to make him refuse to take a
lesson from the latter? I think not. I fancy it will depend much on the
manner in which the lesson is conveyed. A little less board-school work
and Sunday-school teaching, fewer Bible classes, and a good many
practical cooking-classes would probably meet the case.

The French, though aware of their incontestable superiority in the way
of preparing food, did not disdain to take a lesson from the alien. They
clearly foresaw the fate in store for the cattle penned in the squares
and public gardens, if compelled to remain there under existing
conditions, and with the inclement season close at hand; consequently,
the authorities enlisted the services of Mr. Wilson, an Irish gentleman
who had been residing in Paris for a number of years, and whose
experience in the salted-provision trade seemed to them very likely to
yield most satisfactory results. Up till then, only thirty head of
cattle had been submitted to his process, from that moment the number is
considerably increased, and it becomes apparent that, in a short while,
there will be few live oxen, sheep, or pigs left in Paris, though, as
yet we are only in the beginning of October. Under Mr. Wilson's able
management, half a hundred Irishmen are at work for many, many hours a
day at the slaughter-house in La Villete, whither flock the Parisians,
at any rate the privileged ones, to watch the preliminaries to the
regime of salt-junk which is staring them in the face. The fodder thus
economized will go to the horses, although there is a whisper in the air
that one eminent savant has recommended their immediate slaughter and
salting also. Of course, such as are wanted for military purposes will
be exempted from this holocaust on the altar of patriotism. M. Gagne,
who has already provided the Parisians with amusement for years, in his
capacity as a perpetual candidate for parliamentary honours, does not
stop at hippophagy; he seriously proposes anthropophagy. "A human being
over sixty is neither useful nor ornamental," he exclaimed at a public
meeting; "and to prove that I mean what I say, I am willing to give
myself as food to my sublime and suffering townsmen." Poor fellow! as
mad as a March hare, but a man of education and with an infinite fund of
sympathy for humanity. He was but moderately provided for at the best of
times; his income was derived from some property in the provinces, and,
as a matter of course, the investment of Paris stopped