Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1881-01-28
Butter and Its CounteSfeits.
Portland Bulletin.

Torthuu DulIetiu.
Congress has at last taken hold OF
this slippery subject, in compliance
with demand from the dairy inter-
ests of the country, and is consider
ing q bill which provides for an in
spector to reside in those parts from
which oleomargarine, butterine and
sueine are mostly exported. under
the name of Westchester, Western
Reserve, or other good brands of
butter. The duty of the inspector is
indicated by the name of his Office
and in the selection of q man to fill
the place, the civil service plan will
give due regard to the strength OF
his oifactory organs. Statistics of
the export trade show that the pro-
ducts of the dairy stand third in
value in the list of articles sent
abroad. Butter has become the
rival of pork. Hence the effort Of
lard to check its progress, as it does
in oleomargarine. America is cels-
brated for its bad butter. It is we'll
that it should become famous for it's
good sueine. We import better but
ter than we can make from Sweden,
but we export better butterine than
they can make to England. They
send us grand COWS from Holstein,
but we ship tons of oleomargarine to
Holland. So, after all, there is .
great law of compensation in butter,
as in all things mundane. There
are not enough COWS in the world to
supply it's people with butter of any
kind. Half Of these are dry or re-
fuse to give down, even to o patent
mixer. What is to be done? Sci
cree is equal to the emergency, and
it boldly steps to the front with q
frkin of butterine in its hand. But
the real butter makers object to the
counterfeit article and urge Congress
to give them protection. They say,
Let oleomargarine travel on it's own
name and fragrance and all will be
we'll. The same may be said Of 9TH
er members of the family. Let every
tub of butter or butterine stand ON
it's own bottom. A Chicago paper
demands that the makers of these
substitutes for butter be indicted,
forgetting that the offense lies not
in the making but in the false pre-
tense that the compound is butter.
1t is no offense to make, sell or eat
dog-fat worked up into the appear
ance of butter, provided there is no
deceit about it. A good article OF
oleomargarine is more palatable than
much of the butter which is thrown
on the market. Its offsnse is not
half so rank, nor does it smell SO
near heaven. Furthermore, its
makers have shrewdly christened il
with mellifuous name, which COM
pensates not little the consumer.
A rose by any other name would
smell as sweet, but not 90 with oleo-
margarine, and the makers know it.
The decline and fall of butter is .
theme upon which the future statis-
tician and political economist will
dwell with pensive thoughts. The
day must come when butter will be
only remembered as food of tho
ancients, like some of those strange
oils aud outre dishes wherewithal
our ancestors regaled themselves.
But it is we'll enough. We hear no
more of milk maids, bare-legged and
ruddy- checked, dancing over the
lawn, pail in hand. Milk trains,
with regiments of battered and foul
smelling cans, mark the new era
Diaries down by the Spring, a rip
pling rivulet running through sweet
scented milk crooks and cream jars,
are things of the past, for hugo COW
stables with long rows of Sanctioned
cows, the last of their race, and they
know it and look it, have taken their
place. Now is the day of swill milk
The Swiss song of the cows-the Ranz
des Naches--has no significance any
where now, for the cows are no
longer members of the family, and
they know it. This commercial age
has degraded them into lacteal ma
chimes, pedigreed, registered weighed
them. They are only priced for
their butyraceous qualities-the per
centum per gallon-not their social
characteristics. The poet who writes
about "the breath of COWS" has NO
readers now, for the gigantic stencil
which rises like a huge horror from
the great foul stables where hund-
reds of suffering COWS linger out q
wretched existence, dreaming OF
clover fields and happy calfhood,
have made it impossible to realize
that there he anything sweet or re-
dolent of green grasses and spring
flowers about COW.
N Il