News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1897-05-26
1.-THE FRIED BAT"
A Restaurant Of the Future and the Bat
Hunter Who Wishes to Start 1t.

A Restaurant Of the Future and the Bat
Hunter Who Wishes to Start 1t.
One of the queerest characters in Paris
Is Matterhorn, the toad hunter and bat
catcher. His favorite hunting ground is
the great Arcueuil aqueduct, 40 kilometers
long This is a regular place of refuge for
bats, which hang by thousands on the roof
of the long tunnel, digging their sharp
claws into its rough outings and looking
for all the world in the shadows like fes-
toons of cobwebs. There they are, in col
Dnies of 40 or 80, cold and still, waiting
for Matterhorn to come along with his
lantern and iron box and catch them be-
tween his ready thumb and forefnger.
The bats make slight resistance, being
drowsy with sleep and in night Matter
horn often captures 100 of them or more.
He sells the bats to people who eat them,
some from necessity, some from choice,
for those who have tried it avow that the
flesh of the bat is delicious. 1t is red and
somewhat fat, and fried and served with
chopped parsley, it is said to equal the
finest venison in flavor.
"Why should not one eat batsP" ex-
claimed Matterhorn. "The little animal is
scrupulously clean, and feeds on nothing
but insects, which is more than can be
said of many animals that are eaten with
a relish. l tell you the bat is much Ca
Illuminated creature, although the number
of people who realize that is limited
"Then l suppose you sell your bats
mostly to those who are very poor"
eyes, mostly. Although there are gour-
NETS who have got beyond popular preju-
dice and pay me a good price per dozen"
"But you don't live entirely by catching
bats, do your"
"Oh, no. I catch all kinds of animals
that other people do not want. You'd he
surprised to know how many kinds of ami
mails there are to catch right here in Paris.
Why, the city is full of rabbits, for in
stance"
"What-wild rabbits?"
"Why, certainly. They burrow all over
the cemeteries. Only last year two poach-
ers were caught in the Pere la Chaise Gem
etery, where they were working with
guns, if you please, there was SO much
game. They should have stuck to snares
and the keepers would never have got
them. In some of the cemeteries there are
| so many rabbit holes that the city author
tiles have had to take measures to get rid
of the little animals. We'd save them that
trouble if they'd give us free hand. Some
people don't like the idea of eating ceme-
terry rabbits, but pshaw-what's the differ
ence when they're made into a savory
| stew? Besides who knows what a rabbit
eats anyway?
ON tell you another thing you Will
| wonder at. I've shot ducks in Paris
wild ducks-On winter nights, just as the
day was breaking. When pinch of bitter
weather comes on, they're driven up the
Seine as far as the city, but are frightened
away by the people in the daytime. And
| gulls come up the river, too, flocks of
them, but it's queer they never go farther
| than the bridge at the Place de la Con-
corde, and l have always thought it was
because they were afraid of the owls in
the ruins of the Cour DIES Complies There
are plenty of owls there all through the
| year, and starlings and falcons, and also
out near the abattoiTs. And there are owls
in some of the old, uninhabited hotels in
the Faubourg ST. German. There is one
that l have tried to catch many time
| that is sole tenant of an abandoned estate,
! 90 Rue de Verneuil. That owl has been
there for years, and it's cries haunt the
neighborhood, so that children are terri
fed and old women make signs of the cross
as they hear them"
After this Matterhorn went CD to talk
about the green lizards which abound in
| Paris and the glowwOrms to be found at
| MOntSOuris park and the Buttes- Chau-
mont, and he told how he hunts toads for
| scientific men and occasionally hunts rats
for SPORT but he does not think much of
rat hunting. Taking it all in all, the bat
is his favOrite quarry, and he said the
| writer must come with him out to the
| aqueduct some night after the first frost
and watch him fill his box.
Perhaps we'll come across white
bat, - he said 81 haven found one in
four or five years, but they re there. Gun
ming fellows they are-the white bats. At
the first glimmer of light they start up,
and f-rr-t-they are gone. There is some
thing uncanny about white bat"
MatterhOrn remarked that he hoped to
be able to start restaurant in a few years
which he proposed to call 1.-The Fried Bat. "
| New York sun.