesting information. He told me that the buildings before us forty or fifty in number, should say, of varying shapes and sizes-covered about thirty-one hectares of ground, and on an average market day-there are two market days in the week, Mon- days and Thursdays-contained about 25, GOO head of sheep. 5000 oxen, 1,5OO to 1900 hogs and 1,s0O calves. These forty or fifty buildings are all con- structed on 8 general plan, and are par ticularly solid. The materials used are stone, brick and iron. The walls are well lighted by large aud numerous windows. and the roofs, which slope up ward, ,chaletwise, to point, are, if am not mistaken, covered with red tiles. Prac- tically each building is fire and weather proof. To make assurance doubly seeur however, they are isolated from one an- other and divided into orderly streets, sections and numbered tenements, so that they really form @ little town-a neat metropolis of murder, governed by it's own laws and cut off from the outer world by walls and canal. Only the stables and the slaug ghter houses proper are in th's part of the place. The mar ket stands by itself on the opposite side of the canal, and extends over twenty three more hectares. Some idea of the importance of the La Villette abattoirs and market may be gathered from the fact that they give occupation to about welve hundred men and women
 Our guide very obligingly explained to us the system o. which the whole establishment is managed. The abattoiT buildings were erected at the risk and peril of the city of Paris, which lets them out in lots to the principal meat dealers at rentals varying with the space occupied and the amount of business transacted by each tenant. With this and the exercise of a vigilant police con- trol the connection of the municipal authorities and La Villette ceases All the live stock brought up to town for sale by the farmers and cattle breeders is in the first place housed in the market over the canal, where, on specified days Mondays and Thursdays-they are sold by auction to the butchers, by whom they are removed to the stables at the abattoirs proper. Each butcher has his own numbered and i, of course, responsible for all that passes within it. Here the beasts are kept unt they are slaughtered, and here they are hung up when slaughtered until they have found purchasers. The hogs, should observe, have 8 special structure reserved for them, whereof more anon. Three meat inspectors are constantly on duty in the abattoirs. All the bad meat they detect in their rounds is at once ruthlesSly seized and appropriated to non- culinary purposes, manure making and the like. On an average, was told, the inspector condemn 120,O00 pounds Of meat monthly. And yet some manages to escape into the Halles Centrales and the butchers shops, for there are forty other inspectors employed outside the abat- toirs in Paris. and they have plenty to do every day. Three distinct methods fer killing the luckless victims of our human voracity are used by La Villette, and none of them are compulsory. They are known to the butchering fraternity as the French, English and Jewish methods. The two latter are probably familiar to Americans; but the third is an innovation, and, moreover, a very merciful innovation. This, 1 suppose, is the reason it hnds such small favor here It is the invention of a philan- tbropieal French butcher-name un- known-and so particularly simple, cleauly and expeditions, that at the risk of disgusting the fairer portion of my readers 1 will describe 1t. The vic- | tim-an OK, let us say--is brought in believing. A leather mask, with 8 small hole in the center, just where the skull comes. is clapped over it's forehead. | Into this hole the butcher then inserts a | hollow steel bolt, which with one sud- | den blow of heavy mallet he presently | drives pitilessly into the animals brai n | The poor brute falls dead instantly, and l is cut up into quarters on the spot: l examined the skull of an OK that had been dispatched by this new method, and convinced myself that death must l have been pratically instantaneous--as instantaneous. at least, as anything but prussic acid or electricity could make 1t. H How comes it," asked of the merry l looking slaughterer who had given me I the skull. 'sHow comes it that the l method is not generally adoptedp"
 ssAh," said he, with a pleasant smile professional jealousy has something te do with that. It was butchers in vention."
 I handed him back the skull, which was intact, but for one small round hole like that made by the passage of bull let, and turned to go when to my horror saw a huge headless side of beef il front of me quivering and quaking SC { violently that started. Don't mint it." said the jovial butcher, they al do that for two hours after they art killed" But did mind it considerably
 and have not ventured on beefsteal
 since. There were walls of such quiv
 ering flesh to pass through to get to tn
 door. I can only compare the motion
 of the meat to that made by persol
 breathing rapidly after run. It wa
 lifelike and unpleasant, but noth
 ing to what came next. Round tn
 corner they were doing an OK to deatl
 on what they call the old or Englisl
 system. In place of the merciful stee bolt sort of sharp pole ax is used, wit
 which the victim was struck smartly O , t he skull I suppose the butcher foun the method good enough, but the crea ture whom he was slaughtering didn' , seem to be as satisfied. At all events