Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1897-01-04


foreman gets S12 week, the second
hand 81 and the third hand Sc. In
winter prices are little lower, because
so many men want work. In summer
they go away TO the watering places,
like the cooks, walters and others.
These are mostly union men, though
there are a great many non-union
shops. They have their own ways,
whether union men or not, and the
boss must put up with them or shut
up the shop. It's no good TO send them
off. for the next ones are just the
same. With the small profits and
trouble with help | have often wanted
TO sell out-but a man must do some
thing"
Hours? In general they work
about twelve hours a day, beginning
at six in the evening and ending at
six in the morning. We can have no
exact hours in this business, and there
is no piece work. The sponge must
be set and then it must rise. The
weather makes a great difference with
that. Sometimes it comes too fast,
sometimes too slow, and sometimes it
turns sour. While it rises the men
are mostly idle. Then the great ques-
ton always is, how much TO bake!
Sometimes when l make the usual
quantity, find I am fifty loaves short.
Then next day l bake fifty extra, and
! have 100 loaves left on my hands. NO
I baker can account for the changes in
demand from one day TO another. DID
the hard times make any difference
/ with us? Well, | rather think so.
For Thanksgiving, or Christmas. or
when anything brings a great many
/ strangers TO the city, we have TO make
an extra supply. We must watch what
is going on, something like news
paper.
1.-THE stale bread?" he continued.
I'VE sell it for half price, or any price
! we can get. or give it away. You see,
/ every bakery must have its delivery
wagons. to deliver to private custo-
mers and to groceries and other stores.
/ Fiye-cent loaves we sell to the gro
GERS for four cents, sometimes three
/ and one-half cents, and what they
don't sell is returnable. so we never
! can fell how many loaves are coming
| back"
TRADE DRAWBACKS.
When asked about the drawbacks
in the business the boss baker declared
that it consisted principally OF draw
backs. Things are not what they
used TO be-" of course. Forty years
/ ago his father kept bakery in the
] Bowery, near Houston street, ana OAK
ed thirty barrels of flour a week.
The same bakery is still in operation,
and bakes six barrels week. why /!
Because then it had good big terri
tory TO itself. and now there are other
/ bakeries all around it.
"Ah. the business is cut all to pieces,
and the bosses are cut too pieces, too.
! The big concerns undersell us, and
take away our trade. There are the
! American bakeries" (That is not the
name of them, but it is a good name.)
''They almost have possession or
! Brooklyn. and there are number IN
New York They give big loaves at
a cut price. and they can afford 1t,
because they use inferior flour and
keep no delivery wagons. They de-
liver nothing, you must go to them for
| your bread.
! And. by the way, the weight OF a
| loaf of bread That is an important
/ matter. In New York the standard
weight is one pound and three ounces
! for a five cent loaf; sometimes pound
/ and two ounces. But where you buy
/ il and who YOU are makes all the
| difference in the world. You being a
/ pampered child of wealth, go to a
| fashionable baker (why'not fashiona-
bic baker as we'll as fashionable hat
ter?) and pay Sc or 10c for one-pound
loaf. The size and price of it makes
| no earthly difference to you, as long
as the quality suits you. How, you
may wonder, could anybody bother
! about such trivial thing as the size OF
! loaf of bread?
Let us hope you may never find out
how: but there are ways of finding
| out Reduce your salary to Sc a week,
| supply yourself with eight children
! (from an orphan asylum, if necessary,
! and change your residence to Division
! street, rear tenement, third floor. That
is a good way to learn.
| SPECIALTIES IN THE BUSINESS.
Once a baker was a baker. but that
was in the days when shoemaker
IL
bread or cakes or pies, or even crackers.
But now it takes lot of men to make
one complete baker. One man can
make yeast. another can knead dough.
One can bake cakes, another pies and
tarts. another crullers. Few men can
do them all. These specialties are the
best men in the business, and get the
best pay. The old all-around baker
has eaten of his own dough and is
! dead. Cracker baking has gone out OF
the trade entirely and become a sep
arate industry.
You buy empty barrels, occasionally,
to hold the ashes and the tin cans
and the chinaware that is broken by
the cat. Perhaps you have noticed
that recently they have been very
cheap. but of course you do not know
why. |. who have talked with a boss
baker know all these things. In for
mer times our -four was made nearby,
and the millers were glad to buy their
empty barrels back for 15c, zoe, even
25c each. Now the flour comes from
the far West. and TO send barrels back
there would cost more than they are
worth. Consequently, every baker
has a constant struggle with a noun
tain of empty barrels. The demand is
not half equal 10 the supply. To chop
them up cost more for labor than
they are worth for fuel They are a
drug on the market, and very bulky
and unhandy drug. They are worth
lust what they will bring. and that is
at present about FIVE cents each.
A BRAVE JERSEY BOY.