St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-03-06
THE ENGLISH BUTCHER.
How 1t Is That He Can Sell Amer
lean Beef So Cheap.

lean Beef So Cheap.
Chicago Tribune.
1t is a remarkable fact that Ameri-
can cattle are shipped from Chicago
to Liverpool, slaughtered there, and
the beef sold in st. Johns market at
retail for about the same prices that
prevail in this city. When it is taken
into consideration that the cost of
shipping cattle to Liverpool is about
S22 per head this statement becomes all
the more strange. The freight by rail
from Chicago to New York averages
close to Sc, and the ocean freight is
about So. Loading and unloading the
cars and steamer, feed on the long trip,
insurance, the wages of attendants,
and the expense of putting the cattle
on the market in Liverpool make up
the rest of the $22.
With this handicap it seems impos-
sible that American beef should be
cheaper, comparatively speaking, than
it is 1900 miles nearer the field of pro-
duction, but that is a fact. They have
curious method of buying live cattle
by dead weight in the old country
The price is fixed by what the ex-'
perts think the dressed careasses will
of paying for beeves and other live
stock by the actual gross weight is
followed, but this won't do in the land
across the sea. Buyer and seller over
there agree as to what a steer will
dress sinking the offal," and on this
calculation the trade is made.
The average price for American
beeves in Liverpool in the present de-
pressed condition of the market is
about II cents a pound for the esti-
mated dressed weight. This is fully
four cents a. pound more than the
retail butcher in Chicago pays, for the
bulk of the cattle exported are not of
so high a grade as those slaughtered
here and sold in the carcass at eight
cents. The Ensii$h butcher gets his
best cuts from the home cattle he buys
at Smithfield market or from prime
American dressed beef. Frozen meat
from Australia ard New leland satisfy
the demand of che poorer classes,
while the small tradeSmen and SIM
liar people, who constitute the larger
part of the Ell glish population, are
fed on the meat that comes from cat
tie shipped on the hoof from 1.-The
States
The English butcher is a conServ-
alive man. The chances are his father
before him was a butcher, and if he
has q son he expects to raise him in
the same line of trade. He is not both
cred with political or social aspirations,
and so long as his business gives him
a living, be it never SO frugal, he is
content. He is satisfied with a smaller
margin of profit than his American
brother, and being naturally of thrifty
turn manages to lay up little money
under conditions that would brighten
off man of different temperament
Competition is strong and he has to
economic at every point.
There are some things in his favor.
however. One of these is that he can
ness at s. a week. To his assistant he
will have to pay $3.50 a week and
board, and while the living will be
generous in quantity, there will be no
porterhouse steaks or lambs chops on
the butchers table, at least not very
often. The English people are great
consumers of what in this country is
known as coarse meats. There is no
rage there for steaks and cuts of that
kind, and the. retailer is generally able
to sell every scrap of the carcass
These are some of the reasons, and
the principal ones, why an English
/ butcher, paying four cents over the
/ Chicago values for his stock, is able
to retail it for about the same price
( that is charged in this city.