Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-11-03
WHY MEAT IS DEARER
A Chapter for H0usekeepers'
Reading.
THE PUBLIC AWAKENING
Use of Preservaline is No Longer Per-
mitted.
A BUTCHER TALKS OF MEATS
Says People Look Shy at Natural
Color of Saus-
ages.
HE PUBLIC AWAKENING
BUTCHER TALKS OF MEATS

Twenty cents a pound for pork
tenderloins!" exclaimed the woman in the
tabernacle suit, Indignantly. why, I
never heard OF anything so absurd. It's
extortlon pure and simpler
You'll find it's that way all through
the meat business nowadays" the butcher
said gloonily. Prices have gone up SO
that it's as much as we can do to meet
expenses. In fact. I'm actually losing
money"
Il should rather think you were coming
it, at such rates" the woman retorted.
with some sharpness.
The butcher regarded her pityingly. Had
she been a stranger he would scarcely
have taken the trouble to enlghten her.
But she was a regular customer and q
good one, and, the hour being too early for
a rush of business, he took compassion
on her abysmal ignorance.
There's whole lot of things the public
don't know about the meat business he
observed, with fine disregard of gram
mar; land one of 'em is that meat
dealers consider ourselves mighty lucky
if we manage to get bare living out of
it. Did you ever happen to know one who
grew rich at his trader" he queried,
trifie belligerently.
The woman admitted that her acquaint-
ance among meat dealers was extremely
limited.
We'll ma am, l can assure you that you
never will. The prices we pay to the
wholesalers are so high that we couldn't
make any profit to speak of, except by
miracle. You see, we have TO buy the car
cases whole, with practically all the
waste weighed in with them. And even
at that we generally pay for few pounds
more than actually get The whole
sale dealers have their little way of fixing
things to suit themselves, and there's no
way that 1 know of for us to circumvent
them.
ever expert a man may be at his work.
there's considerable amount OF waste.
There's bone and gristle and fat, al OF
which weigh heavily and can't be counted
as profitable sellers, and besides THESE,
there are the trimmings of the cholcer
cuts, and there are odd pieces mere ana
there, which mount up good deal py 'he
I'm to the time of the packing house
scandal last summer we could get rid OF
most of these trimmings easily enough,
because we would run them through me
machine and sell them as chopped meat.
They were all perfectly COCO OF couise,
and Just as nourishing as the Jolnts 'hae
you buy for twice as much. ana as We
sold this meat for ten or Twelve Genus q
mound a good many poor people pousht ~
who couldn't otherwise have had h.dC
more than once or twice "eth a,nn
oftenest But nowadays the public, even
tho poorer part of ii. won't BUY redug
chopped meat at any price. customers ris, ot
all grades insist upon seeing oleir IL, ny II
cut before their eyes, and II they w va "a
chonned they not only see II cut OH anu
| weighed but they wait to watch US chop
n There's no chance at al 10 uSe W
tho odd pieces any more; so II we otan
Norge q good round price for the meat VIC
do sell we would stand TO rose apou .,.ot
third oe what we pay for 1t IN tle i,ia rs
.oTben there's another thing that soess
ooainst the trade. It's an infringement VI
Tie law now to use a preserVauVe vi auS
sort and it's impossible TO Keep lht I ~
good condition without IL LOT MOI ,,nrese IT'S
few hours even in cool weather, unless 100 -
riabt on the ice So we either nave TO rep
our meat in the refrigerator oi aise lake
ont only as il is called LOT, VI Si7S -
The chance of having it go bad on our
hands. ,- absolutely MOTH
,ng barmful about the preventative we useu "a.
II was guaranteed chemically pure, anu ~
- &C fasteless as water. Meat consumers
ore in far greater danger now OF P.oii. 49,
noisoning or whatever you car ~, .I,. o
they ever were of being lnJuieu 800, ~ for
SERVED meat OF course j can I answer - ~
r. conditions in the Chicago packlls
houses. but / know that only goou, Mlioi +
some meat ever came from the pa -
deaI with right here in this city. roi o
hing n is carefully inspected before anu
after Strengthening, and, so far as hHo"'
IT always was. As TO the pres '.,,i ~
preservaline, we called R-t Mas Us, q 70
~ 70 keep good meat good, ana help !. "
r.a+ain ito color. If the meat was pau "
start out with preserval:ne wouidh mani H'I
n nalatable No chemical on earth WIN
ever give rotten meat the ron WIZ - 5
flavor and hrm texture Vi e
and sound. .to.1 oan afford
to carry very little OF II, as II sliiiiI! I,
Keen ice or no ice, without the presefNa-
iine That is why the price OF the tehder-
Ioins has gone up. Pork used to pc chedper
meat than beef, but now it actually COSTS
more. .boo,s nothing
, doing in sausages any more. AS SAID pc
fore the public won't eat what IL can
trace the history of, and 50 sausages, "i a.,
used to be the favorite breakfast dlsn III
good many homes, are just a drug in the
market People have got Packingtowh on
the BRAIN and although the sausages sen
are made right in this state from nome
fed stock it's but few of my customers
that'll buy them-though. as you See Keep
a small quantity on hand.
ives they are a queer color; everybody
notices that, though nobody seems to guess
the reason. Sick looking one lady called
em; but it's just the natural color OF tne
meat without the preserva Inc BEFORE IL
been killed twelve hours ii takes on tnat
blush tinge. and people that are used 10
the rosy color the sausages used to have
think II isn't good. It's just dead meat.
that's what 1t is; and while L wouldn't sell
meat that wasn't good, / can't guarantee
that it's going to stay good unless 1t
cooked Immediately. Once off the ice L
can't answer for it,
Then there's the price of ice-that has
lot to do with the higher price of meat,
and If 1t keeps rising we sha be compelled
to put our prices up accordingly. But l
want to say just one thing more about
this business" the butcher concluded. with
emphasis; land that is, that the sooner
people get rid of the sentimental notions
they've got about their meat the sooner
the price will strike a fair average. Butch-
erin& isn't a drawing room occupation,
whichever way you look at 1t; and II you
once went into an abattoir you'd never eat
meat again as long as you live. But the
rtios ate Ism I nal1 as
dirty as those grapes you see out there on
the fruit stand, which have been covered
with all the germs that fly in the dusty
streets-and which you will put right into
your mouth without even thinking OF wash
ing them.