debetur pueris, among the commoner sorts of confectionery may be seen this year models of the female leg, the whole," - but here Mr. Buchanan goes into details which we prefer to leave in his own pages. There is, he allows, nothing to be said against legs in themselves, and in their proper sphere; but he protests against their being "obtruded into every concern of life," and he objects especially to legs in sugar. It is only in "the higher circles" that Mr. Buchanan escapes from this distressing exhibition; but still bis uneasy modesty finds no relief; for, although he sees no legs in the drawing-room, he is confronted with other sights which make him long to borrow Tartuffe's handkerchief. We are not prepared to defend all the eccentricities of what ladies call full dress, and it is impossible to deny that an unpleasant taint of sensualism is observable in various branches of literature and art; but we certainly pity the state of mind of any one whose modesty is outraged every time he goes to an evening party, and who is put to the blush by the voluptuous images of children's sweet-stuff. We are surprised that Mr. Buchanan does not see that in making these confessions he exposes himself to an obvious retort from Mr. Rossetti and his friends. To the pure in spirit all things are pure; but Mr. Buchanan's purity is of that uncomfortable kind which is constantly detecting unclean and lascivious suggestions in the most unlikely quarters.

Mr. Buchanan intimates that he at one time thought of treating the leg-disease in its relation to painting, music, literature, the theatre, and society at large; but he reserves this great work for a future occasion. For the present he is content to deal with sensualism only in so far as it affects contemporary poetry. On reflection, Mr. Buchanan may perhaps be disposed to postpone indefinitely the publication of his magnum opus. If we may judge from the present example, it may be doubted whether his mode of treatment is not on the whole rather worse than the disease to which it is applied. We have heard of a well-known prelate delivering a sermon on the weaknesses of the flesh for the edification of a militia regiment, which, from its suggestive warmth of tone, produced an effect the very reverse of that intended. We are afraid Mr. Buchanan has fallen into a similar error. He has no difficulty in showing that there is a great deal of wanton nastiness in Mr. Swinburne's early poems, and that Mr. Rossetti's writings also contained passages of a highly offensive kind. It has been suggested that Mr. Swinburne has been overwhelmed with moral reprobation on account of his free-love heresies, while Mr. Rossetti conciliates conventional propriety by confining himself to nuptial confidences, and practising his erotic pranks under a certificate from Doctors' Commons. For our own part, we think the old-fashioned notions are the best, and that there are some subjects which poets and artists had better let alone; or which, at least, they are justfied in touching only when they have a distinct and important moral purpose in view, and not mere dalliance and sport. Honest plain-speaking is an excellent thing in its and possibly way, the world might be better for a little more of it; but honest plainness of speech is not the characteristic of the Fleshly School, any more than simple straightforwardness of thought. It is their sickly self-consciousness, their emasculated delight in brooding over and toying with matters which healthy, manly men put out of their thoughts, not by an effort, but unconsciously, by a natural and wholesome instinct; it is, in short, their utter unmanliness which is at once so disgusting, and, so far as they exercise any influence, so mischievous. And, on the whole, we are not sure that Mr. Rossetti's poetry is not more mischievous in its way than Mr. Swinburne's. In the latter there is, at times, a fitful breeziness from out of doors; while with Mr. Rossetti the shutters seem to be always closed, the blinds down, there are candles for sunshine, and the atmosphere is of a close, heavy kind, that reminds one alternately of the sick-room and the conservatory; so that one longs, even in the midst of genuine admiration for much artistic subtlety, to fling open a window, and let in some honest daylight and some good, fresh air. At the same time, while there is, as we think, much that is unhealthy in the author of the "Blessed Damozel," as well as in the author of "Dolores" and "Anactorea," the most

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objectionable of their writings necessarily appear far worse, when carefully extracted and served up by themselves, as in Mr. Buchanan's pamphlet, than in their original form. A reader who was not sharply on the lookout for such things, might pass over not a few of them in a book without detecting the evil meanings which Mr. Buchanan has exerted himself to make quite plain; while other passages, of which probably no one could mistake the purport, look even more repulsive when detached from the context. some of the expurgated editions of the classics, the naughty passages used to be collected into supplements, where any one with a taste that way could find them at once without the trouble of searching for them; and Mr. Buchanan's brochure is a handy catalogue of a similar kind. We certainly cannot recommend it for general perusal. Even Baudelaire, we should imagine, must be less harmful in the original than when his foulness is condensed, pointed, italicized, and generally elucidated by Mr. Buchanan's prurient ingenuity. There is much autobiographical matter in the pamphlet which can hardly be said to have any present value. Some day, perhaps, it may be interesting to the world to know that Mr. Buchanan relishes Walt Whitman, that he "beguiles many an hour, when snug at anchor in some lovely Highland loch," with Paul de Kock, and that generally he is well up in salacious literature, and not at all a purist. To some there may seem to be an inconsistency in any one who enjoys Walt Whitman being shocked by Mr. Rossetti, and put to the blush by the latest fashion in lollipops whenever he enters a confectioner's shop. There is, unhappily, a spreading taint of sensualism, which may be traced in various directions at the present moment; but it may be seriously doubted whether such productions as this pamphlet are not calculated rather to minister to than to check it.

PATE DE FOIE GRAS.

UTILE pulchrum-utile nobile. No doubt the truth of this twofold apothegm may be held matter of dispute. Indeed, we have often heard the late Dr. Knox, of anatomical (Burke and Hare) notoriety, declare, in his famous lecture on the dark races, that the useful was certainly not the beautiful. As for the inverse of the proposition, we are afraid it must be conceded that the beautiful is but rarely also the useful; while the experience of a long array of facts proves that nobility of itself confers no usefulness. But taking the saying pro tanto, if extensive and varied usefulness can be said to confer the attributes of beauty and nobleness, there certainly exists no fairer bird, no nobler member of the feathered tribe, than the goose.

If a list of the best benefactors of man were to be conscientiously compiled, we are sure the goose would occupy a high place on that list. There is barely a part of the bird but serves some purpose useful to man. Since ages immemorial the goose has fed him with its nutritious, savory flesh, and softly and warmly bedded him on its down. The fat is not only the best substitute for butter, but also an excellent preventive against soreness from chafing; a most practical application for tender feet; an approved cure for chapped hands. The elegant swans' skins which the city of Poitiers, more especially, sends forth into the fashionable world, what are they but the tanned skins of geese? And last, though certainly not least in this most cursory and incomplete enumeration of the partes utiles of the goose, is there not that special part of it which—ere, in this iron age of ours, the late Mr. Gillott's steel invention had supplanted it- Lord Byron could so justly and felicitously apostrophize as

"My gray goose-quill:
Slave of my thoughts, obedient to my will;
Torn from thy parent bird to form the pen,
That mighty instrument of little men!"

We must confess to a mad superstition on this point. We believe there is some substantial foundation in fact for the excuse of the man who imputed his indifferent spelling to the bad pen he was writing with. The great writers of

old wrote with goose-quills. The present age, alas! writes with steel pens. Victor Hugo wrote "Notre Dame" with a goose-quill; the trashy rhapsodies with which he is now in the unhappy habit of afflicting the world are written with steel. Some of his latest effusions could not possibly have been written with a goose-quill.

The goose is a representative mythological and historic bird. It may, indeed, be taken as a delicate compliment to the fair sex that Jupiter elected to court Leda, its fairest representative, in the shape of a swan. But for the unmelodious cackling of the watchful Capitoline geese, it is very doubtful indeed whether Rome would ever have grown into her imperial purple and papal scarlet. The goose is the own special bird, also, of the archangel Michael and the holy bishop Martin, on whose festivals it forms the indispensable standing dish on the table of the pious in most parts of Europe. In British lands it runs a pretty equal race with roast beef for the chief place on the table on Christmas-day. It is also somehow intimately connected with the history of the reformation in Germany. John Huss of Hussinec wore the goose displayed in his family arms. In allusion to this he was called the Bohemian goose, whilst his more successful successor, Luther, received the name of the Saxon swan. They have roasted the Bohemian goose, but they'll have to keep their hands off the Saxon swan!" was a common saying among the Protestants in Luther's time.

The breeding and fattening of this most useful bird, has, from times immemorial, formed an important rural and suburban industry in most parts of Europe, more especially in France, Holland, and Germany. In the latter two countries, the chief object of the fattening process is the production of solid, nutritious flesh and wholesome fat. But in certain parts of France, more especially in Toulouse, and most of all in Strasburg, the object is to produce morbid enlargement and fatty degeneration of the liver of the bird.

Toulouse enjoys the great advantage of a very fine and superior race of geese, which, properly fed, will attain to twice the weight of the common species. This race is of broad and massive build, short-legged, and, as a general rule, gray in plumage. A wide membranaceous bag or sack stretches from under the craw down to the belly, which thus actually trails on the ground. Large accumulations of fat find room within the folds of this bag. As the fattening progresses, the bird grows more and more unwieldy, until, at last, it loses all power of moving about.

This species of the genus goose is bred more especially in the departments of the Garonne, Haute-Garonne, Tarn, Gers, and Ariège, where every farmer breeds larger or smaller flocks of it, from twenty upwards. Some farmers content themselves with getting a large number of goose eggs hatched by hens, to sell the young broods, eight or ten days old, to people who make it their especial business to prepare the birds for fattening, by sending them to feed in the clover and stubble fields, till they are fit for the final cramming process. Others work the affair as a rural industry on a large scale, devoting to it extensive fields, turned into artificial meadows for the specific purpose of goose pasture.

In the summer season, the geese are fattened in these departments chiefly for the fresh-meat market; in late autumn, for salting.

The Alsatian goose is very inferior in size and weight to the Tolosan bird. Whilst the latter may be fattened up to sixteen and twenty pounds weight, the Alsatian goose rarely attains to above fourteen pounds, at the highest. There are, indeed, some larger kinds imported into Alsatia, such as the gray Dutch goose, for instance; but their flesh is not held in great esteem, it would appear; whilst they have a knack, too, we have been told, of taking a deal of cramming without yielding a remunerative enlargement of the liver in return. So they may do pretty well for the fresh and salt-meat market; but not for the great Strasburg pâté de foie gras or goose-liver-pasty industry.

There are three places in France where the famous goose-liver-pasty tureens are produced, to wit, Toulouse,

Nérac, and Strasburg. The Nérac tureen, however, is made of the liver of the musk-duck.

Strasburg claims the honor of the first invention of this delicate dish. A certain Mathieu, cook of Cardinal Rohan, prince-bishop of Strasburg, passed for a long time for the original inventor of the fat goose-liver pasty. The honor of the invention is actually due, however, to the famous Marshal de Saxe's cook, Close. When the marshal, who had been the king's lieutenant in Alsace for several years, left Strasburg, Close, declining to enter the service of his successor, Marshal de Stainville, established himself as a pastry-cook in Strasburg. He married Mathieu's widow, and started the goose-liver tureen business in a small shop in the Meisengasse, where the business is said to have been conducted till the present day.

The fattening of geese for the tureen is now carried on in Strasburg very extensively. It is chiefly in the hands of women. It is almost entirely confined to the winter season. The fatteners or crammers" buy their birds late in autumn, either lean or half-fattened. Young, well-formed geese are selected in preference. Some crammers, however, will also take older birds. In some establishments the geese are fed first, for several weeks, with broad beans, and only during the last eight or ten days with maize; but most of the Strasburg geese-crammers prefer feeding their birds with maize from the beginning.

The unhappy birds are confined in narrow cages, with just sufficient room for a movement forward or backward to the extent of a few inches, but altogether precluding the possibility of turning round. The cage has a narrow opening in front, through which the bird can put its head to drink, a vessel of water being placed before it. Most crammers put a lump of charcoal into the water to insure its purity; others do not deem this precaution necessary, and rely simply upon frequently changing the water. Great attention is paid to the cleanness of the cage. Most crammers keep the birds in cellars and dark places only, caged up as close as possible during their three or four weeks' martyrdom; but some follow a more humane method, allowing their birds at least the enjoyment of the light of day, and a little freedom of motion. We have been assured, and we have certainly had occasion also to judge for ourselves, that these trifling indulgences granted to the poor birds do not act so adversely upon the development of the liver as is usually urged in explanation and excuse of the more cruel system.

In the actual cramming process, the maize is soaked in warm water with a little salt in it; or it is parboiled in water seasoned with a little salt.

The cramming is performed twice or three times a day; the greater or less frequency of feeding depends upon the more or less rapid digestion of the bird.

The poor goose is dragged forth for the purpose from its narrow cage by the feeder, who places it firmly between her knees, opens the beak with one hand, and crams the softened maize down the gullet with the other. Expert crammers simply push the food down with the finger. The less skilful hands generally use a funnel for the purpose, with a smooth wood or ivory stick to expedite the descent of the food. Some give their birds, instead of maize, or alternately with it, balls made of potato flour and barley meal.

When the bird has had enough, in the judgment of the feeder, it is thrust back into its living tomb, and left to digest, in helpless immobility, its forced gorging, till its turn comes round again for another repetition of the same unnatural act in the same sad drama of suffering.

It usually takes from a fortnight to three or four weeks to cram a goose up to the proper "sticking" or throat-cutting point.

In the last stage of the process, the unhappy goose may be said literally to sweat fat through all pores of its body; its cellular tissue, its intestines, its blood, nay, even its evacuations, are absolutely loaded with fat. As regards the latter item, we were witness, quite accidentally, to a certain process of melting which, as we afterwards learned, is known to be very common with Strasburg goose cram

An un

all

These birds had been fed three weeks, on an average twice a day, entirely with parboiled maize; the total quaitity of Indian corn consumed in the process averaging some twenty quarts per bird.

The livers are neatly wrapped in a wet muslin or fine linen cloth, to be taken to the pastry-cook, who pays for them according to size and quality. In January last, the prices ranged rather low, livers under one pound weight fetching no more than three shillings per pound. Above one pound up to one pound and a half they were paid at the rate of 3s. 6d. to 3s. 9d. per pound; above one pound and a half up to two pounds, 4s. per pound; above two pounds, 5s., and even 6s. per pound. A few months before large livers had actually fetched 7s. 6d., to 8s. per pound. The pastry-cook seasons and spices the raw liver, after which he places it in the tureen along with truffles and other ingredients. The dearest tureens generally contain only one large liver, while the less expensive contain two or several smaller livers. We were shown a tureen in the Meisengasse, with an exceptionally large fine liver in it, which we were told weighed three pounds one ounce; for this article the lucky proprietor got the small sum of 21. 10s. The article went to Gen. Fransecky, commander of the military district of Alsace-Lorraine. So the pastryman, who ostentatiously professed strong philo-French predilections, might, in addition to the handsome price netted by him, rejoice also in the patriotic hope of giving the hated German general a dyspetic fit. When the contents of the tureen have been duly baked, a layer of fresh hog's lard is poured over the mass, to keep it from contact with the air.

It is calculated that the amount of money which the Strasburg pastry-cooks net annually by the sale of gooseliver-tureens reaches very nearly one hundred thousand pounds sterling.

It is, however, a wicked and cruel industry at the best, even with the infusion of the largest practicable portion of humanity, in the treatment of these unhappy victims of the luxuriousness of man. Besides that, the product of

27

the process, though no doubt most delicious to the palate of a gourmet, cannot possibly be wholesome. For our part, we must confess that we prefer the excellent Brunswick liver sausage to it, which, whilst very little less grateful to the palate, is certainly a much sounder article of food; and has, at least, this great advantage in its favor, that it is not the product of an artificially created disease, entailing cruel suffering upon an unhappy race of most useful birds.

FOREIGN NOTES.

A NEW street in Paris has been named Rue Alexandre Dumas.

LONDON publishers are quarrelling furiously over one of Mark Twain's books. Mark Twain's writings are usually provocative of good humor.

MR. ULLMAN, the well-known impressario, is in London. His concert-business during the past twelve months has netted the sum of thirty-five thousand dollars.

M. HENRI ROCHEFORT has addressed a letter of adieu to M. Victor Hugo. They mingle their tears, and Victor is about to write some poetry on it.

Now that Dr. Livingstone is said to be found, could not some arrangement be made to keep him from getting lost again?

VICTORIEN SARDOU is at present at work upon a tragedy, whose leading character is Robespierre. Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette appear in it. It is considered doubtful if the police will allow it to be performed in Paris. THE Burmese Embassy, now visiting England, brought some splendid presents for Queen Victoria, amongst them a gold necklace of beautiful workmanship, weighing several pounds.

THE ex-emperor of the French, on the recommendation of his medical advisers, proposes to pass the month of July at Krankenheil, in Bavaria, should the Bavarian Government not raise any objection.

SCHUBERT'S statue was inaugurated in Vienna on the 15th ult., with a performance of his works, including two movements of his unfinished symphony, the adagio of the Quintet in C.

THE Paris journals state that Mlle. Nilsson will be married next month in London, to M. Auguste Rouzeaud, a nephew of Admiral Bosso, but that the prima donna will continue her lyric career.

there is a general turning down of thumbs. This will probably serve as a companion to the painter's "Ave, Cæsar!

A DEALER in old books in London occasions a good deal of amusement to those who inspect his stock by the curious labels which he attaches to different works. What, for instance, would Dr. Johnson say to the following?: "Lundun, and how to see hit; and another labelled "Leives of they Poayts-price 'arf a crown."

CLERICAL humor is not always of the best. We cull a few samples from a foreign exchange : One of the bishops recently quoted, in the midst of a grave debate on Quincunque vult, the advice of some friend of his, that over the Synod hall should be inscribed, "Mangling done here." A witty southern rector of strong anti-revision tendencies recommended that the debate on the revision report should be preceded by the prayer to be used by persons "at sea." Lastly, a prelate, on being told that the Synod would "sit for twenty-one days,” replied that such was the exact period of incubation of a not over-brilliant member of the ornithological family.

THERE was considerable fun at a representation [of "Romeo and Juliet " in a little French theatre. Madame Deharme, the Juliet of the occasion, was lying dead on a tomb. It was raining torrents; a drop came through the roof, and fell on Juliet's nose: she made a face. Another drop fell on her eyelids: she winked. It was a facial expression not taught by Delsarte. Finally, she took to watching the drops, and dodging them. The audience caught the idea, and sympathized with her. "Look out, Mrs. Juliet," said one fellow; "there's a whopper a-comin', -I see it!". "Mind your eye!" said another. "Madame," said a third, rising," will you accept the use of my umbrella?" Of course the tragedy ended.

THE Paris Revue et Gazette Musicale supplies the following list of salaries to be paid to singers and dancers: "Madame Patti, at St. Petersburg, will receive £1,600 per month; Mlle. Nilsson, £1,400; Madame Volpini, £900; Signor Graziana, £800; Mlle. Fioretti, the danseuse, wife of M. Verger, the baritone, will receive, at the Milan Scala, for a short season, £1,000; Madame Pauline Lucca, at the New York Academy of Music, next winter, £1,400 per month and a benefit. Who will say, after this return, that there has been a question of reducing these enormous terms?" The Athenæum says, "We can add to the figures given by our Parisian contemporary by stating that Mlle. Nilsson, for twelve nights, at Drury Lane Theatre, will receive £2,400, or £200 per night; and that Madame Adelina Patti is paid at Covent Garden £120 every time she sings. Can there be any surprise that opera-houses get into Chancery, or into the Basinghall Street Court, when such outrageous and ruinous sums are paid to prime donne?"

THERE is a retrospective piece of history connected with Marshal Bazaine which is not without interest. It will be remembered that during the French occupation of Mexico the Marshal married Mademoiselle de la Péna, niece of the famous Pedrassa, formerly President of the Mexican Republic. As a wedding present, the Emperor Maximilian placed in the bridal basket of the young wife a deed which gave her possession of a magnificent palace, a really princely residence, used at one time for the French Embassy. Maximilian told Bazaine that when he left Mexico the house should be taken off his hands at the valuation of seven hundred thousand francs. On leaving, the Marshal was informed by the Council of Ministers in Mexico that he would find this sum at the Customs Office of Vera Cruz, where the Emperor had ordered it to be paid; but Bazaine, it is said, refused to accept it. As for the house, it served later on to pay the traitor who delivered up the Emperor Maximilian to his assassins. On the day after the surprise of Queretaro, Lopez, who betrayed Maximilian to Pepe Renion for Juarez, received the Marshal's house as the reward of his treachery. It has been ever since called by the Mexicans the "house of blood." (Casa de Sangre.)

THE BOOKWORM.
"Munera pulveris."

WE flung the close-kept casement wide;
The myriad atom-play

Streamed, with the mid-day's glancing tide,
Across him as he lay;

Only the unused summer gust
Moved the thin hair of Dryasdust.
The notes he writ were barely dry;
The entering breeze's breath
Fluttered the fruitless casuistry,

Checked at the leaf where Death,
The final commentator, thrust
His cold"Here endeth Dryasdust."
O fool and blind! The leaf that grew,
The opening bud, the trees,
The face of men, he nowise knew;
Or careless turned from these
To delve in folios' rust and must,
The tomb he lived in, dry as dust.
He left, for mute Salmasius,

The lore a child may teach;
For saws of dead Libanius,

The sound of uttered speech; No voice had pierced the sheep-skin crust That bound the heart of Dryasdust.

And so, with none to close his eyes,

And none to mourn him dead,
He in his dumb book-Babel lies,

With gray dust garmented.
Let be pass on. It is but just-
These were thy gods, O Dryasdust.

Dig we his grave where no birds greet,
He loved no song of birds;
Lay we his bones where no men meet,
He loved no spoken words;
For him no "storied urn" or "bust:"
Write his Hic jacet in the dust.

JEAN INGELOW.

AUSTIN DOBSON.

A GLINT, a glimmer, a gleam;
The gold of the furze, and the bloom of the heather;
The breeze, and the bird, and the stream,
That sing, and that sing together.

The murmur of drowsy bees
In the purple fox-glove bells;
A breath of the clover leas,
A waft from the birchen dells;
A flash on the cottage pane

From the sun in its westward burning;
A sound of steps in the lane,
And of voices, home returning.
The warmth of a downy nest,
With the cushat's coo above it;
Earth at its fairest, best,

With its God to bless and to love it.

DORA GREENWELL.

"THE BEST" is a term always applied to Burnett's Preparations. They deserve the title.

TO SUMMER TOURISTS. Now that the summer season for travel has fairly set in, persons should not fail to secure a General Accident-Policy in the TRAVELERS INSURANCE Co. of Hartford, Conn.

MESSRS. PRANG & Co.'s colored pocket-map of Boston, adver tised on another page, is an excellent pendant to Messrs. James R. Osgood & Co.'s hand-book of "BOSTON ILLUSTRATED."

WHITE'S SPECIALTY FOR DYSPEPSIA cures the disease, while other medicines only relieve it.

THE effect most desirable from use of a sauce, is that it makes the article in which or upon which it is eaten] taste well. The HALFORD LEICESTERSHIRE TABLE SAUCE is the very best of

relishes.

WHITE'S SPECIALTY FOR DYSPEPSIA will effect a cure if tried faithfully.