Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1897-01-18
EATING HORSE NEAT.
A PRACTICE THAT IS GROWING AND IS
WELL SUPPORTED.

to lie Eet;er For Food Than Pork-The
Economic Side of the Question Present.
ed In a FcrcibIe Manner.
Paris and Vienna cheap restaurants
substitute horse meat for other kinds Of
butchers meat, as a matter Of course.
Hitherto even III Paris, where the ad-
vantages OF horses meat as regular
item on bills of fare have been known
ever since the siege of Paris, restaurants
hesitate 10 publish the fact that they are
serving it to their customers for fear of
the popular prejudice. Yet just as oleo-
margarine is infinitely better than aenu-
inc butter OF a poor quality, so ordinary
horse meat is better for health and fla.
vor than meat from cattle sold for the
Use Of the poorer classes.
The poorer people abroad learn to live
largely without meat. A driver ON q
London omnibus, who seemed to be q
man of intelligence and thrift, told the
writer that he could afford meat only
once or twice n week. The poorer classes
in Berlin and Vienna are forced by the
high prices to go without meat. In Paris
the custom of using horse meat has made
it possible for all the poorer classes who
have to do heavy labor to obtain a suffi-
Gent amount of nourishing animal food
Horses meat differs from BEEF in be-
ing slightly coarser in grain and having
slightly richer flavor. Its quality
naturally depends on the age of the
beast. As rule, even though it may be
tougher, the meat is far safer TO eat
than beef. While the herds of cattle
each year are producing among them
selves more tubeTculous infection, horses
have little chance to communicate tn
berculosis or any other disease TO one
another, because they are seldom kept
closely together. The diet of horses fits
them for food purposes even more than
COWS, and infinitely more than swine or
poultry.
The business of Strengthening horses
for their meat is undou btedly ON the in
crease i'll the United States because q
large market has opened in Europe for
horse meat, especially when it is canned.
The Germans are eating it, though IN
consciously, IN the form of sausage.
An unknown amount comes back to
probably forms q staple item of diet in
all public or private institutions where
feeding by contract is carried on That
this industry Will rapidly increase is
certain from the fact that horses are be-
coming cheaper and more abundant. The
farms cut west can better afford to feed
horses with their grain if they can sell
the horses for their meat.
The result will be that if horses come
largely into the market as q food prod
uct the younger horses will be killed off
before they are years old to save the
expense OF longer feeding them. This
will do away with the last real reason
against the use of horse meat-tnat only
old and feeble horses are used.
\ great gain will be made in prevent
ing the constant production of lame or
feeble horses by drivers. jus. as soon as
a horse becomes a little past his best
strength and speed the owners will sell
them off TO butchers, just rs ordinary
cows and oxen are sold. The horse for
driving and teaming will be then q
much finer animal through genuine
Survival of the fittest''
States and the increasing number of
men without employment are emphasiz-
ing the fact that every possible factor
must be utilized to make living cheaper
and better for the poorer classes. Meat
| fed labor cannot compete with labor fed
| on rice or macaroni. But meat fed labor
accomplishes better work.
Few people realize how rigidly the
| old Mosaic law, largely discarded even
among Jews, holds among the people at
large. On account Of distinctions made
by the laws Of Moses between animals
| clean and urclean many animals, on &C.
count of some peculiar arrangement of
their feet, have been denied TO the use
of mankind as food. The one excep-
ton is pork, which is perhaps the most
! unfit for food OF all meat on account OF
the filthy habits and feeding of most
swine.
Orientals decline to cat camel meat,
though this also is finding its way to
Paris in larger amounts every year.
Many kinds of wild animals and birds
are disliked from some similar preju-
dice. Carnivorous animals must al
| ways Dc ulSCdIueU DeCiuSS OF tnelr 1Onu-
ness for carrion. Horses, however, are
the Gaintiest eaters of the entire animal
kingdom.
There was q time when horses were
so closely associated with man in all
| work and progress that simple affection
for horse rendered the idea of butch.
ering him repugnant. But now the era
Of the horse has passed. The bicycle has
replaced the saddle horse, the motor
] wagon the buggy and stage. and the
lack of room in city life has made a
horse as a pet no longer practicable.
That horses will be exterminated if used
| for butchers meat is no more possible
than that cattle or sheep will be. And
the future breeds of horses in America,
fostered by tine continuous killing of OF
all but the strongest and most beautiful.
will be highly improved.-New York
Press.
Music For the Sick.