Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1882-11-04

| Delmonico's the Brunswick and Hoffman
Hotels and l 200 families of New York.
| Sixteen wagons are busy every morning at
| cost of 20 per cent of total expenses for de-
livery. The bakery is below the level of the
| sidewalk and is 12O feet long and go feet
| wide The system of ventilation is perfect
| even while the furnaces are in full activity
pleasant breeze blows through the room
| The score of men employed in the various
| processes of baking are clad in white gauze,
or merino, and are pictures of neatness. NO
| use of tobacco is tolerated here. The floor
| is as bright as pin. AS the men knead
the dough in the huge troughs containing
| material for 400 loaves, weigh it in neat
| looking scales to the pound and half, and
| then pass it into the big ovens thirteen feet
square, there is nothing seen that Indicates
| negligence or uncleanliness. The dough IS
kpeaded by men nude to the waist, for near
the ovens the heat is oppressive despite the
ventilation. two hundred horse power en-
CINE furnishes the steam machine to beat
200 eggs in twenty minutes, big yeast watts,
| bins of -four and hills of bread are some of
| the interesting features of the room.
The proprietor, portly, genial old man,
gave the following points to the reporter
Bakers don't make much money as rule,
| so they use cheap flour. You may know that
-four may be bought anywhere from 80 to
$40 barrel The finest we get from Min
nesota; it is made on the Hungarian princi-
| pie by steel rollers, not by grinding between
| stones. The gluten makes handsome bread.
We bake for the club houses and large res
taurants in the evening. There are other
large bakeries in this city that supply the
groceries. They make what is called do
nestle bread. There is very large bakery
of that kind in Williamsburg. It is cheap
and good. Fine bread is bought mainly by
large families. Do you know how to tell
good American bread? 1t has pile on it.
See this loaf, You can pull it to pieces by
tearing it off in shreds. This French bread
is all crust You see through 1t, it is so
light. Those rolls made with milk and egg
yolks are called Kaiser rolls. They are very
popular in Vienna, and, as you see, are very
ght and white. The English muffin, which
is SO very white, must be made of beautiful
-four. These ship bread loaves, three feet
long, going on Cunard steamship to-
morrow. They are baked hard the day be-
fore shipment. AS the -four used contains
much gluten, this absorbs moisture from the
sea air, and the bread is quite fresh after be-
ing at sea four or five days. In fact, this
kind of bread has Kept fresh until the return
voyage Flour that has been ground six
months is needed for Vienna bread. New
flour is soft and has no spring. Our men
begin work at p m. and are through at 3
a. na., in the basement The wagons go out
at four or five in the morning. The men do
not sleep on the premises as in the smaller
bakeries where they work sixteen and elgh-
teen hours day."
1t was 1 o'clock in the morning when the
reporter started out ON the east side. Stroll
ing up avenue B, which was dark and cheer |
less as the sky was lowering and lamps were
few, bright light shone out from base
ment between Tenth and Eleventh streets, |
and he dove down the steps. The room was |
perhaps thirty feet long and dozen feet
wide. The ceiling was about seven feet high.
Two men and boy were punching the |
dough, showing loaves into the oven at tho |
f.,rk Ia,.a 1Df 4hnr RrrYS or oyuJ "a nUAr
the floor in unpleasant proximity to the |
freshly kneaded loaves. Near them q |
barrel of ashes that light breeze lifted at |
times, dispersed in the air and caused to set |
tie on the bread. An old time broom was
hard by, but had not apparently been used |
on the floor that morning. The air was |
close and impure, and what little breeze |
came in ser we'd rather to agitate the ashes |
than to remove the unpleasant odors in the |
room.
An avenue bakery. which was also visi |
ted, is unin viting place for a nice eater. |
Two or three hundred loaves q night are |
turned out here but the regard for cleani |
ness is not of the best. One man was pull |
ing rye bread out of the oven and watering |
it to make it swell up. Near his side |
decayed lounge, apparently relic of an ear
ly civilization. On it, half covered with old |
and dirty clothes and rags, was a wooden |
bread moulder, " which had been used APP
parently only q short time before in knead |
ing dough The object of the reporters |
visit was not made known, of course. He |
was taken simply for passer-by who had
just dropped in, and was invited to follow |
the usual practice when visitors called and |
''set 'em up for the boys" This invitation |
was kindly extended to him at most of the |
bakeries visited.
few blocks above a mongrel cur guarded |
the entrance to bakery as he sat near |
pile of loaves and broke the monotony of |
his vigil by searching for feas. Then ne |
would wave his dirty tail over the bread and |
growl at passers by. The reporter missed |
his chance to 'set 'em up" here. |
While workman was kneading a pile of |
dough at bakery in First avenue he pulled |
away vigorously on an old clay pipe. He |
was not even pertaining the bread with good
tobacco. Occasionally he would remove the |
pipe with dough covered hand to project a
charge OF saliva against bullseye on the |
floor and then resume work. The hand that
had just held the dirty pipe was plunged into |
the dough without the interruption of towels |
or water AS the reporter held an unlighted |
cigar in his hand, he was invited to light up |
and make himself comfortable. few feet !
from the pile of dough tub of slops |
that emitted foul odors barrel of ashes, |
and cat that was evidently not unacquaint-
ed with the neighboring cutters prewled
around and shook hairs and parasites from
her impoverished body. All these filth pro-
ducers were near trough of dough which
the young man said would 'make bread for
health cure company Of this CITY,"
Other bakeries were visited on the east
side, and the majority were found to be
small poorly ventilated Easements. All,
however, were not repulsive from dirt and
vermin, but too many were SO to afford
comfort to the average patron of those
places.
The same story may be told of the west
side of the city. Here the German element
is very large. Many of these bakers make
small profits, which are certainly not ex-
pended on their workshops except SO far as
is absolutely necessary. Cheap rent Is the
first point with them, and 80 long as the
stuff sells, customers do not know whether
the bread they eat is made in pure, whole
= some atmosphere, free from dirt, or not.
1t was very small basement which the re-
porter found in Ninth avenue, between
rwenty-third and Twenty fourth streets, and
the close air was almost intolerable. There
was only one man at work While he knead-
ed batch of dough he amused himself by
smoking cigarettes Smoke and ashes min
gled with the dough while the workman con-
versed with the reporter. The floor was
dirty and dusty, and after tossing few I'M
| baked loaves on board the baker caught up
/ an old broom and swept vigorously. The
air was soon filled with dust, which in part
settled on the dough and was baked into it.
The baker was rather discouraged about
| the profits of the business. He mentioned
| the name of the fashionable baker whose
clared his opinion that he was not making
| money as his expenses were too heavy. If
| the fashionable baker did make money, it
was through his sales of confectionery and
fancy cakes and not from bread, although he
had very large patronage in that commod-
| ity-
| Not at all inviting was the bakery visited
| two blocks above-a narrow, dingy room
whose fetid atmosphere was nauseating and
general condition of dirt and negligence was
- AIak tnl
| been holding high carnival near the oven,
| scurried at the reporters approach into their
| holes. Their playground was a few feet dis
| tant from q batch of dough ready for the
oven. On the opposite side of the room was
| a vile sink black with dirt. Here work
man from time to time drew water for pan
of "mixings." The sink exhaled foul odors
| and soiled rags and brushes were hung
| around. The floor was a mosaic of dirt and
| tobacco juice the windows were darkened
| A1l 1..-k A Ia lN1