Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-11-18

arated from the feathers plucked from
dead birds the mixture sells as high as
&175 per pound, though In themselves
dead feathers are quoted very much low
er than Tive feathers" The pure unmixed
down sells anywhere between bet S Is Uas a,sa
for swans down. IL Is used Tor tie
swans down and eiderdown quilts, WITHOUT
which no middle class Paris family con-
siders itself equipped.
Feather beds have gone out in Paris and
the great towns, but well-to-do French
peasants still prefer to sleep on feathers.
while goose feathers are always an mpor-
tant trade staple for the making or pm
lows.
Importance of the Goose.
An even more important product of the
| goose is had from the birds the farmer
does not sell alive at the goose market. The
farmer kills the goose, sells its down and
feathers for quilts and pillows. sells its
liver for pate de foie gras, sells its breast
for smoking-and then pots down the legs
wings and flesh cut from the carcass as
"confit of goose, the most usual meat food
of the south of France
Pressed into an earthenware pot the CON
| fit d'oie' Is half cooked; then hot melted
goose grease is poured over the whole. fill
ing the empty spaces Theoretically and
sealing the top with a thick layer of pure
white grease-exactly like terrfne of fote
gras. All through the year the peasants
turn to the 'eonfit" pots when other meat
| Is lacking. While In the kitchen goose
grease takes the place of butter.
Up till It's eighteenth month the Toulouse
goose leads it's free and sociable outdoor
| life, junketing through the fields for food
| barnyard on returning in the evening with
the pigs and sheep. Farmers who go In
| for INA gnificent pieces" products Of in
tensfve fattening. even let the goose roam
/ 4; haS ched
Now, as there are regularly six females
for each male, and as they begin laying
eggs at six months, the egg product is
seen to be considerable, while the live
feathers" account runs up TO something re-
| spectacle.
The work of fattening is taken in hand
| in the first cool days Of autumn, and it
continues during December and January.
The first part. called putting on hesh.
| is simple and even luxurious. 1t consists
in coping the goose and giving II an . .ne
Indian corn that 1t Will eat, having nrst
care to soak the corn in water. The coop
is of decent size, permitting several geese
to bear each other company, ana IL Is Wen
lighted. Nothing, therefore warns the
IuekIess bird of the tremendous change
that threatens 1t.
The change comes. Suddenly. one morn
ing, the astonished biped finds itsef taken
up and eooped in a cage so narrow That
II cannot move; while its floor is so thiekiy
strewn with straw that it sinks into 1t up
to the breast. Also IL is quite dark-aio
.sWbere is the rest of the push?" asks
the astonished bird. IT cannot even near
In Complete Seclusion.
Nohodv answers The seclusion is COM
| plete and wflful; because experience SHOWS
that when even the faintest cackilngs ana
bfssings from the baruyarn reach the tat
tening gooses ears, it's spirit Is trouoieo
and its digestion Is disturbed ia.
to- N
AN, 7 TO have nothing to eat! at hrsl
injuries the goose. oh, yes; Oh yes III one
sense YES and In another, no. You are ny
going to eat in the Eu.sa 5, wa for snreI
ing. but YOU are going to digest Tor SUR.
| The farmer comes and takes the goose
between his knees. He forces It's peak open sii
with a funnel Then he pours IN Aahu oae,.
Of Indian corn. With short round sun I.N
he rams it doWn-exacus AAe ZIG
of gun. ,r, +.rn,er
There is no use in resisting. me lariasi
has a good grip; and he proceeds TO mas s.ss
sage the load of corn from the oesophasu 70
dnwn down the long neck to the crop
Then he pours another HANDFUL INTO .le
| funnel rams the load home and again pro-
ceeds with the massage. And so on A .a,i
go on When he quits the bird Is so Wen
stuffed that it's crop Is distended and lts
long neck full of corn up to the very oeaA'
LOADS, the Bird Thrice Daily.
Two or three times day. the farmer loads
1t is admitted that Toulouse goose can
thus digest considerably over quart OF
corn per day during five weeks. and there
are commonly geese that actually do digest
their fifty quarts In the thirty-five days.
This corn Is not soaked. but to facilitate
fits digestion a little water Is given to the
goose at times Often salt or corn meal
| Is added to it. Some farmers give soup,
others milk, and some add even tribe OF
ammonia. Sulphfde of anttmony also raw
ors fattening; but being dangerous, 1t is
used only by the greatest experts There
Ia also .stuffing machine now used by
many up-to-date peasants who have given
UP using Indian corn In kernels. In prin-
ciple it is very like a sausage stuffer, and
the sausage-ike rolls OF soft matter which
IL forces into the birds oesophagus are
composed of mixture of corn meal. barley
meal wheat and buckwheat -four, bran and
mashed potatoes.
The bird does not move during all this
| period. Every child knows when the fat
tening Is perfect. AS I have already indi-
Gated, 1t is when the tail spreads out like
fan, the tail feathers being no longer
able to touch each other by pressure OF
fat Then II Is time to kill the goose for
its liver.
When these intensfveIy fattened geese are
sold alive at the Toulouse goose marker
they bring from So to $3.50 apiece as they
stand. alive; while "phenomenons" OF rat
tenfng that weigh up to their thirty-nve
pounds sell as high as So and 81 apiece.
LiveYs Grow to Enormous Size.
Their livers sometimes grow to an enor-
nous size. Prize-winning hvers. hot from
the goose. have weighed nearly five POUNDS.
Liyers Weighing from to A pounds are
not at all rare in the Toulouse market.
Thier average weight is. perhaps. some-
thing under three pounds.
Certainly It Is enlargement of the liver.
I had little dog once who died OF It.
would die OF IL
were he or she not killed at the right mo-
u,ent AZ 1t b, the liver b. a4armed to b
hsaikhy ard sweet, and certainly It u q
1uscieus product
Tha world famed pottins establishments
Of Toulouse and Nerae pay the peasants or
the goose market SPECTATOR from 30 centa
TO e. cents par pound for these .fDies- sras'e
fat uversl, according % their volume and
THAR whfteneGs. One or tho great chefs or
Pari2 who y down heEe Ioottng over The
markst-it II WAtrin. enes the vaDdarbiit