The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-19 00:00:00

THE I OOIt 2/14-Pa MEAT.

In an article on the proposed establishment of a Metro
politan Foreign Cattle Market, the Daily News furnishes
tome particulars of the animal food consumed' by the
poorer classes of the metropolis. The quantity of butcher's
meat consumed by the humbler classes of London is,
according to our contemporary, considerably greater than
is usually supposed. It must not, however, be hastily
assumed that this meat is eaten in the shape of beef,
pork, or mutton ; on the contrary, large numbers el
the poor have been flesh-eaters for years, without
once enjoying, unless at raro intervals, the luxury of
a bit of beef or mutton. The meat used by them is
procured wholly from what is technically termed
the " offal " of slaughtered animals, and which forme
a most important feature of the metropolitan
dead - meat trade, its sale generally constituting
the principal source from whence the profits of the whole-
sale butcher are derived. The offal consists of the head,
tail, kidneys, heart, tongue, liver, skirt, and similar per-
dons of the animal ; the feet generally going with the
skin or hide. The estimated value of the offal per animal
is about 50s. for a bullock, and from 10s. to 13s. for a
sheep. The offal, when fresh, generally forms in poor
neighbourhoods the most saleable portion of the animal.
In Whitechapel a pair of milts can be purchased
for a penny. As the two milts together weigh
nearly a pound, this forms the cheapest kind of
animal food within the reach of the poor, and as
such is eagerly sought after. The oxtails are generally
disposed of, at prices varying from ls. 4d. to 25., to hotel
and dining-roorn proprietors, as are many of the kidneys,
which *bring about Is. 4d. Sheep kidneys are sold with
the portions of the animal to which they are attached.
The tripes of bullocks are purchased wholesale by the
tripe-dressers, who, after properly preparing them, either
retail the same themselves or else dispose of them
among the tripe-shops in Clare-market and other
poor neighbourhoods. The same class of dealers
also purchase from the bide and sheepskin tradesmen
the feet of sheep and oxen, which, after being duly
cleansed and dressed, are retailed under the desig-
nation of " trotters" and " cowheels," the latter
being much in favour among the poor for making stew
and soup. The feet of swine, similarly prepared, are sold
principally by hawkers, who find their trade most brisk
towards evening in the various public-houses—a pint of
beer and a pig's foot or trotter often constituting the
evening meal of many of the poorer class of labourers.
The price of a sheep's foot or pig's foot thus dressed ranges
from a halfpenny to three halfpence, one penny being
the medium charge. A considerable portion of the
livers and skirts are purchased wholesale by retail dealers
in low neighbourhoods. The general price of these
is Is. Bd. In Whitechapel some of the Petticoat-lane
Jews are good customers, the liver being retailed by them
in the same manner as fish, namely, in a cooked state
direct from the frying-pan, the purchasers generally being
the poorest of the poor, who seldom have the means of
procuring a fire. The hearts of oxen and sheep, in the
majority of instances, constitute the Sunday dinner of
the purchasers, who are generally working people.
Stuffed with a pennyworth of herbs, and baked with a
few potatoes, they afford a cheap substitute for the rib
of beef or shoulder of mutton which the poor so often find
themselves, from want of means, unable to purchase.
A bullock's heart sells for about Is. 6d. Certain
portions of the entrails of animals are also used as food.
Calves beads and sheep's heads are bought largely by a
certain class of dealers, who retail the same readily in a
bribed state. '1 hey aho find a quick sale among individual
purchaqers, especially among Scottish artisans, who are
thus enabled to procure their favourite luxury at a lower
rate than in Edinburgh or Glasgow, where the great
demand, exceeding the supply, naturally leads to enhanced
prices. The ox-beads are largely used in the making of
soups, and form another staple article of food among the
poor. They are bought wholesale by the tripe-dressers.
An ox's tripe and head are valued at lls. Sheep's brains
are retailed almost solely to the dealers in baked sheep's
heads. The tongue, both of the ox and the sheep, is
generally sold by the tripe-dresser to the curer, and forms,
with the ox-tail, the dearest portions of the offal. Other
parts of the offal, such as the tripes of sheep, are disposed
of as food for cats and dogs. It is, however, a well-known
fact that sheep's tripe is largely used as an article of food
among the poor—necessity overcoming their natural dis-
taste. No part of the animal is lost. Even the blood is
valuable, being used first for calico-printing, and then for
manure. Other portions of animal matter find their way
into the hands of bone-boilers and people of a similar
class. When it is remembered that in 1868 no less than
265,754 head of oxen and 1,272,000 sheep, forming a
total of 1,737,754 animals exclusive of calves and swine,
were disposed of in the metropolitan market, some
adequate idea may be formed cf the magnitude which
the trade in animal offal has attained, and the important
position occupied by it in the domestic economy of the
poor.

EXPERIMENTS AT SHOEBURYNESS.

-

The experiments, so far as the Plymouth Breakwater
Fort target and the 151 n. iron plates are cmccrned, closed
on Thursday afternoon, and on Tuesday next others not a
whit less important will be made. The firing commenced
with the Woolwich 12in. gun, from which a shell was fired
With a 761 b. pellet charge on the portion of the target
where the extra sin. plate was fixed. It struck fairly,
penetrated more than sixteen inches, and, aided no
doubt by the effect of shots fired on Wednesday, created
a series of cracks, extending altogether to a length
of sine feet. Towards the edge the plates were
much fractured—indeed, but for a firm nine inches
at the top of the enormous piece of plate, would have been
scaled completely off. Inside a bolt was driven in 3
inches, the large horizontal bar (16iin. by oin.), close to
the roof, was broken completely through, and the angle
iron was much bent. The Rodman gun, still at a 200
yards range, was engaged with a full charge of 84711 b.
The 4501 h. ball hit the top of a bolt in the upper
plate, driving it in at least 7 inches, and crack-
ing the plate itself slightly. The indentation
was but N inches, and within very little damage
was perceptible. Another shell was next discharged
from the 12-inch gun with tremendous effect. Striking
the curved plate that crowns the shield, it shattered it
generally, and, detaching a fragment that would weigh a
ton, whirled it round upon an obstinate bolt that acted
as a pivot, and lodged it upon the top. The charge was
ordered so as to make the actual range 1,000 yards.
Viewed from the exterior this was one of the n:iost
telling shots fired, and from within the point of the
shell could be seen amongst the wreck, while the
daylight which it had let through revealed also a
broken bolt. Keeping to the long range, a shell war
now fired from the 10-inch gun. It caught the corner of
one of the plates on the curve, and smashed off a piece
about a foot square, besides dislocating some iron washers
at the back, and giving the arch over the porthole a serious
shaking. The same missile was then fired at the 280 yards
range, but instead of striking the plate at which it war
aimed, it cannoned against thegranite-work at the bottom,
and glanced upon the ironwork only to star it. The
shell was once more fired, but at 1,000 yards range,
full at the target, and the force loosened some joints
and did considerable damage otherwise. Leaving the
Plymouth target, the committee proceeded to test the
granite baseulent upon which the costly fort is to be
reared. The American gun faced it at 200 yards, and
with full charge sent the ball into it where the test was
good. The height of this granite work is 4 feet, its thick-
tress is 14 feet, and behind that there is a bed of concrete
22 feet through. The shot sent the granite flying in all
directions, pulverising heaps of it as fine flour, and it pence
trated the granite and forced the concrete out into the inte-
rior. The Plymouth target, which has an area about as
spacious as the side of the house, presented a melancholy
appearance now. It was marked with eighteen missiles,
two of which had gone through ; others had wrought deep
saucer-like indentations ; others had shivered the five-inch
plates, and strewn the heath far and near with the frag-
ments, and the white powder from the destroyed granite
base, to conclude the picture, had whitened the surface,
as if for the express purpose of showing how ghastly were
the cracks that radiated around several of the apertures.
That laminated armour plating will not stand battering as
the solid rolled slab does is evident, but whether solid
armour will efficiently check missiles like the deadly shot
and shell of the Woolwich gun can only be determined by
experimentalising upon a target similar to that whose con-
demnation will assuredly be asked for. The trials yet to
be male include an experimental structure faced with iron
of different thicknesses, and a peculiar gun shield, [from
which much is expected, manufactured by Mr. Hughes, of
the Millwall Iron Company's works.

A dot EL WAur. n.-- few eren:ngs a:Jo a
numLer of gen litnen a: the Ship Hotel, Greenwich, st:
watching from the windows tl.e :,a'nbols of siome boys,
who dived into the river in sLarch of coppers which the
gentlemen threw into the water, when a wager was made
between two of them for £5O and dinner for the lot that
one of them, dressed as he was in tight-fitting-coat, could
not swim to a certain point and back. The gentleman
who undertook to perform the feat descended the stairs
leading to the water's edge, and placing his gold watch,
which was the only D,I title he was permitted to divest him-
self of, in the hands of a friend, he deliberately walked
into the water and swam to the point stipulated and back
amid the plaudits of hundreds of persons, who quickly con-
gregated to witness so novel a spectacle. The wager W2lB
won, and the AO paid. When the dinner will come tif
has not been nacertained.

TilE ABYSSINIAN EXPEDITION.

(Front the Times' Special Correspondent.)

SENAFE, May 27.

Sir Robert Napier with the rear guard of the
force arrived here on the 24th inst., and will pro-
bably leave on the 29th. It is expected that he will
remain about a week at Zoulla, but his plans are
not yet, I believe, positively settled, and will pro-
bably be regulated by the e ,ndition in which he
finds the arrangements at Annesley Bay for the
embarkation of troops and stores, So far
these arrangements have succeeded admirably.
Before Magdala was taken—indeed, if I re-
member rightly, before the force ha 1 come
within sight of it—the Commander-in-Chief, con-
sidering the rainy season a more formidable
foe than Theodore, had commencel provisional
preparations for the speedy return of the troops,
and his instructions were so well carried out by the
Assistant Quartermaster-General that the pro-
gramme Lid down for their re-embarcation has
been adhered to without a singe miscarriage or the
loss of a day. In my last letter I told you what
troops had embarked up to the 21st instant. Since
that date the following troops have left Annesley
Bay :—The 10th Bengal Cavalry embarked on the
23d, the 2d Scinde Horse on the 24th, the 23d Pun-
jab Pioneers on the 24th and 25th, the 12th Bengal
Cavalry and 21st Punjab Infantry on the 25th, the
G 14, Armstrongs, and 5-25, mortars, with the ele-
phants, on the 26th ; the 3d Light Cavalry and the
Head-quarter Wing 10th Native Infantry are to
embark to.day. The last of the troops not wanted
for baggage-guard or to assist in the embarcation
of stores will leave Annesley Bay on the Ist or 2d
of June. Sir Charles S aveley will probably leave
with them. The 3d Native Infantry and 25th Na-
tive Infantry, with the Madras and Bombay
Sappers and Miners, are to be the last to quite
the country, Brigadier-General Schneider remain-
ing with them in command. As regards the desti-
nation of the troops after leaving Abyssinia, the
3d Dragoon Guards, the 33d (Duke of Welling-
ton's), the 4th (King's Own), the 10th Company
Royal Engineers, the A 31 and B 21 Batteries pro-
ceed to England ; the 45th (Sherwood Foresters),
to Madras ; the 26th (Cameronians), to Calcutta ;
G. 14 and 5-25 Batteries to Bombay. The Bombay,
Bengal, and Madras native troops return respec-
tively to their own Presidencies. The G 14, having
only a year or thereabouts left to complete their
tour of foreign service, had fully counted on going
to England ; brif, much to their disappointment, a
telegram came out from home ordering them back
to India.

The floods in the Senafe Pass have been very fre-
quent since I last wrote. Almost every other day a
telegram is received at head quarters announcing
the destruction of this or that part of the road. With
the exception, however, of one lamentable accident,
in which seven native followers were su Idenly over-
taken by the torrent, and swept helplessly away,
nothing but the road has as yet suffered, and even
the d virago done to this is never gra ater than a few
hours' hard work can repair—l mean s) far as is
necessary to make the road passable for men and
baggage animals. The carts now at Senafe will pro-
bably, if the rains continue, either have to be
abandoned as useless or else taken to pieces
and carried on mules over those portions of
the pass which have siffered most. The floods,
though very violent while they last (in one case the
water rose, it is said, to the height of 20 feet), are
of very short duration, and usually affect but a
comparatively small portion of the pass. They
generally cccur at about the same hour of the day,
late in the afternoon, and give timely warning of
their approach. It is not known how the unfortu-
nate natives whose fate I have mentioned could
have failed to make good their escape. Hence
little or no uneasiness is felt about the safety of
the troops or stores that have still to be taken down
the pass. Unless there shoull be a considerable
change for the worse in the present state of the
weather, the task will not be dangerous or even
difficult. It is not expected that the troops will be
detained, or that anything worse will happen than
the loss of labour involved in repairing the damage
done to the read by these constantly recurring
floods.

A visit from Kassa, the Tigre chief, to Sir Robert
Napier, has been, p3rhaps, the principal event of
the week. Kassa's proceedings, however, not un-
naturally attract considerably less interest now than
when his alliance and friendly aid in procuring
supplies were of vital importance to the fore!, and
the Durbar held in his honour yesterday, though
graced with the usual display of handsome uniforms
and expenditure of gunpowder, was rather a tame
affair. It consisted almost entirely in the presenta-
tion of complimentary gifts—such a rifles, pistols,
cloths, &c., to the Tigre Chief and a few of his
principal followers. More substantial gifts were at
the same time promised, and Kassa will indeed have
every reason to congratulate himself upon the cour-
tesy and good faith with which he has throughout
treated his English allies. It is said that before the
last Durbar at Adabaga, when Kassa was to all ap-
pearance hesitating whether he should meet Sir
Robert Napier, some of his councillors toll him
that these strangers coul I no doubt be pleasant and
smooth-spoken enough when they were coming into
Abyssinia and wanted his assistance, but that if he
accepted their friendship and let them pass peace-
ably through his country, he would find them very
different men when they were coming out of it.
Happily, he himself thought otherwise, or at least
resolved to act as if he thought otherwise (for it is
not easy to believe that, as an Abyssinian diploma-
tist, he really put faith in the fair promises of a
stranger), and he has had his reward. He has been
treated more generously now that his alliance is of no
use to us than when we were most anxious to secure
it. He has been given alreadrtwo mountain guns,
about 850 muskets, about 400,000 rounds of am-
munition, and a large quantity of powder. If he
comes to Zoulla, which he talks of doing, and would
doubtless like to do if he were sure that the Sho-
hoes would ever let him come back, he will not im-
probably receive in addition two mortars and some
more muskets and ammunition. A telegram has
also been sent to Bombay for, I believe, six moun-
tain guns, so that he is likely to have, for Abys-
sinia, very formidable means of attack and defence.
In yesterday's Durbar he tried in the usual Abyssi-
nian fashion to commit Sir Robert Napier to a pro-
mise that England would protect him against his
enemies the Egyptians, but was toll that with all
these newly-acquired arms he might fairly be ex-
pected to hold his own.

A review was held here in honour of her Ma-
jesty's birthday on the 25th (the 24th falling on
a Sunday), and three hearty cheers, which must
have rather astonished the Abyssinian lookers-on,
were given for " the Queen," whose welcome
message of congratulation is still fresh in the
memory of the troops. Military discipline alone
forbade a similar and no less hearty tribute being
paid to the Commander-in-Chief, who, alWays
popular with his soldiers,—not more from their
confidence in his generalship than from his un-
ceasing thoughtfulness and considerate regard for
their ;interests,--is just now, of course, their
idol. A few forcible words, in which, not with-
out emotion, he thanked them for the way in
which they had done their duty under him through-
out this campaign, and their cheerful soldier-
like endurance of the hardships which it had
entailed upon them, went home to every heart. It
is not often that pride is so keenly and so justly
felt by a General in his soldiers, or by soldiers in
their General, as was felt on this o?.casion, and for
the moment, I believe, the troops actually forgot
and forgave even the terri'ile want of a " butcher's
bill"—they have, by the way,
been miterially con-
soled for this want by finding, from the unanimous
expression of delight and applause on the part of
the English Press, that the country could scarcely
have thought more highly of what they have done
if they had been woundel by hundreds
and killed by scores. " What will they Lay
in England," has been, I believe, the one pre-
dominant thought is the brews: of every
officer and solder since Mltgda!i fell; and it seems
DOW to be considered that England has said pretty
nearly as much as she coul.l say. " What will they
do in England ?" is, perhaps, the prevailing thought
now. By one of those mysterious arcaugethents ,