The Brookhaven leader., 1883-08-23

hands of the Shochet. Chickens, geese,
turkeys, ducks and pigeons are killed
by the Shochet by simple decapitation
with his keen-edged knife, but in all
cases the greatest care is taken 10 cut
down the animal in a moment of COM
plete rest and blissful ignorance of the
coming fate, and to make its death as
sudden and speedy as possible. The
greatest care is also used in freeing the
meat of all killed animals of every par
ticlc of blood and other substances de-
clared "treife' by the Jewish law.
No blood of any animal is considered
fit food for any jew, but the heart, the
lungs. the liver and kidneys are
"Kosher" if carefully borsted."
1t will be seen that the Intervention
of the Shochet secures to the orthodox
jew flesh-fOOd in an absolutely healthy
condition, the reason for the law having
been, in fact, nothing but a desire to
protect the children of Israel against
the many diseases so apt to re-
suit from the consumption of the meat
of unhealthy animals.
1t is quite natural that "Kosher"
meat should command higher price
than is ruling in the general meat mar
ket. The butcher has to pay cent
higher for the live cattle he buys on ac-
count of the trouble the slaughtering by
the Shochet causes in the slaughter
house, aside from that, the " borsting"
requires vast amount of labor, not
counting the loss in weight caused by
the careful cleaning the meat receives
before it is put on sale.
If the butcher undertakes to corn
beef for his orthodox customers he has
to employ again extraordinary care
The meat must first be soaked in fresh
water for an hour, then it has to be bed
ded in salt for half an hour, and then
washed again before it goes into a
brine, in which it remains twenty-four
hours. But little cOrned beef is made
in consequence.
The rarest thing in ~Kosher"
butcher-shop is a Soup-bone. The de-
mand is very large but the supply linn
tied, as the dealers conscience and the
jealousy with which he guards his rep
utation prevents him from palming oft
on his customers bones of even the
hindquarters of Kosher animals un-
less these hindquarters had been pro-
nounced perfectly Kosher He gen
orally compromises by reserving the
sOup-bOncs for those of his customers
whose circumstances do not permit OF
their buying the regular cuts of beef.
The orthodox jew looks upon his
butcher as a trusted person, and the
latter has rarely, if ever, been known to
betray the trust imposed on him. He
is generally sincerely religious, has
learned lis trade from his father, and
is descended from long line of butch
ers. Feeling conscious of tn" impor-
tance of his position, he bears himself
with considerable dignity, looking upon
the rest of mankind aS people depend
ent entirely on him for protection
against the evils arising from the CON
sumption of ''rcifc' food. But he in
turn depends with implicit confidence
on the Shochet, who treasures the parch-
ment credentials of his high office with
anxious care.
There is at least one ''Koshcr"
butcher in Chicago who has served his
people here for eighteen years. He is a
native of Russian Poland, as are all his
competitors, and by far the majority of
his customers. Only the most orthodox
Jews cling to the Kosher butcher;
those that are in the least degree in
clined to be liberal will generally
emancipate themselves from the
Shochet sooner than from any of the
forms of the worship OF their fathers
Chicago Tribune.