PUPPY-DOC DINNERS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue XII, 20 March 1897, Page 362

PUPPY-DOC DINNERS.

Chow dog, in the way of Chinese diet, is so great a delicacy that to leave it out of an official dinner in China would be as great a crime as leaving out white bait or asparagus in May on similar occasions in this country. At Canton rows of dogs, skinned, dressed, and ready for cooking, are hung up in lines on the stalls in the market-place. The poor chow, when thus

be contributes to the delicacies of the heathen Chinese table, must not have outgrown the tender stage of puppydom. When he is two months old, and his little carcass weighs two pounds, he is at bis best, and once he has managed to escape his doom till be is six months old, he has a chance of living to a patriarchal age, for after that time his * flavour * is not, from the epicurean point of view, what it ought to be. From the non-Celestial point of view the chow pup is far too amusing and handsome a little customer to be sacrificed on the same altar on which are laid shark fins, duck tongues and swallow nests. The baby chow in appearance is like a tiny bear cub. The lower 10,000 of China—or rather the lower 10,000,000—who cannot afford a dinner of chow, philosophically eat rats instead, deeming them a very passable and S alatable substitute for the coveted puppy ° g ‘ - NINETY-SIX RAT CATCHERS

1—Now pards when—

2—I open de trapdoor, turn loose de cat and dog!

5— S-s-h-h—! Mr-e-e-oow!!

3-S-s-h-h-! Me-e-e-oow!!

MISS MAHBL-Mtj I offer you little Tommy » air runt