The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-01-11
LUXURY AND CRUELTY.
Pate De Foie Gras and the Human
 itnrian ,paple

itarsam League.
 Pate de foie gras is, of course, pro
 duct of nineteenth century luxurious
 ness, says the London Daily News, for
 the Roman emperors, with their pea
 cocks brains and larks' tongues nevel
 dreamed of the delicacy which now
 forms the staple industry of Strasburs, Its present popularity is due almost
 entirely to the rage for it which sprane up in Parisian society during the | second empire. The aristOcracy of | France having launched the article into favor, the British gourmand, never slow
 to follow in the steps of Paris, speedily
 adopted the idea, and from that time
 to the present demand has steadily | increased in every country. Some idea
 of the extent of the trade may be gath
 cred from the fact that twenty years 1 ago the value of the fiat liver pies"
 sent out from Strasburg amounted to | one hundred thousand pounds yearly, | While at the present moment it is esti- l mated to reach one hundred and fifty thousand pounds.
 It seems 1t first sight incredible that
 an article of limited consumption should represent such large figure, yet such is the fact. St. Martins day
 may be said to mark the commence
 ment of the pate season proper, for, al-
 though the StraSburg dealers in deli
 catessenwaren" always keep stock
 on hand labeled this seasons goods,'
 with which to supply the requirements
 of tourists, all pate obtained before
 November may be assumed to be of in-
 F1,-inn | the peasants and small farmers of AL sace and Lorraine begin the feeding of geese for the great Strasburg market. Nearly every cottage represents a goose liver factory, some villages being famed for the superiority of their pro- duce. Thus, Wangenau possesses such reputation that it's geese command a higher price than birds fed in neigh boring places. As for the process of fattening, it is not to be disputed that the Humanitarian League has some justified tion for its attitude. Indeed. a visit to a room where the birds are be- ing fed during the three months re- quired to bring them to the needful con- dition of corpulency is calculated to ex- cite degree of repulsion which would be shared even by the lovers of pate de foie gras. Each bird is con- fined within a box, with such limited | accommodations that while the goose is l able to move it's head no other form of | exercise is possible. Under these cir all that is necessary to set | ip liver complaint is to feed the birds frequently and upon heavy diet, 1 which is done by forcing down their sullets stiff mixture of maize meal 'piced with condiment, A week or two l If this generous feeding is quite suffi- 'ient to originate disease; the liver steadily distends until the unfortunate 'ird becomes little more than a mass of iver and fat. When, in fact, the goose las become sufficiently diseased it is eady for market; and the more ad- 'anced the disorder the more valuable he bird. In estimating the value of q oose liver however, regard is had to | lore considerations than weight and ize. Some flyers are dark brown, | 'hile in some cases they assume a Teen hue, and as these latter are most ighly esteemed by epicures, fine liver z ill fetch as much as twenty-five shil- {, ngs Inferior kinds however, are | f 'orth only from three shillings six ( ence to four shillings sixpence per ( Ound. On Wednesday mornings the Y 1ops of the dealers are crowded by t lrmers of the country districts laden 6 ith small baskets containing one or c vo goose livers. One of the curious { ghts of Strasburg during the winter t onths is the arrival of the vendors of yer at the railway station, each with il ar--for they are mostly farmers wives D
 the shrewd Alsatian type--load of ( w material for the dinner tables of t. e upper ten thousand" throughout a e world. f. Besides the actual preparation of the W ,te-which is a secret carefully guard
 by the leading firms-the manufac- c re of the cases in which it is sert out II r sale represents a considerable in- sl lstroy. The tastefuness and variety n the designs upon the outside of these 1 q ses are marvellous Most of them W ar the unmistakable cachet of Pari- IT m origin: for pate de foie gras being i' article restricted by it's cost to the | a st tables, it is held that (presumably p on the principle Who drives fat u' en should himself be fat) that for Je oh dainty nothing less than a costly VI, sket will suffice. Accordingly, Stras- pi rg firms vie with each other in the III tistic attractiveness of the jars in III lich their wares are sent out Proba- the alarm of the dealers is a little n nni emature. Consumers of pate de foie a' as, who have not been deterred from u ting it by the knowledge that it is " ", } product of disease, will not. it may VI VI
 supposed, permit humanitarian - - to come between their .e lot aind bo.i1, l11>r "