Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-03-20
T'iIIi MILKY WAY.
OF THE cows PROD-
 UCT AMONG THE NATIONS.

system in the United states-London's
 Musical vender-Belgium's Dog Carts.
 Sweden and switzerland-Paris's Supply.
 The Daily Cow in India.
 Those who have lived near a dairy in this or any other American town will not require a description of what it is to be awakened at 4:3J or } a. m by the milk carts starting on their rounds. To turn over, mutter few cursory remarks wishing the cart were at Jericho and to endeavor to settle ones self to sleep for another couple of hours is too com mon to require any further remark. But it is not with the disturbed sleeper that we have to do bere, but with the hundred and one manners in which the breakfast tables of many different nations are supplied with that fluid so often miscalled milk.
 In these United States one system prevails. The product of the COW, ill many places mixed with something else, is delivered by means of large, low spring wagons drawn by one or more horses. In these wagons are cans, four or five in a row, and in these cans is the milk. The practice is to start out early in the morning, and, knowing the general quantity that each customer requires, such a measure is deposited outside the door in a can left for that purpose. In the evening a second round is made to serve those who re- quire a second supply.
 In England the milkinan plays most inn portant part in the daily drama of life Tho milk arriving at one of the large railway stations is duly received and carted away by the dairy proprietors to their depots. Here it is purchased by the individual milknlen, who have rounds of their own to serve. By whom the quantity of the article is increased, or whether by the judicious admXture of ALo,. point which has never been quite thoroughly decided Now it is a dairyman who is cited to appear before the magistrates for selling milk below the proper standard: then it is a mil1man who is fined for delivering an inn pure article.
 But the mill1man himself is, as has been said b2fOre all important parsonage. He is clad in ordinary manly garments. On his shoulders he bears yo1e from the ends of which suspended, by means of straps, cans. With a curious half running, half walking gait, he goes from one door to an- otLcr, doposting the cans on the pavement with peculiar ciatter, at the same time ringing the area bell and calling out in truly musical tones: "-I-i-l-l-l-l-oo." The cook never takes long answering this summons and while sho presents her jug for tle qlan. tity she requires, she makes inquiries as to the latest bit of intelligence that is going about, and then communicates the newest item of gossip that has come to her knowl- edoe. Inns the breakfast tables are furnished with material for mind and body matter, and many little fragments of personal history Iea!5 out in this way.
 But the vender of milk has not this reputa- tion alone On the other side of the channel, i.l Belgium, where the sex even is different. like character is borne. Here the milk women wear short skirts, a clean white apron and cap and a small shawl crossed over the shoulders. The milk is kept in cans of brass, polished almost like mirrors. The cans are sometimes tall and sometimes broad and circular, and are carried in carts drawn by 1ogs This is perhaps the ontr country where one can purchase, knowingly, milk of different degrees of purity. The price varies as to whether one wishes to buy it-s1imnled, with a little water added, with good deal or exactly as it left the COW. Coffee being a national drink, and as poor laboring man would as soon think of trying to live on air as to do without it, milk in some form is an absolute necessity. To meet this want the L,cteal food is offered in different forms, and is purchased in the nearest approach to purity as the funds of the buyer will permit
 1t is not in Belgium alone that dogs are used for drawing milk carts. On the Rhine
 
 service and also in Holland Some people consider it cruel thus to employ dogs, but to one who is thoroughly conversant with the subject it does not appe:r so. It is certainly cruel to overload them, as it is to overtax horses. Put but fair strain on his powers, however, and dog really enjoys being able to be of use to his master or mistress In some parts of Germany horses and wagons take the places of dogs and carts, excepting near Hamburg, where women robed in na- tional costume, make the rounds in the same manner as the English milkmen.
 In Sweden milk is not brought to one's house, but those who want any have to go and fetch it. Naturally it follows that the dairy is a great rendezvous with servants, who always endeavor to have their masters or mistresses deal with that one where most of their friends congregate.
 In Switzerland, where perhaps there are more critical judges on this subject to be found than in any other European land, milk is once more brought around from door to door. The towns in this country not being large the consumer is generally supplied di- rect from the farm The milk is placed in tall, broad receptacles, made either of wood or pewter, with a wooden top fitting on very securely. Two of these are placed on Q vehicle composed of a flat piece of wood on wheels, with bar or posts in the middle, to which the miikholders are attached. The whole is drawn by man, who often wears the costume of his canton. Milk in this
 ountry is particularly good, very cheap, and forms large item in the very sparse living of the poorer classes. Large quanti- ties of it, too, are made into a consolidated form and exported all over the world To supply Paris with milk is no easy un- | dertalling. The houses, rising six-yes, sometimes seven stories high--contain as a rule at least as many families, and each one requires a daily quantity. Tl-5 concierge, | that fiend under whose espionage the whole | building exists, sometimes receives the cans 1 for certain flats and carries them up to their respective owners. Inhabitants of other. stories prefer to have the nlilzman himself | leave his merchandise at the kitchen door. 1 There are those, too and they are mostly the occupants of the garrets, who fetch their SUD- plies as required caring little for the seven flights of stairs their journey necessitates. l Such then briefly are the many ways en- ployed in many countries to supply the daily milk. One method, perhaps stranger than
 any heretofore touched upon, remains yet to
 be noticed. It is the manner ill which the
 residents of India, be they Europeans or l natives, have their wants satisfied. It is the l custom there for the COW to be brought before