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Show AMERICANS LIKE FROGS. They Now Eat Twice as Many as the French. (New York Tribune.) "The eating of frogs' legs is consid-e.ed consid-e.ed a la Francaise," said an uptown restaurateur, the other day, to one of his guests, "but as a matter of fact, more frogs at the present time are killed for the table in this country than in France. I have no means of estimating esti-mating how great the business of killing kill-ing frogs for the market has grown in mis country, duc i am warrantea wnen I say that twice as many are served for the American palate every day as on the tables of the French. "In France the frogs are raised for the most part in what have been termed froggeries. Here they grow in our creeks and ponds, and are caught by the hook or speared. By the way, did you ever undertake to catch a frog?" "Never did," answered the guest. "It is great sport," replied the proprietor pro-prietor of the cafe. "You. think that you havet got a whale on the end of your line." A fly or a piece of an old rag will do for bait, and for that matter, mat-ter, the bullfrog will grab at anything red with more avidity than an animate object. He is like his namesake in his inclinations toward this particular color. But when you have him on the hook don't let him drop into the water again, or the chances are that he will get a foothold, and it will be impossible impossi-ble to extricate him. I have often hauled in a bullfrog, which had in his mouth the broken ends of old hooks and other similar reminders of past attempts on his life. "Much of the old-time aversion to the bullfrog has been overcome by a better knowledge of the little animal. Indeed, he is not half as bad as he has been made out to be. It has been said that he lives on flies and insects. The same thing can be said of chickens and all kinds of birds. I am sure his habits are not as indiscriminate and unconventional as that of the hog, and the Americans have become famous for the raising and eating of pork." "I have often admired how a frog could jump," said the guest, who afterward after-ward proved to be a city official connected con-nected with ' the park department. "Even now, in my middle age, I like to startle a frog who thinks that he has found a secluded spot in the shade, and make him jump. Why, I've seen a little lit-tle fellow who didn't weigh more than half a pound jump eight or more feet. If we men could only have such powers in proportion to our weight a man could stand on the sidewalk in front of window of the Park Row building." . "At that rate," piped in a florid-looking man, who happened to be standing near, and had been heard to say that he was a Wall street operator, "there must be frogs in our July corn. No, I don't hit me. I've been hit already." |