Rocky Ford enterprise., 1894-07-26
HIS OCCUPATION GONE.
THE MEAT DECORATOR IS NOW
OUT OF A JOB.
Any Nun WHO Knows How to Manipu-
la P.sir OF Scales and DO Up
Piece of Meat Csu Run u shop-Old
Time Meat Markets.

There is scarcely o man. raised In
q city, who cannot remember the In
finite joy he felt the first time he
ever "blowed q bladder" And the
amusement he got subsequent to the
blowing process. in tho delivery OF
hard. well-directed swats on the
anatomy Of his schoolmates, with
the aforesaid bladder. rests on his
memory with pleasure that will
never die. He also remembers how
he used to spend Saturdays. and,
perhaps, other days when he should
house "around the corner" for in
the days OF our youth, every butcher
shop had an .'abbatoir" in the rear.
In those times the butcher was a
man OF many parts, says the st.
Louis Star Sayings. He was mix
ture of cold-blooded assassin and
a bland confidence man. He could
hit bleating calf in the head. ex-
tract its entrails, remove the hide,
cut it up and sell q chop off the car
cass to customer before the blood
was cold, with distinct guarantee
that the meat was at least twenty
four hours old On the other hand
ho could take piece Of meat, almost
strong enough to walk. give it a salt
bath. or put it through some other
process known only TO the trade and
sell it under the same guarantee. He
could sell 800 pounds Of beef from
the remains of COW that weighed
but 1,O1O pounds in life, without
"batting an eye" In tho shop he
was able to handle all and please
everybody.
He was an expert in the cutting
up of all kinds Of meat, as it was
necessary for him to be. He was
also required to be u shrewd judge
of meat ..on the hoof," as he had to
deal with stock buyers who depended d
on their wits to keep them from
starving to death on three meals
day. In u Thousand ways every day
was his ingenuity exercised. The
patent refrigerator Of o-day was un-
known to him.
He was required to keep his meat
from spelling in summer at the least
expenditure for ice, and to keep it
from freezing in winter at the least
expenditure for fuel. In short, he
an experr butcher commanded po-
sition at any time or place.
Among the most dearly priced ac-
complishmenss of butcher in those
days was his ability to properly
decorate in "bas relief" piece of
meat placed on exhibition in the
shop This decoration was general
ly done with a knife on mutton, ami
in winter, when the meat was firns
and in good condition, the expert
flesh frescoer was in his glory. a
favored "piece de resistance" to BE-
found in nearly every shop in season
was whole lamb. nicely dressed
hung up by his front feet and tat
toocd until it resembled the pattern
Of the wall paper in the parlor OF .
country hotel. Generally the decorg
tions took the shape of regular liner
diverting from common center like
the picture OF a mans spinal column
in book on anatomy. but often
more ambitious efforts were made
1t was no uncommon thing to see
flowers of various kinds, fancy fig
ures. faces and really good sketches,
considering the artist and his meth
ods. done in the white surface of
the meat. Tho rapidity with which
the various decorative ideas were
wrought out. with the aid of a clum-
sy-looking but sharp butcher knife.
was marvellous The shops We'd
with each other in producing new
and original plans to catch the eye
and it was a well-known fact that
the tougher the meat the more it
was frescoad, and the more it was
frescoed the easier it sold. The dec
Grating business became u fine art IN
the course Of time and the artist re-
ceived salary tnat enabled MIN to
exist on ice cream and oysters II he
felt SO inclined.
Those days, however, have gone by
and with the days the expert butcher
and meat stucco work has gone also.
Like the street car driver and the
celluloid collar he has nothing to do
except in remote places. The hurry
and energy of the rushing age has
expunged him. The butcher of to-
day is dapper man, generally. who
couldn't cut up an animal to sell to
save his life. Every day, or oftener,
as his trade may require. I: wagon