Griggs courier., 1893-10-06

| USE FOR cANvAs-eAcKs.
In France the Refuse Half Il Squeezed
Through Press.
''Waste not, want not" says the
proverb. Alas! as we Americans do
much wasting we must want much.
There is the canvas-back duck, for
example-the most delicious gustatory
morsel which tho new world has 10.
vealed to the jaded palates of the old.
When we come to it we waste almost .
half. And it was not the worst half.
1t is, in some respects, the best Tho
wings and the legs are indeed in them
selves comparatively favorless. But
just where they join to the body re-
side the sweetest juices. And the
body itself, after the breast has been
carved off and only portion of the
real succulence has been captured-the
body itself is thrown away.
In Paris, in Monte Carlo and else
where in Europe they have changed all
this. They have q press, a rather
clumsy, unwieldy engine built and
operated on much the same principle
as a cider press, which they bring to
your table. Within is inserted the
dainty refuse with all its potential
wealth of juices. That potential wealth
is turned into actual affluence by re-
volving the wheel-like handle, just
such handle as the one on your letter
copying press. The duck is converted
into a mass of pulp and the juices
stream through perforated receptacle
on to your plate.
Fate can not harm you; you have
dined to-day. Inquiries made at all
our leading restaurants reveal the fact
that the press is in use at none of these
places save only the Hoffman house.
There it is declared to be a success.
Why is It not used elsewhere? The
steward thinks this is due to a con-
servative disregard for even useful in
novation. Philippe. the head waiter
at Delmonico's cafe, has another ex-
planation. The French press. he says,
is clumsy, unwieldy instrument. It
has been tried at Delmonico's and else.
where and found wanting. He himsel.
once set his brains to work to devise q
more convenient substitute. He had
actually devised one. The plan waa
simple enough. Imagine large pair
of pincers, yet mono too large to bs
worked by hand.
The jaws are each fashioned into five
claws which dovetail into each other
(nuch as your fingers do when you
clasp them) when the handles arc
closed together. A lever attachment
quadruples the power of the handles.
The refuse portion of the duck is placed
between the claws. You grasp the
handles, one in each hand, and slowly
bring them together. Then the cruel
claws squeeze the ducks remains into
pulp and the juices run out. The pro-
cess, you will see, is simpler and easier
than that of the French, and the in
strument is a handler one.
Philippe actually went SO far as to
consult patent lawyer on the sub
ject. But the charges for obtaining a
patent were larger than he cared to
meet without some promised patronage
from the leading restaurants. He
failed to make the proprietors see the
advantage of his process, and though
he still believes in it he has reluctant
ly abandoned the project for the time
being.
1t is worthy of mention that Phil
lippe was the ingenious gentleman
who first devised the stands now al
ways provided for ginger and soda
bottles. Formerly the practice was to
bring them in in ordinary tumblers.
But the tumblers were continually
broken. The breakaga entailed u
large and continuous annual loss in
places which sold much of these gase-
GUS fluids. Then Philippe hit upon
the idea of = metal stand such as is
in universal use to-day. He never
thought of patching his invention.
And the fortune which he might have
made visits him to-day as a remorseful
iridescent dream. Is there another
fortune lying latent in his canvas-back
NJ