Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 November 1891 — A MOVING BUTCHER SHOP. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A MOVING BUTCHER SHOP.

Meat Sold In mL xico City from Donkeys’ Backs by Itinerant Butchers. Only the better classes of Mexicans eat meat, and one of the great fields of American investment is in the packing interests of Mexico. Hams and beef bring high priees, and the meat business of the city is managed by monopolies. Good beeves are worth from $25 to SSO a head. There Is more mutton eaten than beef. The meat wagons of Mexico City are mules. Take one of the greasiest, dirtiest mules you can find and fasten a framework of hooks to a saddle on his back. Let this framework extend about a foot above the mule, and on the hooks hang the halves and quarters of beeves, so that the blood drips from them on the ground. Then you have the Mexican butcher cart of the mountains. The butcher or jneajt peddler wears a great blanket about his shoulders, a broad-brimmed hat on his head, and his feet are bare. If you buy a quarter of beef, he will carry it into your house ou his head, and if you want a slice he will hack off a piece for you, and charge you about the same for the neck as the loin. The Mexicans sell every part of the animal, and in every market you will find little cook-shops in which shreds of beef are fried and offered for sale. These are for the Indian customers, who stand about and eat the greasy morsel with their fingers, and without the use of knife, fork, or plate. In Mexico City the butchering is more carefully done, and beef is comparatively cheap. You can get a roast for eighteen cents a pound, but pork is more expensive. The pork business of Mexico City is controlled, by a Mexican, who has made millions

out of it, and he is now putting up one of the biggest packing-houses in the world. He has his agents all over the city, and he imports his hogs from Kansas.

MEXICAN MEAT WAGON.