A Saleratus Army

A band of conödence operators, with a btand-new scheme, has been let loose in thls vicinity to prey upon and annoy our housekeepers. The operators are generally woruen, alüiough employed and tütected by an ngent of the other sex, and their method of procedure, as cxpluincd by seveial hul es who have been victimized, is as follows: These women cali at private residences and manoeuvre to pel access to the kitchen, wliere ihcy mroduce the subject of baking powders, inquiiïng the kind used in the family. Biing sliown the can, peihaps a rresh, full one, tliey volunteer to "test" t to aseertain its aualltiei. Their " test " consUts in placing the can on a hot etove or over a lamp or gas jet. It the baking powder is good tor anything the heat will, of course, expel the gas, which, beiug ammoniacal or earbonic, is apparent to the seiise of sniell. The claim is then made tliat this odor iudicates soiuething detrimeuta), although, as a matter of fact, a baking powder that woald give ofl' no gas wkcii subjected to heat would be without leavrnlng power and valueless. Circuláis are left with the housekeeper condemning the brand of baking powder teeted, and putting forti) the claims of gome other brand as the "only pure,"; or the new baking powder is oflered tor sale, or orders are taken tor it to be turned over to the family grocer. Were this the whole of the trick, housekeepers would not often be deceived. Every intelligent person knows that bakinje powder is not made to be used in this way, but in a mixture with flour and water, when its iction is entirely diÖVrent trom tUat produced by dry heat. But the chief object of this jugglery is to destroy the baking powder given for testiiiK; or by heating it to drive off its leaveuing gases, and so welken it that when used it will fail to work. At the next baking tuere is heavy food, of course, and the ' tramp" probably gets the credit of lmviiig told tlie housekeeper a valuable tact, instead it liaving spoiled her baking powder, as was actnalTy the case. The average " tramp " will, in this way, degtrov f rom fifty to seventy-five pounds of baking powder a day. A second method for spoiling for use the baking powder in a kitchen wbera they are not permitted to experiment with it, is by decterously throwing in the can a small quantity of galt, soda, or powdered lime. Again, should there ckance to be no bnking powder tn the house, the operators will produce, of the i;.,d uncd i,y iiie ramny, a sample that has been purposely adulteiated or " loo.tored " to make sueh au exliibit as they deslre under tlie socalled test. The only way to protect our food from being contaminated by tramps of this kind is to turn all persons who wish or attempt to tamper with it unceremoniously trom the door, and to use the anieles only which experience bas proved satisfactory, or the official tests have establislied as pure and wholesome.