The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1899-08-11
Reporters Funeral Emblem.

Mr.. Jacob A. Riis tells an amusing
anecdOte of reporter detailed to Po-
lice headquarters by well-known
newspaper His special forte was
fires. He knew the history of every
house in town that ran any risk of
being burned; knew every fireman, and
could tell within a thousand dollars.
more or less. what was the value of the
goods stored in any building in the dry
goods district, and for how much they
were insured. II he couldn't. he did
anyhow, and his guesses often came
near the fact as shown in the final adj
justment He shifted a frebug from
afar, and knew without asking how
much salvage there was in bale of
cotton after being twenty-four hours
in the fire.
He is dead. poor fellow. In life he
was fond of joke, and in death the
joke chung to him in a way wholly I'M
foreseen The firemen in the next
block. with whom he made his head
quarters when off duty, so that he
might always be within hearing of the
gong, wished to give some tangible
evidence of their regard for the old re-
porter, but, being in a hurry. left 1t
to the florist. who knew him well. to
choose the design. He hit upon a floral
fre-badge as the proper thing, and
thus it was that when the company of
mourners was assembled, and the fun
eral service in progress. there arrived
and was set upon the coffin, in the view
of all. hat triumph of the florists art
a shield of white roses. with this le.
gend written acroHs it in red immor-
telles: Admit within fire lines onlv."
1t was shocking. hut Irresistible. II
brought down even the house Of
mourning. -Centur' Woo zine.
Ham-SmcIiing as Business.
One of the curious businesses that
men engage in is ham-smelling in pack
ing-houses. 1t is a business allied with
that Of tea-tasting. wine testing. and
the like. The ham-smeller is techni-
cally known as ham-tester., 1t is
his business to inspect meat products
and judge of their soundness. This
is done before the meats leave the
house or when they are brought from
other concerns to fill a shortage.
The ham-smeller's only tools are a
long steel trier and his nose, says the
ANuhSoS wy II 10 OIlEu uGtGS-
sary to test hams after they come
out of the sweet pickle and before they
go into the smokehouse. The ham,
smeller stands in barrel to keep his
clothes from being soiled by the drip
ping brine, and the hams are brought
to him by workmen. A ham is laid
before him, and he plunges his sharp
pointed trier into it, withdraws it and
passes it swiftly beneath his nose. The
trier always goes down to the knuckle
joint. In testing meat in that manner
the man with the trier judges by the
slightest shade of difference between
The smell of one piece of meat and an
other. The smell of the meat is al
most universally sweet and that is
what he smells; the slightest faint or
deviation from the sweet smell is
therefore appreciate. 1t is not the
degree of taintedness that he expects
to find. but the slightest odor that is
not sweet. When he detects an odor
he throws the meat aside. and if it
is not unwholesome it is sold as ere
jected' meat, but if it is tainted it goes
to the rendering tank. The Manchester
smells meat from Z o'clock in the
morning until o'clock 1T night. and
his sense must never become faded or
ineXact, or his usefulness would be at
an end.
Ham-testing is not a pursuit DANGER
Gus to the health, as tea-tasting is
supposed to be, but the ham-smeller
with a cold in his head is like a piano
player who loses his arm in railroad
wrA~L