Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-02-25
MEN WHO MAKE BREAD.

Some Inside Secrets OF an Ancieat
and Indispensable Trade-Poor Pay
for Exhausting. Labor.
Four thousand journeymen bakers
work night and day to make bread
for the city ofsNew York. Their labor
is oppressive and weakening and their
pay is poor. Some of them, by dint
OF untiring industry and the most
saving habits, have accumulated
sufficient means to start little shops
Tor themselves. They do their own
baking, supply the surrounding
nelgnborheod, and send their bread
around IN the morning by the ap-
prentice boy, who carries it in a LARGE
willow basket which he balances on
his head. But the baker who sue
ceeds Ia winning out shop is one
among a hundred. The average
baker moves along IN the same rut
from day to day, and dies in harness,
very often without money enough to
pay his funeral expenses. Nearly all
the bakers are Germans and French.
Some are Irish aud Americans. but
taey are IN vast minority. The
bakers of this city have q trade or
ganization, but it is badly conducted
and possesses but little practical
power. 1t is good baker, indeed,
who can command $12 per week, and
many work for S.. Had they perfect
trades-unions, this state eff affairs
would soon change. The French
baker is the finest IN the world and
the most independent. They know
their own value and conduct them
selves accordingly. A German baker
In Third avenue employed French
workman to make the finest grade of
fancy breed. Everything was pleas
ant for week or two, when the fore
man gave the Frenchman an inferior
grade of flour to work with. Mr..
Gaul at once detected the change and
put on his street attire.
''Vat is de matter NIT youa Inqired
the boss.
II can not wild re self-respect work
mere" answered the Frenchman.
''Ze grade of re -four is inferior"
''Vot has dot NIT you to do?" shout
ed the German, Idol is my business
Pardon, m'sieu, replied the son of
France, "Eet is not ze question of
re flour, nor ze bread, it is re reputa-
ton of myself, and no amount of per-
suasion could induce him to return to
work"
There are few bakers in this city
who make speciality Of Boston brown
bread, which New Englanders adore
and eat with their Sunday morning
Sunday morning breakfasts of baked
beans, 1t is composed of yellow corn
and rye meal, sweetened with molas-
ses or brown sugar. During the re-
mainder of the week Bostonlans con-
tent themselves with ordinary bread
and are partial to fresh tea biscuit at
night. Oar German fellow citizens
eat rye bread almost exclusively, and
are particularly fond of the schwarz
and kvmmel brod. which at this sea-
son are to be found on the lunch table
OF almost every beer saloon. Both
are made from black rye, but the
kummel has carroway seeds sprinkled
through the dough before beking.
Americans, English, Irish and
French prefer wheat bread as sresh
and white as possible. Southern
people eat corn bread smoking hot and
form of small, fiat soda biscuits,
which are not palatable when cold
whence may be devined the reason for
the reign Of dyspepsia and heart burn
In the south. In strong contrast,
strange as 1t may seem, are our color
ed brethren, who never eat cornbread
if they can help it, and who like their
wheat bread warm and sDongy. Ital-.
ians and Chinese live on stale bread
bought at the large steam bakeries
and seldom suffer from the tcothache.
Many improvements have beeL made
IN the construction of bakers ovens.
Now they are air tight, the workmen
are as far as possible protected from.
the glare of the fire, and by an ingen-
ious system of self-acting telemeters,
and automatic levers acting on hues
and air-valves, the Temperature inside
the ovens can be regulated to half
degree without opening the doors.
Some years ago machine was invent
the purpose of which was to knead
dough by steam power. It proved an
utter failure, and dough is kneaded to
day, as it always has beed, by hand.
The silly story that bakers kneaded
their dough with their feet never had
any foundation in fact. Master bak-
ers pride themselves on their cIeanli-
ness, and In many shops no jourey-
men who cheWs tobacco will be given
work. The bakers harvest tinae is in
spring and fall of the year. During the
summer people eat less and thousands
leave the city.
The Arizona legislature have been