The daily gazette., 1880-01-27
FIRST EDITION.
Bogus Butter.

THE SALE OF oLEoMARGARINE IN
WILMINGTON - HOW STORE KEEP
EKs AND PHILADELPHIA AGENTS
VIOLATE THE LAw-FACrs ABOUT
THE COUNTERFEIT ARTICLE.
For some time past an agent for Fred
enck Hill, butter dealer of Philadelphia,
has been taking orders among the gro
Gerry and provision stores here for an ar
ticle of batter at a much reduced rate.
In nearly every case of an examination
of this butter by experts, 1t has proved
to be oleomargarIne. The orders taken
by tLis agent have been numerous and
many Of the stores are dealing in the
counterfeit quite extensively. So much
of 1t has been sold and detected that it
has caused considerable comment.
TRAFFIC. IN THE IMITATION.
sis there any oleomargarine sold in
town." asked GAZETTE reporter of
an old and reliable butter dealer IN Sec
ond street market house, this morning.
"Well should say so. The sale of the
article has never been very heavy here
until quite recently. Soon after II first
came out, King street firm dealt large
ly in it for a while, and then dropped 1t
to great extent. None was sold last
year that | am aware of. Within the
past month or two the traffic III oleomar-
gaTine has sud lenly increased and
there is much being disposed Of by frms
in town"
'IIave you been waited on by the
agent Of Philadelphia house, who was
suspected Of selling oleomargarine p"
"Yes, he was TO see me only day or
two ago. He had a basket containing
samples on bis arm and said he was TAX
ing lots of orders among the stores
around town. tried his butter and at
once pronounced 1t oleonargariue. 1t
was very well made, and was quite a
good imitation; II would certainly take
a good judge TO tell the difference. He
tried to sell to me, but | would not pur-
chase and will do all can TO have the
retailing of the article stopped. The
price he asked at wholesale was % cents
per Id. Good butter sells for about %
cents per 10. at wholesale, and retails at
30 cents. Look around town and when
you run across dealer selling butter
for 25 cents per lb., you'll be likely to
run across some oleomargarine at the
same time."
This man whose words are given
above is an old reliable butter dealer,
and last winter was active in securing
the passage of law making it a penal
ofiense TO sell or manufacture oleomarga-
rine without having upon it stamp
designating its true character. Acting
on his suggestion the newspaper man
started out 10 look up dealers in the dis
honest article. "Butter, 25 cents" at
tracted his attention on a placard in
front of a grocery store. He entered and
asked the proprietor about the butter he
was dealing in. Thinking he had a
prospective purchase the man assumed a
mysterious air and said he had little
management by which he could secure
butter much cheaper than the general.
price, and was enabled thereby to cut.
prices. alt is genuine, pure, wholesome
butter" he concluded; 1--WE get it.
through Philadelphia firm from Ohio.".
"The firm is Frederick Hill, is it not ?'
asked the reporter. "No, (hastily) |.
don't think 1t is; I've really forgotten.
the name. My dealer is OH North Water
street." BY coincidence, ii appears
that HIS place of business is also on
North Water street. During the conver-
satIon at this place the reporter was
somewhat amused when the stoTekeeper
in answer TO question if he knew any
oleomargarine dealers in town said he
thought Mr.. was dealing largely
in it. The party referred to was the re-
porler's old fIiend who was interviewed
in the outset. /. is not necessary to state
how ridiculous this charge appeared.
HOW 1T IS MADE.
The trite expression, "the proof of the
pudding is in the eating" will not al
ways hold good with reference to the
subject OF which this article treats. Id
IS not an unusual thing to come across a
specimen that will almost battle an ex-
pert. One butter dealer says that he has
been utterly deceived by The taste, and
could only tell by taking a small portion
between his thumb and forefinger, and
working it; ii it was not butter it would
not adhere to the fingers. Oleomarga4
rine came about in this way: 1t was
only few years ago that the then OBJ
scure French chemist, Hyppolite Mege,
conceived the idea that the origin OF
source of the article of food known al
butter was in the tat Of the animal.
This perhaps was suggested by the
same observation made by men in all
ages, viz: That COW while giving milk
never grows fat but when she ceases
giving milk and y kept on the same food
she Immediately begins to fatten. Mega
naturally asked What becomes OF the
fat during her milking period? There
could be but one answer 1t goes into
her milk. This solved the matter of ori-
gin, but left one other problem How
can this fat be treated so as to eliminate
the pure, sweet butter, in the shortest
and most direct way in strict harmony
with the chemical laws of nature. This
question was also solved, and oleomarga-
rinewas the result. The IS stem of manu-
featuring the article would be too tedi-
GUS to recount in this article Its lngre-
dients consist mainly of oil extracted
from tallow and certain proportion OF
pure butter. In the process of manufac.
ture the compound Is churned in sweet
milk. Of conrse the counterfeit butteris
much inferior to the original article. II
IL not always that the manufacturers can
compete with the genuine for there il
certain amount of expense in connection
with the manufacture at all times. On
this account oleomargarine is not found
in the markets of the large cities in Sum
mer when the price is quite low. IL can
be wholesaled at margin for 18 cents
per lb.