Port Royal commercial and Beaufort County Republican. [volume] (Port Royal, S.C.) 1873-1874, 1874-01-22
A Beef Reform.

Texan beef has hitherto been under
a ban. It has been synonym for
everything tough, tasteless, and treach-
erous. But the Texan steer has been
i'll used-not only in having been made
the subject of caustic sarcasm and dis
NAL Jokes, but in having beenso cruelty
and uniustly treated that the condition
necessarily precedent to this sarcastic
abuse has been forced upon him. He
has been driven from his free and airy
pastures upon the great Texan plains, O
long and dreary seven months journey
to the prairies of Kansas and Colorado.
Upon his enforced journey he has been
chased, run down, lashed with whips,
and partially starved; afterwards ex-
posed to the bowling tempests of an
intensely cold winter in his new pas
lures he has picked his living upon the
dry grass and sedges along the banks
of the Arkansas or the Platte. Then
he has been fed upon soft corn-un-
marketable ears-against which his free
soul has utterly revolted. When re-
stored somewhat to his former self,
and brought more into semblance OF
Just proportion to his enormous horns,
he has been crowded into the railroad
cars, in which, cabined, cribbed, con-
fined, he has undergone all the tortures
of "the middle passage" Without
feed or water, wearied, sick, and sore,
this poor pilgrim has reached our East
ern markets in condition in which life
and death strove together for him.
Fevered, starved, and bruised, he goes
to the slaughter, his wild nature un-
tanned, resisting to the last. Then the
housekeeper, with reputation at stake,
obviously regards those bruised quar-
ters exposed for sale at the markets.
Black, blue, and yellow, the bruised
beef hangs upon the hooks, and thereby
hangs a tale of misery which touches
the human and sensitive heart.
And the victim of all thus cruelty is
insulted by our unintentionally unjust
remarks. For the Texas steer is no
such hard case. Theoretically, as q
grass.fed steer, he should furnish the
best and juiciest of beef. Practically
and truly he does this. We can vouch
for the fact because within day or
two we have eaten steak from steer
which was slaughtered upon his native
heath. He was one of 426 head which
were slaughtered at Austin and Deni.
son, in Texas, upon the 26th day of No.
vember, and which upon the same day
were shipped upon refrigerator cars di.
rect to the New York market. Here
they arrived in perfect order, clean,
fresh, sweet, with the flavor of theil
native grass upon them, without 0
bruise and with no regretful coin
cidence attached to them to raise ones
sympathy. Under these favorable cir.
cumstances the Texan steer is a sweet
creature his flesh is as tender as that
of the delicate antelope, with some.
what of that succulence and flavor
which belongs to the best of our game
animals.
A company has now been formed,
which intends to ship 500 head tri'
weekly from Denison to New York,
whose success it is to be hoped will be
permanent, both on account of the al
most incredible suffering which may
now be spared to the beasts, and of the
certain reduction of price and vastly
improved quality of the beef. Beef
thus brought to market can be sold at
an average price of six cents per pound
at wholesale. Allowing the handsome
profit of 100 per cent. to the retailer,
the consumer should be able to pur-
chase it an average price of IL cents.
At present the bruised anu really un-
wholesome beef we buy costs double
this price. Here in this age of reform
is O reformation that is far from insig-
nifcant. AS in all reforms there is op-
position on account of vested interests,
which may suffer in the reduction OF
price from 25 and 80 cents to 10 and ID
cents per pound. But poor purchasers
are in the majority and the few must
succumb. 1t only remains to support
the hands of the reformers, by demand
ing of our butchers that they supply us
with the Texas-slaughtered beef, to
successfully realize the benefits of this
much needed form.-Hearh and
Home.