Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1895-01-25
The English Butcher.
HOW IT Is THAT HE CAN SELL AMERICAN
BEEF so CHEAP.

HOW IT IS THAT HE CAN SELL AMERICAN
BEEF so CHEAP.
From the Chicago Tribune.]
1t is a remarkable fact that American cat
tie 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 ship
ping 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 S.. 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 S22.
With this handicap it seems impossible that
American beef should be cheaper, compare
lively speaking, than it is 1900 miles nearer
the field of production, but this is fact.
They have a curious method of buying live
cattle by dead weight in the old country. The
price is fixed by what the experts think the
dressed carcaSsess will weigh. In America
the simple system 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 their agree as
to what 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 depressed condition
of the market is about II cents pound for
the estimated dressed weight. This is fully
four cents pound more than the retail
butcher in Chicago pays, for the bulk of the
cattle exported are net of so high grade as
those slaughtered here and sold in the carcass
at eight cents. The English butcher gets his
best cuts from the home cattle he buys at
Smithfield market or from prime American
dressed beef. Frozen meat from South Amer
lea and frozen mutton from Australia and
New Zealand satisfy the demand of the poor
er classes, while the small tradesmen and
similar people, who constitute the larger
part of the English population, are fed on
the meat that comes from cattle shipped on
the hoof from ''the States"
The English butcher is conservative man.
The chances are his father before him was a
butcher, and if he has a son he expects to
raise him in the same line of trade. He is
not bothered with political OF social aspira
tons, and SO long as his business gives him a
living, De 1t never SO frugal lie is content. lie
is satisfied with smaller margin of profit
than his American brother, and being natur-
ally of thrifty turn manages to lay up lit
tie money under conditions that would fright
en- off man of different temperament. Com
petition is strong and he has to economic at
every point.
There are some things in his favor, how
ever. One of these is that he can rent shop
ready fitted for his business at 9l (S5) week.
To his assistant he will have to pay 10 shill-
ings (S2.5O a week and board, and while the
living will be generous in quantity, there
will be no porterhouse steaks or lamb chops
on the butchers table, at least not very Of
ten. The English people are great consum-
ers Of what in this country is known as coarse
meats. There is no rage there for steaks and
outs 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.