Last week we made a tour of North Kinzie Street. Of course we saw no large business establishments, such as one sees on Clark Street or Lake Street, but we did see a number of butcher shops, and instinctively our thoughts turned to the sale of human beings in the South. Here we saw meat the color of which could not be discerned; it was neither red, white, nor yellow, but had a tinge of black, an indication that the animals were dead before they were butchered. We accidentally met two experienced butchers and they confirmed our fears.

Are there no officers in our city who have the authority to put a stop to this fraud? Why control the bakers but not the butchers who are guilty of many serious violations of the law, and whose offenses are much more detrimental to the health of the community than those of the bakers?

There are people who make a regular business of buying dead or half-dead animals and selling the meat to commission men. We hope that our most wise city fathers will pass an ordinance similar to the one which is in force in the East, making it mandatory that all meat offered for sale must be brought to the public market, which is under the control of the city--that is the express purpose of maintaining a public market, but ours is never used. [Translator's note: The author does not reveal, nor is the writer able to ascertain in what manner the city controlled the quality of goods offered for sale in the public market.]