Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-09-18
Our Progress Morally, Socially
and intellectually - City
Airs VS.. Fogyism.
What We Drink-The Millman
with his Chalk and Braokish .
Bayou Water.
A Milkman A stoniBhes Customer
by Pouring In a Minnow
with the Laeteal.

tOhb huu pun Oh ho1oPSi'toh "'Si '
dear old inhabitants Of the village on the
bluff little dreamed what was involved
in the metamorphosis. To be city was
a very nice thing, to be sure, in their !
eyes, so far as sidewalks, gaslights and
accompanying conveniences were con-
cerned; but what was inevitably to
offset all these they never for a moment
dreamed of. They realized oil the con-
sequence and pride of becoming denizens
of the big town, and by degrees grace
fully "doffed their rustic robes and
manners" to don the elegancies of the
fashionable mode, and stiffen into the
"ladies" and gentlemen of society"
Misses who had many time walked
untired mile or more to the village
school, taught over the old market house,
which then stood in the center of what
now forms the green little park in North
Memphis, could not so much as call
without their carriages. When Clark
kept the jewelry shop on Exchange
street, in ten feet front, one.story brick
building, and when he had moved into
his marble block" on Main, the times
we're changed, and not less changed were
his customers. Memphis had ere this
become a city, aud upon the dial of the
marble block regulator was engraved
lefty time" A wonderful alteration
had been wrought in these intervening
years. Society, which in the village was
so limited in numbers that every member
knew and scrutinized every other men,
Der, by kind of pulverization, formed
into circles, each of which kept its own
secrets, maintained its own exclusivencss
and instituted its own grips and pass
words. The community of the village, as
whole, followed suit, and drew more
strictly the line between classes. The
rich and the poor, the respectable and
the not so respectable grew more dis.
tinct, and new classes altogether made a
subdivision of these. The sharper now
found the town big enough for his prac.
tice, and those who had the inclination
began to live by their wits. With the
importance, the style and the, airs of
the city, came the corruption, the de-
ceptions and the sufferings that ever fol-
low. When the villagers ceased to make
their own gardens they found the stale
and unwholesome fruits and vegetables
in the city markets. The supplanting of
the tallow dip, and the old fashioned oil
lamp was the signal for exorbitant and
extortionate gas bills, When the family
COWS ceased to Craze on the village COM
mon and out-of. town diaries were estab-
lished, the rich, creamy nS5k lost its con-
sistency and purity, and chalk and water
came quickly into requisition. All this
came with the growth of the bluff village
until now, with our Nicholson pavement
streets, railways and proposed water
works, Memphis can probably boast as
many monopolies, swindlers and imposi'
tons as any other city.
Whether all these, however, are the
necessary consequences and natural
concomitants of being a city may be
questioned though only to one of them
it is our purpose to allude at this time as
remedial and demanding the attention
of whosesoever business it is to look after
such matters. BY this we refer to the
imposition daily practiced by those who
are vendors of milk We see no reason
why an inspection of, and, if possible, q
regulation OF the dairy business has not
before this been made by those whose
duty as public officers it was to have
done so. Chalk and water has been
palmed off long enough upon the citi-
zens of Memphis, and fully as long as
the public health and safety will allow.
We believe we speak with proof
to back us when we assert that
fally one-half the milk which
supplies the daily demand of
Memphis is either diluted or corrupted.
In other cities the same thing has oc
Cured time and again, aud has as often
been looked into and abated. 1t is, in
fact, an old trick of the dairy business,
and requires constant aud close atten-
ton TO be regulated For the benefit OF
those who, believing Ignorance is
bliss" as it certainly is in this case, may
be disposed to doubt our seemingly
broad assertion that they have not
drank or otherwise used a quart Of pure
milk for months, we would state that
we have made sufficient inquiry and in
vestigation to fully satisfy US as to the
correctness Of our assertion. We have
facts which we propose in due time to
make public if the matter is not mended
before such an occasion arrives. A
single incident, no less laughable than
suggestive, which was brought to
our knowledge yesterday will sui
fee to exemplify our meaning
A family, on Main street, upon reeeiv-
ing their daily supply Of milk, we're
somewhat astonished to discover one Of
their children gazing very intently upon
the vessel in which it had been placed.
Well might the curiosity Of the youngster
have been aroused, for, upon the atien-
,;on of the older members Of the family