Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-10

The average is 10 cents pound, half, and
in some cases less than halt, the price of
beef As to the meat / bought, I ate it.
However it is not u subject on which l care
to write There are experiences In life
which are best discussed at a distance Of
years. My dinner on cheval a la Godfrey
Saint-Hilaire is one of mine. Not that the
meat was not sayory. 1t Is the idea Many
of the French working people will not touch
horsemeat because they believe that dis
eased animals are used This is quite false.
The police restrictions are severe, and every
animal passes under an inspector, who re-
Jects him If there are any signs OF any dis
ease or If he is excessively lean.
The supply for the Abattoirs.
1t must not be imagined that the horses
used are raised for the markets. The sup
ply is from animals for one reason or an
other unfit for work. Paris alone furnishes
large numbers. Every day one sees horses
slipping and falling on the CLASSY asphalt.
II they do not break leg out and out they
frequently sustain a rupture or strain which
makes it necessary to kill them at once.
The owner is glad enough to sell the dead
animal, which ordinarily is in capital con-
whose injuries are not fatal perhaps might
be sold for So or S4, to be used in hacks, but
when they will bring $40 to $40 at the
butchers the question is quickly settled.
Agents are kept constantly in the country
for 100 leagues around Paris looking up
broken-down horses.
There are two abattoirs in the city where
they are butchered. At the larger the
number killed per day is never less than 80.
1t is a dreary place to see, situated within
stones throw of the famous factory of
Gobelin tapestries Everything around the
buildings fills one with disgust. The place
of execution is a chamber of horrors
confess / have looked into the revolutionary
prisons of Paris and upon the guillotine with
less shivering than felt in this place. The
animals are led in one by one. A mask Of
leather is fitted over the victims head cover
ing the eyes. In this mask Just over the
center of the forehead is movable nail of
iron. When it is adjusted the executioEer
approaches, and with a heavy hammer
strikes quick blow. The animal imme-
diately falls dead
Like Witnessing an Execution.
When I visited the abattoir they were
fitting the death mask over the head of
noble Perchon which that morning had
fallen in an omnibus and sustained mortal
L
had been behind the poor fellow when he
went down since such an incident had
marked the ride had taken on the omni-
bus that morning 1 did not stay to see the
dreadful business ont. 1t was too much like
assisting at the execution of friend.
The great reason for encouraging the use
of horsemeat is economic. 1t gives per-
fectly heaIthful and nutritious food to the
poor at a very low price. The matter is
most important in Paris where wages are
low and prices high. 1t bids fair to be more
important, as the new tariff is already begin
ming to bring up the price of meat
But Paris is not the only city which has
multitudes of inhabitants who are insult
fciently fed Every city has them and it is
a question of vital Importance to furnish
them food at the lowest cost. Philanthro-
pists in the United States could do much
worse than to study whether it would not
be worth their while to begin propaganda
in favor of horsemeat.
MAY Make Frenchmen Steadier.
There is another argument for the prac-
tice, one for the Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Animals, to consider. The
misery Of broken down, lame, worn out
horses which are bought for song by poor
hucksters, teamsters, jacks-of-all trades,
and beaten and starved through miserable
OlQ age Is one vi Tue LlOSG plLllul ldCbS VI IlI0
horse race. If when horse is worn out he
could be turned promptly into plump saus-
age he certainly would be saved great suffer
ing. No doubt if he had voice in decid-
ing his fate he would raise it emphatically
in favor of the sausage.
If we could know the effect on a race Of
hippophagy we might have still another ar
gument in favor of it. France ought soon
to be able to speculate on that, for the prac-
tice is increasing rapidly In all her large
cities. If we are what we eat,
as some wise men argue, will
France acquire vigor, persistency, patience,
steadiness, in proportion as she eats the
animal which is the personiication of these
qualities? If so, then may it not result that
the Germans, who, by their siege of Paris
are really responsible for the fame of horse
meat in France, have given to the French
the very weapon with which in the future
they shall conquer and win back the much
mourned Alsace-Lorraine. 1t is certain
that if France could add level head to her
brilliancy there is nothing she might not do
in the way of conquest. Let us hope, not
for the sake of the boundary line, but for
that of human progress, that hippophagy
will give her the qualities she lacks.
IDA NJ. TARBELL