ceeded scientifically to confound the
fallacy in their own peculiar way.

The half and half regulation had been in operation some days--a few
eating all they got--others only half of it--more again touching no meat
at all lest they should (horrible thought!) mistake one half for the
other. This state of things did not satisfy the Authorities, and they
proceeded to push the horse--practically down our throats. The feelings
of the civilised citizens of the Diamond City can be better imagined
than described when they read in the daily _bulletin_ at the Washington
Market that they would get--not _all_ horse indeed, but, in the words of
the song, "it was near it." It was decreed that our ration should
henceforth consist of four-fifths horse-flesh and one-fifth meat proper.
This reduced our allowance of solid (familiar) food to less than one
ounce, or in other words to the dimensions of a small cake of tobacco
_minus_ several pipefuls! It may well be doubted whether Gilbert has
ever conceived anything so quaint. I will not dwell on its whimsical
side, nor on the feelings its realism stirred in the breasts of the
suffering multitude. In effect it caused a serious secession from the
ranks of the party who had abstained altogether from horseflesh. For
when it came to a choice between no meat at all on the one side, and
Boer bread and porridge _exclusively_ on the other, it occurred to the
seceders that even horse blood is thicker than water; so they passed
under the yoke of hippophagy with perfect composure. Still the party
that suffered this defection lost neither _prestige_ nor numerical
strength, for the four-fifths' standard made vegetarians of many who had
tolerated--while it lasted--the principle of equal rights, or two ounces
of each animal. A transposition of parties occurred. But none abstained
from opening the floodgates of their wrath on the authors of the latest
_menu_. The authors' apologists, for--tell it not in Gath!--they had
apologists still, argued that there were restaurants in Paris where
cooked horse was a speciality. But special pleading so palpable only
aggravated the prevailing resentment to the dish. There were a great
many customs in Paris equally foreign to our, shall I say, Imperial
ways; together with a plethora of scientific _chefs_ who could
metamorphose anything--rats as well as horses. There were
revolutionaries in France in sufficient numbers to make traffic in
gruesome dietary pay; and plenty o