The Portland daily press., 1870-11-18
DAILY PRESS.
Friday Morning, November J8, 1870.
The Boston Bakeries.
PORTLAND

The Commercial Bulletin is giving an in
side view of theNBoston bakeries. 1t shows
that one of them, at least, is den of filth
and roguery. The secret methods Of this es-
tablishment were discovered by one of the
reporters who operated in thefashion OF a de-
tective. This reporter learned that jour-
| neyman baker was wanted in one shop which
lis, perhaps, among the dirtiest in the city,"
Accordingly he assumed an appropriate dress,
and offered himself for the place, protesting
| to be from New York. He was accepted, and
| began work Saturday afternoon. The other
employees objected that he did not belong to
| the "unon." but he removed the difficulty by
promising to join the union 'at its next meet
| ing. He was Immediately initiated into the
mysteries of bakers' brown bread, as follows:
my first duty was being sent into the shop
| to help clean up the shelves and boxes of
broken and stale bread and cake, which, when
all collected, and much of it was worse than
stale, was taken into the bakery and emptied
| into a trough; then Ia nasty old pail which
| took to be slop bucket, but which, in reality,
turned out to be the measure for yeast, was
filled once or twice with water and emptied
| into this mixture OF bread crusts and cake
| fragments, and l was directed TO take the
shovel, then standing in an ash heap by the
| oven door and chop and stir this mess into
thin cruel.
BE quick about it, too, and not spend so
much tire polishing that shovel blade.'
From this, in my Innocence l was remov-
ing the ashes and dirt, not rejecting that
them ashes don't hurt nothing
This task accomplished, and the necessary
amount of meal added. gave the cruel
brown bread value. The deeJ tins for put.
ting this thicken'd liquid into for baking
were produced, and all hands of us were busy
painting the inside of them with little brushes
dipped in slush that would have hardly stood
the test as fairly valuable for soap grease
This task done, we went to supper, one man,
however, being left to receive numbers and
give tickets for the pots of beans that were
brought in by customers to be baked in the
bakers oven."
The bean-baking roguery must have pecu-
| liar interest TO those Immediately concerned,
| Saturday night is the time for baking beans
and brown bread. As these articles are less
| used, Sunday mornings, in New York, the
bakers in that city do not work Saturday
| nights. This detectives account of the meth
| cd of making brown bread in the shop where
| he was employed is not calculated to heighten
| the relish of the Bostonans for that article.
| The bakers process with the beans sent in by
the families for baking is not more encourag-
ing. Here is the account of it:
"Returning from supper found but por.
| tion of the hands held for duty all night, so
! the work of filling up the brown bread pans
| was Immediately begun and duly accomplish
| cd. At about halfpast nine, all the beans
from outsiders having been brought in, the
covers were put upon the troughs, and four
very large sheet iron flats were laid together
on these, and each bean pot emptied of its
beans, the pork therein being replaced, for the
| boss told me, 'be d-d careful to get each piece
of pork into the right pot, or there'll be hell to
| pay. Every woman knows her own piece of
| pork as quick as lightning All the pots be-
| ing emptied, nearly, if not more than two
| hundred, l was told t. be id lively and
help bring in the snap stones from the ktch-
| en- Thither we went, returning with the
family boiler. none of the cleanest, brimming
full of parboiled beans, evidently the very
refuse of the market. After straining the
water of, these acere poured into the pile of
customers beans and the WhOle thoroughly
mired. Then each pot was refilled, the pork
nicely set in, and the balance scooped into
several very large pots, holding about gallon
each, beon.ing to the baker. These were to
| be sold ly the quart, though we did fill some
small pots to be sold; thus was his refuse, un-
eatable stock made good by the large percent
age of good beans gained by defrauding those
who had sent in their bean pots to be baked
for their Sunday dinner"
His next work in the shop came the next
i evening, at ten O'Clock. And now he learned
how wheat bread is made in that bakery.
| Those who read his account of the process,
| will not be eager to eat bread from that bakery
and as he does not give either name, street
or number, bakers bread, generally, will be
suspected by those Bostonians who have an
antipathy to filth. Here is what he says Of
| the matter:
| "The duty Saturday night relieved me from
early duty Sunday eve in setting sponge, &C.,
| so that when appeared for duty, about ten
| p. NJ, l found the process of kneading just
commenced. 1t was here some of the men
tried to play me sharp and set me kneadng
by myself, but had used my eyes and wits
the previous night and had the run of the
shop so thoroughly that found plenty of odd
trifes to take my time until lusty call from
the boss startled me.
Here, you New York Dutch kreutzer. get
out of them id mud scows and knead'
q can knead as well with my shoes on,' said
l, rolling up my shirt sleeves.
% blast that, roll up your legsns and jump
in.'
I noticed one of my not overclean fellow
workmen had Jumped in,' and standing in
| the bread-tIough, was vigorously treading the
dough with his bare feet. Suppressing an om-
inous roll of the stomach, managed to say
what, take off my shoes and wade In the
dough?'
I'm course, my love; kick off yer skuffs and
60 at it,
But where shall wash my feet?'
Here, take dry rub if you're SO id par
ticular,' tossing me towel, and be lively
.'Of course l obeyed the mandate. Inoticed
my fellow workmen, however, were not par
ticular' even for dry rub,' but my mental
reservations and maledictions at that time
will now be understood by that boss
when he reads what the Bulletina knows
about his bread-making. I certainly made up
my mind that should have to be hungry in
deed to eat the bread from that bakery"
This is what was discovered at one Of these
establishments. How many such bakeries
are there in Boston This reporter tells us that
the Boston bakers do not all "knead with
their feet" He closed his engagement, Mon
day morning, and gave history of it in the
Bulletin.
'sThc Poisonous Cabbage Worm.''
The very foolish belief has recently obtain
ed quite general circulation that the caterpil
lar, or "worm' it is improperly called, which
is infesting the cabbage in New England ant
in the eastern portion of this State is poison
ous, and also imparts its poisonous propertie
to the plant on which it feeds. This idea il
based upon some irresponsible newspaper par
agraphs, which have been extensively copied