The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1883-04-18
From our Regular Correspondent
PARIS LETTER.
PARIS. March %.

PARIS, March %.
The old established Ham Fair
which from time immemorial has
delighted the good bourgeois of Par
is during Passion Week, was held a:
usual on the Boulevard Richard lie
noir, between the Bastile and the
Boulevard Voltaire. 1t would re
auire a born and bred chdrcutier to
describe by their right names all tht
d~elicacies, having cured pork for a
basis, which adorned the half mile
or SO of little wooden sheds that
made up the famous Foise aux Jam.
bons. Seeing hat the fair has its
origin in the dues paid to the Bish.
op and chapter of Notre Dame de
Paris, on imported swine flesh, and
that during the week a rigid fast is
imposed on all good Catholics, it is
difficult to imagine why this partic-
ular date should have been chosen
for the sale of the least mdigre of all
meats. The secret of this apparent
anomaly is lost in the back pages OF
history. The present generation, es-
pecially the inhabitants of the elev-
enth reimbursement of Paris, accept
their ham fair with a good grace,
and under the shadow OF the great
sceptic whose name adorns the hand
some boulevard adjacent, rush to
buy the succulent porcine meat Of
fered TO them at what the vendors
call the lowest prices ever seen OF
heard of. Buy. buy, buy" is the
motto of the ham fair, whether the
hams be from Whestphalia, the pork
sausages from Bologna, OF dried
sucking pigs, which, for all one
knows, may have been extracted
from the pyramid of Cheops. Nor
is pork the sole meat dispensed In
every shape at the fair. Sausages
of horse flesh and donkey meat en-
closed in shiny red skins, and smok.
ed sections Of mule were displayed
on handsome stalls, adorned with
medals and certificates of first prizes
won at many an agricultural show
Ghdrcuterie hippophagique may have
its de~votees; certain it is that the es.
adjustments which are compelled
by law to announce the nature o
their viands but are not obliged tC
state exactly how gallant steeds an6
sure footed donkeys came to bt
transformed into sausage meat, are
constantly surrounded by gaping
throngs always ready to taste if no
to purchase. At the Northwestern
extremity of ham fair il the annua
mart for the disposal of every kind
of worn out, old fashioned, disuset
articles, which can only be classifi
ed under the general a~ppelation o
rubbish. What other name, indeed
would apply to an exhibition wher'
rusty nails, horse shoes, and batter
ed in kettles predominant, and wher
second hand wooden legs, tarnishet
door knobs and Prussian helmet
with the spikes knocked off a b.
purchased by the dozen? The deal
: ers IN these heterogeneous ware d.
not, as a rule, "runto" stalls. Thei
goods are spread out on the ground
~passers-by being urgently requestet
to turn over the heaps of rubbish Ii
search Of what they may happen t
require. Here and there a ricket
table, covered with the cheapest {
!. cheap jewelry, proudly stands on
among the piles of worthless oil
rubbish, but rusty ironi in every col
ceivable shape, from six foot lever
to ten-penny nails, holds its owl
while Il de&ler who can display
/, worn out sword or an antiquate
pistol without a lock puts on all th
airs of a high class bric-a-brac me,
/. chant. The most curious feature
, the rubbish fair is the tenacity wit
: which the vendors refuse to aba
> their usually exhorbitant prices, bl
! the initiated affirm hat prices con
: down wonderfully on the last da
when articles can be obtained at Il
purchasers price.