The Washington herald., 1913-10-19
HORSES AS FOOD.
How the FIesh IL Prepared I'm Paris
for the Table.

From the London Standard.
Commander vachon. of the Eclair. 10
an ardent advocate OF the horse meat
trade, both from q humanitarian and
hygienio platform. He win always
help In turning q horse into a sausage
or steak rather than see II pass its de-
clining days in suffering. and he con-
siders the flesh in many respects more
sanitary than ordinary butchers meat,
principally from the well-known inn
munity OF horses from tuberculosis.
There Is a great desl, doubtless, to
be said in favor of his theories, and
that he Is by no means singular In his
fancy is proved by hfppophagic statis-
tics. There are 500 horse butchers In
Paris, and in the last three years 1884,
900 horses have been sacrificed at the
vaugirard slaughter house. The meat
Is sold according to quality, at prices
ranging from Sd to I'd. q pound for
the primest. The intestines are used
for making glue, and the bones and
hoofs fetch about IS. the 100 pounds.
Figures are not given for the sausage
trade, and IL may be guessed that
considerable quantity of horse sausage
is sold under other names without be-
ing any worse.
The eating of horses is as old as the
world, and now that every precaution
no diseased meat ever comes into the
market. the horse. as 1t Is supplanted
by The motor in the streets, may In
turn oust the OF from the poor mans
table. The faculty declare that its
flesh is incomparably digestfbie and
free from many very obnoxious germs,
especially the Koch bacillus.
Commander vachon gives an instruc-
tive story, beginning with a letter in
ais hat "A
three horses no longer fit for work.
and that he wanted to be sure that
they were put out OF suffering pain
lessly and expeditiously. The beasts
were accordingly sent up by train in
a comfortable horse box from the south
TO Paris, with a special declaration
that they were intended for food, which
entitled the sender to special reduc-
ton in transport Notice having been
sent to the butchers and veterinaries,
the horses were met and examined at
once. with the following results:
No. /. a young and very fine animal.
but with disease OF the blood, so that
nobody would buy at any price. A tel
ephone message quickly brought down
the municipal slaughterers, who paid
1 pound and took the beast away. No.
2, q thick but sound horse. and No. 2,
an older but first-class animal, from
ing and deducting a hundred-weight or
SO for useless material, IL was caicu-
lated that the two together would give
about $40 kilogrammes, or about 1.1o0
pounds, good meat. which was bought
then and there for 1s-odd pounds. or
nearly $40 for the three. The sale.
however, was not complete until the
intestines had been examined by the
veterinaries. The two sound ones wore
then killed painlessly, mere tremor
marking the passage from life to death,
d the veterinary surgeons made
very thorough analysis before giving
the necessary certificate. The slightest
trace of infectious disease would have
entailed the confiscation of the carcass
from the market and its being sent
to the ordinary refuse slaughter house.
1t is curious that precisely during
the last three years, when all the
omnibus and a large amount of cab
and cart traffic has been transformed.
the number of horses slaughtered at
Vanguard has decreased from 5000 in
1910 to $4,000 last year. This is a
serious matter for the horse butchers,
who are beginning to complain of a
crisis In their trade, and IL 1t continues
the prices will soon have to be raised.