THE RAT MARKET IN PARIS.

Grey River Argus, Volume X, Issue 854, 22 April 1871, Page 3

THE RAT MARKET IN PARIS.

The horrors of the seige of Paris are happily over, but it is still interesting, if painful, to learn the manner in which the besieged population contrived to obtain a supply of animal food. A Paris journal tells how the rat trade was carried on. "There is special market for it, and plenty of customers, too. Should our enemies read these lines, they will perhaps rub their hands with satisfaction at the thought that we must be badly off for food, to venture on such little animals as rats. They are greatly mistaken. They have to learn that in Paris everything is a question of fashion, and they will be surprised when they are told that it is not poor people who eat rats, but rather the wealthiest, and the best off. One of the most fashionable restaurateurs has found out a way of making a very delicious dish with these gnawers, by dressing them in champagne wine with plenty of spice. So great is the demand that he is unable to supply it — in short, the very last "chic" is a dish of rats. The market place for the sale of these little beasties is in the square of the Hotel de Ville. Why it was so chosen is a mystery. The following is the plan adopted for delivering up tho merchandise to the buyer — "As the rate are kept in a large cage, you can choose one that you fancy : then with a small switch the seller contrives to Bhove him into another cage by himself, when a bulldog is brought in. The small cage is shaken, on which the rat rushes forth, and is instantly seized by the powerful fangs of the dog, who breaks his back, and lays him gently down at the feet of the buyer. The price of a rat is about 6d. If the Parisian can conquer his distaste, we have fresh meat for at least a fortnight on hand in rate ! There are more than twenty million rats in Paris. " Since rats have been offered for sale in the markets of Paris, they have become objects of keen sport to the vagrants about the barriers. Necessity has made these poor creatures industrious, and they nave- invented an ingenious way of catching those gnawers for the butchers. The Siecle tells us that they form cavities at regular distances which the fill with syrup of glucose. The rats, greedy after the sweet stuff, rush upon it and fall into the holes, out of which they cannot get, caught as they are by the thick gluey liquid which adheres to their bodies. Thus, they are easily caught, and when cleaned and relieved of their coating of syrup, they are conveyed to the market."

The Chinese have resolved on going in for ironclads. They have sent to England for an expert who thoroughly understands the building of such vessels, the lines of which will be laid down by Mr A. G. Lambert, the marine constructor to the Imperial Government. The Echo dn Nord reproduces from the Avenir dv Luxembourg the following statement from St. Petersburg :— " On Sunday last, the Emperor of Russia gave a grand banquet at the Winter Palace, at which the princes and princesses of the Imperial family, the foreign ambassador, and the grand officers of State were present. At the end of the banquet his Majesty was handed a telegram, and a few minutes afterwards rose and proposed the following toast : — ' I receive a telegram from my uncle, the King of Prussia, informing me that his armies have taken "Mont Avron^ from whence they can efficiently bombard the forts of Paris. I drink to Prussia and to the Emperor of Germany.' All the guests raised their glasses with the exception of the Cesarewitch, who broke his glass on the table, and, respectfully saluting the Emperor, left the banqueting chamber, and the following day was ordered to keep his apartment during eight days. All the Frenchmen of distinction residing in St. Petersburg called and inscribed their names at the residence of the Cesarewitch. Next to the approaching nuptials of the Princess Louise with the Marquis of Lome, says the Lancet, the announcement that Miss Garrett is about to assume the bonds of matrimony is the great theme of conversation in social circles. Miss Garrett, as all the world knows, has fought her way up to graduation in medicine through discouragements and obstacles which would have daunted many a strong man ; and her example is being followed by an adventurous band of seven ladies at Edinburgh, who have been wittily called the v Septem contra Edvrvum." But the step she is about to take puts the question of the medical education of her sex in a new aspect. Granted that women ' are capable of practising the profession as spinsters, can they continue to do so in the married state. It is this problem which Miss Garrett has now Bet herself to solve ; for although, in terms of the Education Act, she forfeits by marriage her position on the Sohool Board, she does not necessarily preclude herself from continuing to practise medicine. If she succeeds in combining the two functions of mistress of a household aud medical practitioner, she will have performed a feat unprecedented in professional history, and added another notable incident to this annus mirabilis. On the 17th January a policeman was fired at and wounded in three places, but not seriously, near Mullinger. — The St. KMucan Mail reports that a policeman was seriously wounded on the 16th January. A revolver was found near the spot. — On the" 'lsth January, a farmer and his wife, returning from mass near King's County, . were fired at and wounded. — A shocking murder has been perpetrated in the County Westmeath. Thomas Waters, who for some years had filled the station of process-server, left Mullingar for his home at Portnashangan, three miles distant, and was found dead, and nearly cold, with a gunshot wound in his breast, about ten o'clock the Bame night, by a constabulary patrol, at a spot about a mile from Mullingar. Three men belonging to Mullingar have been arrested on suspicion. The victim had been for some time in dread of an attack, and the constabulary were frequently in the habit of escorting him in his journeys. —A very serious stabbing, case has occurred at Ballihone, near Waterford. It appears that some three years since two men, named respectively Thomas Doyle and James Kirwin, were rivals for a farm in that district. The agent, however, gave the farm to Kirwin. Since then Doyle has frequently taunted him, and resolved to have revenge. They met, and a quarrel having ensued between them, a man aamed M'Grath interfered for the purpose of separating them, but,

while doing so, Doyle, in trying to plunge a large pocket knife he carried into Kirwin, unfortunately stabbed M'Grath on the shoulder with it. Some other parties present separated them. M'Grath is still considered to be in danger. Doyle is reported to have since disappeared.