Tipping the Butcher

1901

Did you ever buy your own steaks and get the worst in the shop nearly every time? An old friend has had that misfortune, and he is always willing to pay two or three cents more a pound than any other customer. Having listened calmly to his tale of woe, I inquired if he had acquired the practice of tipping the butcher. Tipping the butcher? No! He thought It was a sufficient tip to offer the two or three cents more a pound. "That offer," I tried to explain, "goes to the proprietor direct, or his block man thinks you are trying to make a thief of him by inducing him to hold out for himself the extra price. It will never work.

"Just say to your cutter: 'See here, old chap, I've been dissatisfied with my steaks for some time. Come out and take a drink, and tell me how to select good meat.' He's too busy. Then slip a dime into his hand and say, 'Have a glass of beer when you get out,' or a quarter and say, 'Have a smile with me when you have time.' Repeat this performance and presently your steaks are the delight of home. In the busiest private market in New York it is the rule to tip the butchers. You can get nothing fit to eat without it." — New York Press.

Dogwood's Many Uses

1896

Dogwood wands make excellent whipstocks, and are used in some of the best whips. They are cut sometimes by coachmen in the suburbs and sent to town to be dressed and made up into whips. The stocks made of this wood are notable for their ornamental knobs at regular intervals, being the truncated and rounded branches. These are imitated in some other whipstocks, but the imitation is a cause of weakness. The dogwood stocks are extremely tough and elastic, being comparable in elasticity with whalebone.

The wood is used also for butchers' skewers, and some philologists conjecture that the first syllable of the name is a corruption of "dag," meaning a spine or dagger. Dogwood, as being peculiarly free from silex, is used by watchmakers and opticians in cleaning watches and lenses. The bitter bark of the dogwood is used also as a substitute for the Peruvian quinine tree.

Dogwood is notably of slow growth, and in all thickly populated regions the tree is recklessly despoiled for the sake of its blossoms, so that the supply of the wood for commercial purposes is not large. — New York Sun.

Economy in Small Ways

1896

The little leaks in the household expenses, says the Jenness-Miller Monthly, are the most mischievous. The big ones are prominent enough to compel attention. Do you not, for example, trust all your tradespeople implicitly? You can't afford to do so.

The head servants in the Vanderbilt and Astor, and other wealthy families have among their chief duties that of weighing the household supplies. Dry goods measurements in the large shops are generally very accurate because the employes are under strict orders to be exact. But grocers and butchers will bear watching. Get for yourself or your kitchen priestess a set of measures and some scales, and after you and she have learned to use them, you will be amazed to see how much you have been paying for that you haven't had.

Even in the most reliable shops — so called — the weighing is very lax. Butchers claim that the deficiencies in their weights are all due to the waste in trimming. Very well, order the meat sent untrimmed. You will get fresher meat, and what you trim off will often give you nice bits for the stock pot, suet, etc. Try it and be convinced.

A quick-witted housekeeper says she has earned many a dollar in plumbers' bills by buying a force cup and learning to handle a wrench. Despite washing soda and potash, now and then something unmeltable slips through the sink strainer and clogs the pipe. All the more modern plumbing has a nut at the bottom of the "goose-neck," just below the sink. By setting a pan beneath this, and with a wrench loosening and then removing the cap, the obstruction will generally be found right there. Sometimes the force-cap applied over the strainer in the sink will be sufficient to clear the pipe without taking the cap off the gooseneck. If both fail, no harm will have been done, but one or the other, or both, succeeds often enough to make it worth while to exercise one's ingenuity a bit.

Texas City Runs Its Own Abattoir

1910

PARIS, Texas — The first and only municipal abattoir and animal reduction plant in the United States is in this city, and has been in successful operation for several months. It marks the beginning of a new era in municipal ownership of industries that directly concern the welfare of the people.

It is said that the idea is practical for all cities and that it would work to particular advantage in towns of 10,000 to 100,000 population. If generally adopted it may lead to a solution of the problem of the high cost of meat and other food products.

In Paris, with an estimated population of 15,000, the municipal sanitary department found it very difficult to supervise the several separate slaughter houses maintained by the butchers. The health of the people was constantly menaced by the unsanitary conditions under which the animals were slaughtered and the meats handled.

These private slaughter houses were rudely constructed and most of them were in some swamp or thicket. During the summer flies were about the premises in untold millions. They covered the slaughtered animals. The odor was terrific, and, indeed, the whole surroundings were such that it appeared to all that the meat slaughtered under such conditions was not at all fit for food.

Mayor McCuistion and other members of his administration tried to induce the butchers to form a stock company and build an abattoir and reduction plant, operating it themselves, and allowing the city to furnish an inspector only, but this could not be accomplished.

The city then determined to establish its own abattoir and to provide rules and regulations that would insure the slaughtering of only healthy and well-conditioned animals and the delivery to the people of meat in perfect sanitary condition. The proposition was agitated and met with general favor on the part of the public. An issue of $10,000 of bonds was voted for the construction of the plant. It was equipped with sanitary arrangements and is modern and complete in every respect.

Mayor McCuistion says: "The new plant is being operated to the entire satisfaction of every butcher and every resident of the city, so far as I have been able to hear. We are greatly delighted with the success that has crowned our efforts in this work, and we believe that the establishment of this plant has marked a distinct era in the general sanitation of our city."

Leo Whitton Claims to Be the Fattest Man

1896

Weighs 715 Pounds

"The fattest man in America" is the way in which Leo Whitton announces himself. Up to a year ago Leo had been growing broader, rounder and more uncomfortable for the past thirty-seven years. He weighs 715 pounds. Daniel Lambert, the Norfolk giant, tipped the beam at 729 pounds, scoring the world's record.

Whitton's tremendous girth is not so apparent when he stands, but when he sits he is startling. His measurements are: height, 5 feet 10 inches; neck, 26 inches; biceps, 28 inches; chest, 6 feet; waist, 7 feet; thigh, 49 inches; calf, 26 inches. He comes of stock noted for fleshiness. He was born in Northumberland County, Ontario, Canada, of English parents. Up till the age of twenty-one years he worked on the farm at home. Then he went into the butcher business at Brighton, Ont., which he attended to up to three years ago, when his extraordinary girth rendered it impossible for him to handle the chopper.

When asked if he had endeavored to avoid growing so fat Mr. Whitton replied that he had tried all remedies. He has never tasted alcoholic drinks in his life. He loses from ten to fifteen pounds during the summer, but does not feel much relief from the loss. In winter he regains the amount that was missing. He is married to an average-sized woman, and has five children, the eldest of whom is seventeen years old. None of them shows any signs of abnormal stoutness. — New York Recorder.

Trap 200 Cats in A Market

1910

Vicious Animals Fight Captors, But Are Put Into Baskets for Annihilation

New York — Yowling, spitting, scratching and biting, 200 cats were cornered, one by one, the other night in the old Washington market and dumped into baskets, to be disposed of by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Agents of the society, policemen, watchmen, butchers, fishmongers, green grocers and all the little world of the market joined in a midnight hunt that, for activity and noise, outdid anything ever chronicled from Africa.

For years the cats, at first encouraged to keep down the rats, had run wild and increased in garrets and sub-cellars until they became an intolerable pest. The market is now in process of renovation.


Another Tradition Exploded

Two Englishmen were resting at the "Red Horse Inn" at Stratford-on-Avon. One of them discovered a print picturing a low tumbling building underneath which was printed: "The House in Which Shakespeare Was Born." Turning to his friend in mild surprise he pointed to the print. His friend exhibited equal surprise, and called a waiter who assured them of the accuracy of the inscription. "'Pon my word," said the observing Englishman, shaking his head dubiously, "I thought he was born in a manger!" — Success Magazine.