The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-09-08
OUEER SCENES IN PARIS.
Some of the Odd Trades that Surprise
the Yankee Globe Trotter.
Paris a Chndless City-Where the Nurse
Maids Come From-Horse Flesh
Eaten and Sausages from the

Maids Come frOm-Horse flesn
Eaten and Sausases from the
Meat of the Donkey.
The gay city of Paris is a mine OF
queer trades scenes and incidents
The Yankee globe trotter's eyes bulge
out and his hair stands on end as he
noses about in the out-of-the-way
hooks and corners of the great city.
One of the first things that calls forth
exclamations of surprise is that Paris
is childless You see bonnes in dainty
caps and aprons trundling the offspring
of the wealthy, but In the lower sec
tions of the city, among the bourgeois.
the little ones are not numerous The
tradesman who has his shop on the
ground floor and his sleeping rooms on
the fourth or fifth story could not keep
his children without losing the services
OF his wife, whom he wants to help
him in his business If he kept chill
dren his wife would be obliged to live
upstairs, SO he sends out his babies to
nurse as soon as they are born, with
the intention of letting them re-
main in the country until they are five
has generally but one garret room up a
dozen flights of stairs, does the same
thing. The result of this is that more
than fifty per cent. of the children
born in Paris die in the ba by farmers
hands before reaching their second
year. All that the Assistance Publiqne
has tried to do towards checking this
shocking waste of life has been OF lit
tie avail Forty creches have been in
stituted, but they meet the wants of
only small numbe of mothers, A
system for gistering and inspecting
the homes of peasant women who take
children to nurse has been attempted,
but the Assistance gets little help from
the parents of the working classes in
contending against the rapacity OF
babyfarmers. A nurse. of whom no
questions are asked, charges twenty
five francs month for the keep of
baby; those who are registered and so
controlled that they can only receive
one child demand fifty francs or more
Those find their customers among the
bourgeoise, but the working classes
can r OF afford to patronize them.
It may interest the reader to know
that the hundreds of nurse-girls one
sees in the open spaces in the gardens
of the Palais Royal, the different
squares and the Champs Elysees are in
variably countrywomen. never Paris
iennes. The bonnes. with neat dresses,
snow-white lace caps, and long stream
ers down the tack, come mostly from
the north of France. The girls with
large black bows on their heads are
from Alsace, and the fantastically
dressed damseis with bright green
bodces, beads and short velvet skirts
generally hail from Brittany. They
are seldom pretty, though bright and
fresh looking.
Horse flesh is still eaten by the
Parisians, much as such a statement
may horrify my readers across the sea
At least a thousand horses are killed
here every year to supply this meat TO
the capital A bout thirty shops sell
nothing but horse mule and donkey's
flesh. Many of them have over their
doors, boucherie hippique, and do a
rushing trade amongst the working
population who have no foolish scru-
pl about eating portions of what is
certainly the cieanest of animals It
is no secret that the major part of the
''beef steaks" at the restaurants as
well as nine-tenths of the sausayes
come from defunct gee-gees The thin
fattened sausages from the north of
France are made from the meat of the
docile donkey,
While on this subject it may be worth
while to add that the animals killed an
nually in the Paris slaughter houses
include some $50. 900 oxen. so. 900 cows,
$50. 900 calves, :, 600, 00o sheep. ESQ 900
pigs and 5000 horses, and it is calcu-
lated that these yield over 400. 000, 600
pounds of butchers meat
There are many queer trades in
Paris. One of the oddes. is that OF
painter of turkeys legs" This artist
is known only to the poultry dealing
fraternity, and is highly useful mem
Der of the community. By his artistic
skill he enables the trader to palm off
a bird of patriarchal age, with a Ger
tain vague romance as 20 the date Of
its decsase, upon a misguided house
wife, or even upon an experienced
buyer, who has learned 20 judge a tur-
| key after the manner of cookery book
writer's Turkeys when freshly killed
have shiny black legs and claws, but
as the day OF their death becomes more
Or less matter of ancient historv.
their lower extremities assume a slaty.
dingy gray color. Old turkeys. too.
have long claws and horny looiSing
oealzs which the ingenious artist
pares and varnishes TIE artist goes
round 20 his customers three or four
times week. paints the feet OF the
birds with his solution (which was
sold as q '-sde secre. 10 the present
owner for e40l. carefully pares the
nails and besl1 and there yoG have a
surkey that viii fetch half as much
again Il is only during the desperate
struggle with the ancient teast that
ensues at dinner time that you realizs
how fraudulent are lis pretensions 20
Juvenility
Ant farmers" though enlr NUM- Ger
ing half dozen or 50 IN Paris are -
TO means 70 be ove-looked in our study
OF odd trades We tase one, for In
stance. who rejoices IN tAe name Of
Mile Blanche She fs Go: prerosse@s-
ing II appearance Her skin looks Ike
dried pippins, and : tanned Like e-ce-
oailc ns0e She has leather gaantlets
auc trousers q regular coat of arEno-
hrs not -xis az nd5av tbs. sss "a 1~s~.A