One reason for this plenitude lay in the fact that France, to a very
great extent, is a self-contained, self-supporting land, which England
distinctly is not; and another reason undoubtedly was that the French,
being more frugal and careful than their British or their American
brethren ever have been, make culinary use of a great deal of
healthful provender which the English-speaking races throw away.
Merely by glancing at the hors d'oeuvres served at luncheon in a
medium-priced café in Paris one can get a good general idea of what
discriminating persons declined to eat at dinner the night before.

The Parisian garbage collector must work by the day and not by the
job. On a piecework contract he would starve to death. And a third
reason was that all through the country the peasants, by request of
the Government, were slaughtering their surplus beeves and sheep and
swine, so there might be more forage for the army horses and more
grain available for the flour rations of the soldiers.

In Paris the bread was indifferently poor. An individual was
restricted to one medium-sized roll of bread at a meal. Butter was not
by any means abundant, and of sugar there was none to be had at all
unless the traveller had bethought him to slip a supply into the
country with him. The bulk of the milk supply was requisitioned for
babies and invalids and disabled soldiers. Cakes or pastries in any
form were absolutely prohibited in the public eating places, and, I
think, in private homes as well. But of beef and mutton and veal and
fowls, and the various products of the humble but widely versatile
pig, there was no end, provided you had the inclination plus the
price.

And so, though the lack of sugar in one's food gave one an almost