Wichita eagle., 1890-02-18
PARTISAN MEAT MARKETS.
Some OF the Tricks of the nIerchants-Hov
Their Prices Vary.

Some OF the Tricks of the Merchants-How
Their Prices Vary.
Though it may seem an easy job to
drop into half dozen shops and by a
few smart questions ascertain the price
of provisions in PariS, the task, how
ever, is not quite so easy as at first sight
appears. In the price OF meat, for In
stance. there is no standard apparent.
If YOU ask the price of leg of mutton
in the Saint Honore quarter, The butcher
will let you have the joint at about
twenty-four cents pound. In the
Champs Eysees quarter / have been
asked, at a fashionable butchers, for
similar joint, thirty-eight cents, under
pretext that it was pre- sale-lamb fed
on salt marshes, or Southdown, which
is mere humbug. have. dined in the
evening with French family in the
Montmartre quarter, and on admiring
the toothsomeness of the gigot-which
the French roast to perfection-fhave
been informed it there cost eighteen
cents pound! Now mark that these
three precisely similar joints We're each
u
gained for in 4 market, where competi-
ton often lowers the price. Yet even in
these three cases found difference ot
above 1G0 per cent.
These fashionable dealers lay out their
meat in the most tempting manner on
white marble slabs. 1t is cut into the most
enticing portions, and displayed in such
clean and delicate way as to render the
sight of it pleasing OBJECT. The shops
in which these ruby colored, dainty bits
are sold are, for the most part, lined with
white tiles, which give them a very clean
appearance. The outside is highly gilt,
with red ratings, and the favorite joints,
such as the legs Of mutton, are hung up
in rows, enveloped, like bouquets, in cut
paper, and decorated with green bay
leaves and pink paper roses. Artificial
flowers are strewed amongst loins and
shoulders OF mutton; and outlets, divest-
ed Of gross fat, lie ready to be dressed,
while every other object likely TO hide
and overcome the unsightliness OF the
trade is cunningly paraded to invite Gus
tom. l have even seen small calf,
opened and thoroughly cleansed, hung
up in most becoming manner, while q
veil of apparently fine lace, entirely
made, or rather cut, out of certain por-
ton Of its inside, has been gracefully
| thrown over the carcass.
The meat eaten in Paris is divided into
two parts-that brought as livestock,
slaughtered and cut up in the Paris abat-
toirs, or slaughter houses, and that cut
up in the provinces, the coarse pieces of
which are eaten Oh the spot, and the
best forwarded by express train to the
! Halles, or Central markets, and from
there sent to the butchers shops.
The charcutier, or pork butcher, fol-
! lows atrade almost unknown to us. AT
his shop every object of pig meat, potted
meat and other appetizing articles for
breakfast and lunch may be purchased,
as well as turkeys, capons, and even par
tridges stuffed with truffies, at certain
seasons of the year. You can here buy a
single slice of ham or a sausage, cooked
or urcooked. You may purchase first
rate pate de Strasburg for S., or obtain a
slice of it for twenty cents. Truffles,
olives, sardineS, tongues and cotelettes
of every description, pigs feet, bread
crumbed and truffied, lie ready for imme-
diato cooking; cold roast pork. sausages
made Of wild boar, and hundred other
luxuries tempt you, and always stand en-
ticingiy placed to whet your appetite.
The average market price of pork last
year was sixteen cents IL pound. As for
the meat, this is, OF course, the Wholesale
price current by auction at the central
markets.
Fish, though it may appear e1traor,
binary, can be found even frcsher here
than III London. Since the establish
ment of railways all the French fishing
towns have apparently agreed to send W
some nine-tenths Of their take to the
French metropolis. Add to this an al
most incredible supply daily received
from Engiand-ahd Belgium, as well as the
produce of the French rivers, and The
ample quantities Of this deiicacy may, tt
a certain extent, he accounted for.-Paris
Letter in New York Star.