Year: 1873

MIR. Henry VVattersOn's Opinion.


But I wander away from nv text


which was the living " in Paris. Le


US return to our mutton, for it is. will


beef, about the best we shall get. The
two staples form the basis of every


thing. By the aid of truf1es, mush
rooms and olives they are tortured into
a thousand forms, and, to this extent
one has no right to complain. He can
not complain of good beef. He cannot
complain of good mutton. He is an
ass if he complains of truf1es, mush,
rooms and olives. But, in the long run,
a man grows tired of cen these Iuxu-
ries, and begins to "hoan - after some
thing plain and simple, after something


IaE 7latOCreL, such as a bit of stewed ter
rapin, or a crisp soft-sheIl crab, or a
canvas-back duck, or a pompanO, or a
plump, fresh partridge, or a young,
contraband prairie hen, or even a
brojled chicken. He can get none of
these in Paris. Their game is nearly
always foul. If you get it pure and
sweet it is by chance. In cities of such
magnitude as this the keeping of game is
a sort of necessity. This being the fact
the Paris caterers long ago got out the
notion that game is better the longer it
is kept-a rank and poisonous lie.


I am indebted to John Churchill for
the practical and conclusive lesson that
| the sooner a bird or a fish is cooked af-
ter it is taken, the better it is at table,
and I believe this applies to every
| species of delicate animal food. Nor is
this all. Game is priced for its game
| flavor, and whenever it is smOthered by
| extraneous appliances it is spoiled. A
partridge, fat and tender, is as good as
a mushroom. Truffles do not improve
woodcocks. The birds can afford to go
it on their own hook without any as
sistance whatever. So with such fish as
the pompano, the mountain trout, the
jack salmon and the shad They are
able to stand alone. Over here they
don't stand at all. Their best shell-fish
are the crawish and the snail, for the





not to be counted in the list. They
know nothing of the soft-she1 crab, of
the terrapin, or of the oyster as a cook
able Wand. Their turbot will not com
pare with our halibut, nor their sole
with our shad The English white-bait
is simply minnow, and only a trife
better than the smelt. In soups, which
is thing of condiments, they do excel
us. AS a general rule their service is
neater than ours. But you can give,
on few hours notice, better dinner
at the ST. Nicholas in Cincinnati, or at
Rulers in Louisville, wines included,
that you can give in Paris at the cafe
Anglais, or in London at the BurIing-
ton. The American prices will range
somewhat higher, certainly. But we
pay high duties on wine, and it is there
that figures will chiefly tell in the bill
Not very much difference will be found
as to the dishes.


A word or two about these prices and
may as well bring this roundabout
essay to a close. To be sure there is
considerable art in ordering a dinner,
involving both a knowledge of the
French language and a knowledge of
the particular restaurant where you are
dining. The American who under
stands neither may expect to pay thirty
per cent. more than other people, who
do. Ignorance of every sort, and all over
the world, has to be paid for. But at
the best, he who expects to dine like a
swell must also expect to settle like a
swell. I have heard of a good, a first
class, cheap dinner in Paris. At the
Diner de Paris, where they charge you
six francs, a dollar and half in green
backs, the food is all messed and the
wine is sour. There is no thoroughly
good table dhOte at a fixed price in
Paris. When you order q la carte you
will have to take the consequences, and
three or four dollars head viii secure
square, well-served meal, not gorgeous
or elaborate, and that is all. It is
sheer nonsense to talk about cheapness
in Paris. If one is to live like a dog
i
like nabob he must fetch plenty of
money with him, and spend it freely.
There is not the least doubt of this,
and the old, contrary idea, founded on
by-gone prices, ought to be dissipated.
1t is a sheer illusion. Tt is gone


Like tenants that quit without warning,


Down the back entry Of time.



A NEW manner of catching rats is ex-
citing great interest among the return
ing house-holders. A barrel is filed
half full of water. a layer of powdered
cork is laid on its surface, and over this
a layer of corn meal is sifted. A chair
and box or two are placed unobtru-
sively in the neighborhood, whereby the
rat gains the edge Of the barrel He
sees nothing but the meal. He has no
innate ideas which teach him to beware
of the treacherous foundation on which
hat tempting surface rests. He shifts.
he leaps, and goes gently down through