FOOD OF THE PEOPLE.

Otago Witness, Issue 904, 27 March 1869, Page 7

FOOD OF THE PEOPLE.

( Macmillan! s Magazine.)

It is notthe "working classes" alone that need commissariat reforms ; the feeding of the whole tribe of middle-class tradespeople and small professionals is deplorable. Before any improvement can be effected, it is necessary to let people know what better things have been found possible elsewhere, and it may be doubted whether the Society of Arts was ever more usefully employed than when, last year, it sent 83 intelligent artisans to visit the Exhibition at Paris, and to report what they heard and saw in that capital. The volume containing their reports is out of print, the edition of 1500 copies having been sold almost as soon as it was published. It was republished in French by the desire of the Emperor, and is a curious and interesting book. In these reports the artisan is no*, painted by others en rose or en noir—he speaks for himself, is seen as he really is, and the picture is reassuring. The extracts from his Parisian experiences

which are now to be given, relate to food, and draw attention in & striking manner to the superiority of the arrangements for the commissariat of the working classes in Paris in comparison with those of London.

Mr Hooper, a London cabinetmaker, says, speaking of dining halls, " I visited several in Paris, only to be astonished, and to admire the manner in which they were conducted. Mons. Duval, the proprietor, has a number of elegant cafes, called ' Etablissementa de Bouillon/ fittings like a palace, light, cheerful, and airy. I did not detect any worse smell than that of fruit and flowers. Neat, mo-dest-looking young women waited on you, presenting you with a clean napkin, nicely folded ; then came first bouillon or vermicelli potage, next veau or mouton or bieuf rotis, with po)nme de terre or legumes, and a dpmi-bouttiille de yin ordinaire or a yin le carafou. In plain. English, you could have soup, bread, roast veal, mutton, or beef, and vegetables, with a tumbler or half a bottle of ordinary wine. You could dine in state, and fancy yourself a lord, for one shilling. M. Duval's butcher's shop, near the Madeleine — for he kills his own meat, and it is of the best beef, mutton, and veal, not horseflesh — is fitted up in the most artistic manner that only a Frenchman can devise."

Mr Randall, china painter, says : " We did not see one single case of drunkenness, or one Frenchman quarrelling with another, and we heard the same remark made by a dozen others at least. We believe that the working men of Paris and their wives dress more plainly, live less expensively, yet enjoy life more than working men in England ; and we attribute much of this to the superior education they receive."

Mr Kay says of the French joiner : " Usually he partakes of coffee and bread and butter in the early morning, from five a.m. to six a.m. ; from nine to ten he takes breakfast. His breakfast may be bouillon, beef steak, vegetables, une demi-bou-telle de yin et pain ; in all 1 franc. Dinner : Bouillon, veal and tomato sauce, mashed potatoes, oseille, boiled cream, half-pint of wiae ; i fr. 20 c. In most places they serve the customer with table napkins, for which they charge 10c. (Id) ; but many a French joiner dines for 70c. (about 7d.~) 1 observed beautiful potatoes cooked at 15c. (HA) the kilo (1.c., rather leas than |d the pound), in one of the streets. Many a French workman dines there on a basin of soup ; whether made of frogs or not, it is really good, far superior to the mess of stuff used in London as soup in the workmen's diving halls ; with vegetables, bread, and about a half-pint of wine, and this is found to support the frame well."

Mr Sinclair says of the tailors in Paris: — " They are far more temperate than in London ; they go to their food from about eleven o'clock to twelve in the morning, eat comfortably (quite the reverse of a London shop), partake of plenty of food, with their Dint of wine and a good taste of fruit, finishiug with a cup of coffee and a cigar ; he has two such meals a day. The west- end of London taiicr's dinner generally consists of a halfpound of steak, often hard and badly cooked, a halfpenny- worth of bread, two potatoes for a penny, a pennyworth of greens, a thimbleful, and a dirty pint of porter. He has scarcely time to eat this in the workshop, and in most cases this is the only meal a London tailor gets for the day, with meat."

Mr Stanton, gardener, says :—": — " In walking through the markeb, it is noticeable what an enormous quantity of vegetables are growa for salads ; lettuce and endive particularly. Chicory and dandelions are also much grown. Good salads may always be had at all, even the commonest, restaurants in Paris. Kidney or haricot-beans are very extensively cultivated. They are eaten in a green state, pods and all, as we have them in England ; and also are shelled and eaten like green peas, or preserved for winter use. Globe artichokes are very common , they are used both in a green state and cooked. Cardoons .ire also largely grown. Celery is well cultivated ; mostly in t eds five or six feet wide. It grows to a large size, but is not particularly well blanched. Cauliflower was remarkably fine, as were all other vegetables of the cabbage tribe. Sorrel appears to be grown as extensively as spinach is in England. Lentils were also in ereat abundance. Tomatoes were magnificent, and far superior in size and colour to English grown. The fruit of the egg-plant (aubergines) were peculiar, and common in the markets. Leeks are grown in enormous crops.

Mr Whiteing, in his special report, says — " The lower class of labourers live much in the same way as our own ; they commonly carry some cold provisions from home with them in the morning, or buy a large piece of bread, and make a dinner of that and a piece of chees«, an onion, or a little fruit, and a glass of wine. In the evening, when work ia. done, they take

their share in the pot au feu, generally a little savoury stew, prepared by the wife against their return. The better class of workmen take their meals at the restaurant, their wives with them, or, more commonly, send out and buy cooked provisions at; the restaurant, and eat them at home. This would at first appear a somewhat extravagant way of living, but it must be considered that the principle of co-operation is as sound in its application to the cooking of dinners as to everything else ; and such is the enormous price of fuel in Paris (very indifferent coals are 60s a ton, and wood is dearer still) that it is found much more economical to take a dinner from an eating-house keeper, who makes one fire serve for the cooking of many meals, than to kindle a fire simply for the cooking of one meal at home. Enough has been said elsewhere on the very superior system to our own on which the French eating-houses are conducted, to make any lengthened remarks on this subject necessary here. Ib is not that a given quantity of tood costs very much less in Paris than in London ; but one can have a much greater variety of well-cooked dishes for the money ; and the list of things to eat is so nicely adjusted to the length of each pocket, that a man may dine for eightpence, or for six times that sum, in the same establishment, and in ea,ch case get what deserves to be called a dinner. It is this that constitutes the chief excellence of tr c restaurants. Taken one with another, there is a wonderfully graduated scale of prices in them, unknown here, where there are only two or three classes of public eatinghouses ; and if you are too poor for the one, you are very probably too dam y for the o her. There is the ' Trois Freres,' for example, where your bill has almost always to be settled with bauk notes ; and there is the 'Californie,' where, eat as much as you like, and as long as you like, you will find great difficulty in spending more than sixpence. ' Californie' is one of the monstyr restaurants for the very poor, for the labourers, street-sweepers, rag-pickers, &c , situated right out- by the Barriere dv Maine, in a remote corner of Paris ; and its dimensions strikingly illustrate the French faculty for organisation. The proprietor, living in the midst of a very poor population, had the sonse to perceive that, if all the little restaurants which supplied their wants were thrown into one, that on^ could effect a considerable saving in i ! ie purchase of fuel, provisions, &c, anu could thus afford to sell food, cooked, at a very slight advance on wholesale prices, and at hardly any advance at all on the retail cost. He tried the experiment, and it succeeded beyond his expectations. In the course of a few years the whole neighbourhood supplied itself from 'La Californie,' and now as many as 900 persons can dhid there at one time. Au ox, two barrels of wine, bread, vegetables, &c, in proportion, are consumed every day. It i 3 chiefly owing to 'La Californie' that many of the poor of the neighbourhood have abandoned their practice of dining at home, and now take a cheaper meal out of doors. In tha evening, when all the long tables, both in the halls and in the garden, are filled, the siyht is most picturesque. Every man waits upon himsttlf, and on entering walks up to a large semi-circular counter, obtains his plate of meat and vegetables (and there are half a dozen different kinds of each), a half litre of wine, and a piece of bread, for about eleven sous, 5d in all. He then has a knife and fork given him, and himself carries his dinner to tale. After dinner many take a cup of coffee, which can be had for two or three sous. No'withstanding the extraordinary moderation of his charges, the proprietor can afford to be generous to the poor ; every morning before seven o'clock- a great quantity of victuals is given away."

To those who are best acquainted v/ith Paris, it will te evident that these portraits which the artisans have drawn, showing the superiority of the French public commissariat to that of England, though they are painted in novel and striking colours, are not overcharged ; and the inferiority of the English arrangements ought to excite, not only feelings of shame, but a determination to do whatever may be necessary to place England at least on an equality with her neighbour in respect of the feeding of the people.

The ground at Mountain Camp Oreek, near Havelock, to which a rush to< k place lately, is thus described by the Marl orough Press :— The new lead is distant about two miles from Deep Creek, on the Pelorua side. The creek is described as long and narrow, confined to a g >rqe, with a bed of rock, and but little washdirt ; but it is cvnsi>lered doubtful yet whether the lead is r>mu. tho bed of the creek or the adjoining terraces. If it is confined to the crenk iv will employ only a few, and soon - c worked out ; but if it extends to the terraces, win :h above the bank are extensive, it will maintain a considerable population.