The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-01-08

offered for sale Is as good as that sold at
home There are all sorts of meats. fish and
vegetables There are huge pears from the
Argentine and oranges and pineapples from
Paraguay There are grapes as sweet as any
grown in California which have been
brought to the city from the foothills of
the Andes, and there are peaches by the
bushel from about Buenos Ayres. Peach
trees are often grown for fuel, and there
are so many peaches in some sections that
they are used for fattening pigs. Almost
any kind of fruit that grows in the United
States is grown I'm the Argentine Republic.
As to vegetables. 1 saw celery stems as big
around as a pint lineup and a yard in
length. / saw enough onions to scent the
breath Of the continent. and yams and sweet
potatoes of gigantic size. Nearly everything
in the fruit and vegetable line is cheap.
delicious oranges costing about cents
apiece. Vegetables are usually sold in piles
so that you have to measure quantity as
well as quality by the eye, and the butchers
sold their meat by the chunk or cut rather
than weight
Chickens were sold by the piece. They had
all been dressed, the only feathers being left
upon them being those Of the tail. These
tail feathers stuck out, showing what the
color Of each chicken was before it was
plucked. Why the tail feathers are not re-
moved 1 do not know. The same custom
prevails in China as to dogs where a bit
of the dogs hair is always left on the end
of the tail, even when the animal is cooked.
But this is because the Chinese consider
the flesh of black dogs the best and most
certain to put a brave spirit into the body
of the eater.
THE HUCKSTERS.
Chickens are sold alive in Buenos Ayres
by hucksters who carry them from house
to house in wicker crates swung over the
back of a horse. There are no huckster
wagons, and all peddling is done by men on
horseback or on foot. Turkeys are driven
through the streets by peddlers. You pick
out the turkey you want from the flock
and the owner will catch it for you. Fish
and vegetables are sold by men who so
through the city with baskets hung to the
ends Of poles on their shoulders, and the
milk peddler on horseback is still to be
found in the suburbs of Buenos Ayres. He
has been driven from the main part of the
city and his place taken by the dairy COM
panes, who now furnish good butter and
good milk in almost every block. Until
within a very few years good butter was
ilOL ~ bG ldu III bueIlOS AyEeS. Inc COuI-
try had millions of cows, but not score
of good butter makers. Farmers who
owned ten thousand cows imported their
butter in tins from the United States or
Europe and quantities came to Buenos
Ayres from New York in firkins. few
years ago an enterprising Argentine estab-
lshed a large dairy outside the city He
brought in butter makers from Switzerland,
and now the city has as delicious butter as
can be found anywhere. The butter is made
without salt. 1 am told that sweet cream
is used, but it is so good that you can eat
butter like cheese. 1t is sent to Brazil and
other countries, and even shipped to London.
The old style of milk selling was by a
peddler who carried his milk from house
to house in cans swung on the sides of a
horse. Each can was stopped with a piece
of wood, about which an old cloth was
wrapped to keep it tight This made the
milk so foul and unsanitary that the gov
eminent objected to it. Mlkmen still drive
their cows from house to house in all towns
outside of Buenos Ayres. They milk the
COWS for you while you wait and there is
no possibility of your getting chalk and
water in place of the pure extract of the
bovine. Each cow has its calf with it, but
the calf's mouth is protected by a leather
muzzle, so that, Tantalus-like, it is ever
within the sight and smell of the milk
without chance to satisfy its hunger or
thirst. FRANK c. CARPENTER