The Opelousas courier., 1903-08-22
HORSE MEAT IN EUROPE.
Cities Which Eat Thousands Of AMI
mails Every Day.

EIfSi -Ne - VII
mails Every Day.
Not only in Berlin, but in almost
all the great cities of Europe horse
meat is eaten by the lower classes
There are great slaughter houses in
Paris which kill thousands of horses
every year. In Vienna more than Is,
900 horses and a number of donkeys
annually are killed, and Berlin eats
horse meat by the thousand pounds
every day, Such horses are inspected
both before and after killing, and
every piece of meat must be stamped
as healthful by the inspectors.
Have you ever seen a piece of horse
flesh? 1t is redder than beef and
looks for all the world like venison
and tastes not unlike it. There are 200
butcher shops in Paris which sell
nothing else.
One of the shops which I visited in
the poorer quarters Of Berlin had
steaks, roasts and soup bones nicely
dressed and ready for sale. The
meat was black where it had been ex-
posed to the air, but red when fresh
cut.
Upon the walls hung horses sides
half cut up, and on hooks from the
ceiling hung horses hams, smoked
and dried. On one wall were long
strings of little sausages, black as
ink, speckled with bits of white fat.
Each string weighed a pound, and the
bare-armed butcher behind the counter
told me that it was made of ground
horse flesh, and sold for IL cents a
pound. He said good loin roast cost
8 cents and the best steak 10 and u
cents. He showed me a pile Of Ham
burger horse steak at a lower price,
and also some yellow horse fat, which
he says the poorer classes use as
cooking butter. He says that horse
fat is as good as goose grease to cure
a cold, and that horse oil is excellent
for rheumatism.
This mans family was at dinner
when l called, and upon my asking if
he ate horse meat himself he took me
12No LILO o4lAh6 2OOAA, "ACAC Il WIG
and children were devouring plates
of soup made from horse bones. The
children looked healthy and he told
me that their bodies were largely
made of horse flesh.
He asked me to sample a bit of the
meat, and l did so. 1t tasted like
tough deer, with a light gamy fa1 :.
I don't like it, but that may be owing
to prejudice, OF it may be that the bite
I took was from an ordinary old street
a plug, tougher than ordinary.
l have visited several of the horse
slaughter houses. The first one was
like a big barnyard surrounded by low
stables and fenced in at one side with
long buildings of red brick. At the
right of the gate stood a group Of
butchers, their shirt sleeves rolled up
above their elbows and their bare,
brawny arms covered with blood.
Each butcher had a leather apron,
well %spattered, and looked altogether
rather repulsive than otherwise. I
had a permit to see the establishment,
and in addition gave a small fee to
n of these men, SO that everything
was thrown open to me.
The first room we entered contain
ed the horses that had been killed
that morning. There were several
score of them hung like beeves from
the rafters, with their heads down
ward. A splendid bay horse which
had just been killed was being dress
ed on the floor, a white horse was
being skinned, and an inspector was
going over the various cuts of those
hung from the rafters and stamping
them.
Leaving this room | was taken to
another where they were killing. AS
I watched them a magnificent black
carriage horse was brought in, worth,
l vas told, 100 marks, $25. It was
not more than six years old, and a
month or SO ago his value was per-
haps $500. He had slipped on the
smooth streets a few days before and
had so injured himself that he would
be lame for life.-Frank Carpenter,
in Washington Star.