The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-03-20
TEN=CENT STEAK S.
Putrid Meats Sold Daily
in Chinatown.
WHERE DO THEY COME FROM :?
White Butchers Buy Tainted Meats
There and Sell Them to Their
Patrons.

Porterhouse steaks for 10 cents large aud
thick, are now to be bought in this city at
any hour during the day and even late at
night.
Housewives who are in the habit of pay
ing three times that much money for a
piece of meat cut from the neck, and only by
courtesy called steak, will wonder at this
statement.
But it is true, nevertheless, although the
10-cent porterhouses, when the search
lights OF investigation are turned en- them,
are not exactly the kind of deicacy de-
sirable for family table.
1t Is IN the Chinese quarters where these
CHEAP steaks can be found principally.
Downtown they also find a market. but
there they cost great deal more, although
their quality 5 not any better.
Some six or seven butcher-shops are
located In Chinatown, and each one of them
has sides OF beef displayed conspicuousY at
the entrance.
To the visitors of the district Chinese
butcheF-store is only curiosity. aud while
they may cast glance of passing wonder
at the delicacies displayed and turn up
their noses at the odors emanating from
these stalls, they simply take il as one of
the pecuiiaritieS of Monaghan life and they
give il no further thought.
Ii Is entirely different with a man of an
investigating turn OF mind.
AS soon as one of these approaches a
Chinese butcher-shOp he is startled by the
appearance ana the smell of the meats kept
there for sale.
a CALL reporter going up Washington
street could hear the beef in front of snop
on the corner of an alley long before he
saw il, so loud was the stencil it poisoned
the atmosphere with.
And when he looked at it he found a
whole half of beef blue and bloated in APP
pearanee, covered with magguts and repul-
slye in every respect.
From such sides of beef pnrterhouse
steaks for 10 cents are cut and sold every
day.
IL is mystery to everybody. but the mi
tiated, where the Oh inese butchers manage
to procure such decayed merchandise, but
their ways are dark and their sources of
supply are known 10 then ssiVes only.
TINS kind II meat, sold openly in the Chi
nese markets, can only serve to spread
disease among the almOnd-eyed purchasers
OF il.
But there is another feature connected
with this matter which is very much more
serious.
1t is well-known and thoroughly estab-
liShed fact that some white men who have
small DutcheT-shops in various parts Of the
city patronize these Chinese markets and
purchase some OF their tainted meats, which
they afterward sell 10 their unsuspecting
patrons.
oV"iC VI theee Nuite butchers are discreet
enough to send their wagons around under
the cover OF lhe night and to haul away
their disease-spreadng beefsteakS secretly.
Others, more braZen, drive right up to a
Chinese market in broad daylight, and do
not seem to care who knows that they are
dealing in rotten meats.
The police and the habitues of Chinatown
have wondered for long time why this
nefari0us traffic has never been exposed
The official meat inspectors empl ed by
the Board of Health are evidently too busy
drawing their salaries 10 pay any attention
to little thing like this, because if they
ever employed few of their leisure hours
to stroll along Chinatown they would find
lots of opportunities to earn the money the
civ nnY s tlInn aveIv mnnlh