The Meeker herald., 1894-07-28
HIS OCCUPATION GONE.
THE MEAT DECORATOR is NOW
OUT OF A JOB.
Any Man Who Knows How to Nanipu-
la Pair OF Sca'es and Do Up IA
Piece of Meat Can Run Shop-Old
Time Meat Markets.

! There is scarcely man, raised in
a city, who cannot rcmem Der the in
finite JOY he felt the first time he
ever "blowed Il 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 II pleasure that will
never die. He also remembers how
he used to spend Saturdays, and,
perhaps, other days when he should
have been ut school, at the slaughter
house "around the corner,m for in
the days of our youth. every butcher
shop had an ''abbatoir'' in the rear.
In those times the butcher was u
man of many parts, says the St
Louis Stars Sayings. He was a mix
| ture of II cold blooded assassin and
a bland confidence man. He could
hit bleating calf in the head, cx-
tract its entrai!s, remove the hide,
cut it up and sell Il chop on the car
cass to Il customer before the blood
was cold. with II distinct guarantee
that the meat was ut least twenty
four hours old. On the other hand
he could take Il piece of meat almost
strong enough to walk. give it salt
bath, or put it through some other
process known only to the trade and
sell it under the same guarantee. He
could sell l,5Op pounds of beef from
tue remains of "A COW that weighed
but 1000 pounds in life, without
"batting an eye. In the 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 a shrcwd Judge
of meat ION the hoof, as he had to
deal with stock buyers who depended
on their wits to keep them from
starving to death on three meals II
day. In II thousand ways every day
gas his ingenuity exercised. The
patent refrigerator of to-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
was an all around character and
an expert butcher commanded a po-
sition ut any time or place.
Among the most dearly priced ac-
complishmen:s 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 Il knife on mutton, and
in winter, when the meat was firm
and in good condition, the expert
| flesh frescocr was in his glory. A
favored "picce 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 resemblcd the pattern
of the wall paper in the parlor of u
country hotel Generally the decora-
tions took the shape of regular lines
diverting from Il common center like
the picture of II mans spinal column
in Il 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
DDS, done in the white surface of
the meat. The rapidity with which
the various decorative ideas were
wrought out, with the aid of a clum-
sylooking but sharp butcher knife,
was marvellous. The shops We'd
with each other in producing new
and original plans to catch the eve
and it was Il well-known fact that
tho tougher the meat the more it
was frescoad, and the more it was
frescoed the easier it sold. The dec.
Grating business became a ne art IN
tho course of time. and the artist re
ceived a salary that enabled MIN to
exist on ice cream and oysters IL 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
cxpunged 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, a wagon
drives up 10 ms uoor, Ioaieu Win
meat all cut in sizes such as are
usually placed on the counters of
butcner shops. The killing is done
by some big corporation on the
Wholesale plan, and the butcher is
saved the annoyance and hard work,
to say nothing of the bad odor. con-
sequept upon the maintenance of 4
slaughter house in the vicinity of his
;hop, Or even outside the city limits.
The meat costs no more and the days
of decorating it have passed.
i Terrapin Farm.
A terrapin farm consists of canals