Year: 1866

A correspondent of the Pail Mall Gazette
says: 1t is popular delusion in England
| that there is no such thing as good beef in


France but the truth is that one has to
! go to Paris to learn the true delicacy of
the biftek and filet" One has only to
pay visit to the great shop near the Mad
! cline to understand the absurdity of the
| assertion that it is because the French are
| destitute of good meat that they are forced
to compensate for the deficiency by ingeni-
Gus cooking and scientific sauces. The
shop | speak of is one that for size, for ex-
ternal and internal decorations, for the dis
play Of handsome joints on thousand of
feet of white marble slabs, amidst bou-
quets Of beautiful flowers, and for its serv-
ing mel, all dressed in spotless white, puts
your English Bannisters and Skaters to
shame. So large is the business done at
this establishment that regular customers
are required to have their orders ready
over night for execution on the following
moring Standing yesterday before this
shop and admiring the huge sides Of beef
encircled with geraniums and fuschias, its
joints of veal fringed with moss roses, its
legs Of mutton tied up with colored rib
bons, its cotelletes" reposing in beds of
pinks, and its calves heads looking out
from a mass of Towering heaths, | be-
thought me it was on this very day that a
boucherie" for the exclusive sale Of an
other kind of "viande was to be opened
at the opposite extremity Of Paris, on the
Boulevard de PItalie. Unfortunately, al


though prime beef and mutton are to be
had in Paris, they are very dear, and the
inc in bo.
duced almost to the vanishing point the
workman's allowance of flesh food for him
self and family And therefore was estab-
lished the shop for the sale Of horse-tesh
which l visited yesterday.


The new shop, with "Bouchrie de la
Viande de Cheval in big letters over the
doorway, could be detected at a glance, for
surrounding it was crowd of some fifty
or sixty people, the majority being women,
and all being more or less engaged in dis
cussing the merits of the new viande"
On either side of the shop door hung two
large launches of horse, looking anything
but inviting, and wanting that positive
tone Of color which good joint of beef al
ways presents. On marble slabs in front
of the shop, with no flowers, however, to
set them off, some scraggy-looking ribs and
purply red steaks were displayed. Inside
were portions of the buttock, &c, some
Shln-bones. and heap of odds and ends
for the trade had been brisk, and more than
an entire enimal had been already disposed
of. The master butcher was very atten-
tive to his customers, the majority Of whom
were of the poorest class. 1t was anus
ing to see the way they we're beset on leav-
ing the shop-how their purchases were
overhauled and minutely examined, then
turned over and over, squeezed, shifted at,
balanced in the hand, and then thrown
back into the basket again by scores of
people, many Of whom had come with their
own baskets, with an intention of buying,
but could not quite make up their minds.
One exceedingly brown old lady, with a
very snowy cotton handkerchief tied round
her head, encouraged the hesitating ones,
and showed them her own purchase. why
in England" said she, all the people eat
it. What is their 'rosbif,' of which we
hear so much Horse flesh, to be sure"
\ tastidious dame in a purple jacket vowed
that the very idea of the thing made her
ill. This brought forward the mistress of
the establishment, buxom Jolly dame, who
declared she had Just made hearty meal
of it, and found it uncommonly good On
my arrival | certainly observed madame
and two ar three others taking their mid
day meal at the back of the shop, but it
was Omelette, and not horse, that | saw
them eating.


The customers, as | have already remark
ed, were chiefly women, and of the poorer
class still, among those who went in for
steaks were several well-dressed men above


the rank of artisans also, couple of old
soldiers of the First Empire, with a cluster
of war medals hanging to their blue bous-
es, garc0n or two from some of the neigh


boring cheap restaurants, who came in for


their bifteks" by the dozen, and what


pleased the crowd immensely, butchers


boy from an adjacent legitimate establish


ment, the master of which was anxious to


taste the new "viande and Judge for him


self The price, so far as l could gather,


ranged from about sd. per demi-kilo (up-