Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1891-12-01
PARTISAN MEAT MARKETS.
Some Of the Tricks Of the Merchants-Hs,
Their Prices Vary.

Some Of the Tricks Of the Merchants-Hsv
Their Prices Vary.
Though it may seem an easy Job to
drop into half dozen shops and by
few smart questions ascertain the price
Of provisions in Paris, the task, how
ever, is not quite 50 easy as at first sight
appears. In the price of meat, for in
stance, there is no standard apparent.
II 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 a pound. In the
Champs Elysees quarter l have been
asked, at fashionable butchers, for a
similar joint, thirty EIGHT cents, under
pretext that it was pre- sale-lamb fed
on salt marshes, or Southdown, which
is mere humbug. l 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-I have
been informed it there cost eighteen
cents a poundi Now mark that these
three precisely similar joints were each
bought in butchers shop, and not bar
gained for in a market, where competi-
ton often lowers the price. Yet even in
these three cases / found difference of
above 100 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
a clean and delicate wayas to render the
sight of it a pleasing object. The shops
in which IT, sc ruby colored, dainty bits
are sold are, for the most part, lined with
white tiles, which give them 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 srrewed 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. have even seen a small calf,
| opened and thoroughly cleansed, hung
| up in a most becoming manner, while a
veil of apparently fine lace, entirely
made, or rather cut, out of a 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 on 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 a trade almost unknown to us. Al
his shop every object of pig meat, potteo
meat and other appetizing articles fol
breakfast and lunch may be purchased
as well as turkeys, capons, and even par
tridges stuffed with trutfles, at certain
seasons of the year. You can here buy
single slice of ham or sausage, cooket
or uncooked. You may purchase tirs
rate pate de Strasburg for So, or obtain
slice of it for twenty cents. Truffies
olives, sardines, tongues and cotelette
of every description, pigs feet, brea'
crumbed and trutfied, lie ready for imme
date cooking; cold roast pork, sausage
made of wild boar, and a hundred othe
luxuries tempt you, and always stand en-
ticingly placed to whet your appetite:
The average market price of pork las
year was sixteen cents a pound. AS 10
the meat, this is, of course, the wholessl
price current by auction at the centra
markets.
Fish, though it may appear extraoi
binary, can be found even fresher her
than in London. Since the estaolisf
ment of railways all the French hshin
towns have apparently agreed to send u
some nine-tenths of their take to tn
French metropolis. Add to this an a
most incredible supply daily receive
from England and Belgium, as well as IN
produce of the French rivers, and I'd
. ample quantities of this delicacy may
a certain extent. be accounted for'-far
Letter in New York Star.