The Household

It was learned that one of the largest firms engaged in the man. nture of the article was that of D. Richards, tt No. 256 Fifth avenue, and a visit was made to the establishment. Conrary to expectations, the repo: .er was nvited in and taken thro::b he es;ablishment by a member g ie flrm, Mr. J. J. Murry, who claims that his ather was the original inventor of the process of making butter from lard with a little butter thrown in. He had experimented for twenty years in Cleveland, and flnally the present stage of perfection had been reached. At the outset the flrm claims that they were not disposing of their manufactured article under the name of butter, but that of butterine. Until recently they had used the name of lard butter, but when orders came from England, where tbeir product had been shipped, for more butterine, the ! '5r name was adopted. On the first floor the lea. ..rd is received, and, at the time of the visit, au immense amount of it was piled up on a broad platform. It was examined and found to be of the best quality, and clean. The first process through which it goes is erinding. A machine stands near for this purpose, and appears to be simply a huge sausage machine. The grmding facilities rendering. When ground, the lard runs into vats in the basement,where it is heated to a temperature, it is claimed, not less than 212 degrees. This is be aved to ansv. er au pi jectiona so tar k.a the existence of trichinse is concerned. The lard in its melted state is clarified by some secret process, and when it cools it is as white and apparently as pure as snow. It has already assumed an appearance which more resembles bubter than lard, and when the coloring material has been added it is verily like creamery butter in appearance. For coloring a vegetable is used, which is not only harmless butnutritive. The original ordor of the lard has been entirely destroved and it now remains only to add real butter in a greater or less proportion. The rm claim that they use the best aery butter that can be purchasei. The two are mixed and worked by hand, salt being added at the same time. It is put up in tubs and small boxes and, so far as appearance goes, no one would know that the hundred tubs of creamery butter which went into the establishment had not in soine miraculous way been doubled or rnultiplied by three without having been disturbed. In taste ti 3 new compound is likely to deeeive even an expert, and certainly none would suspect the nature of the article II he had not been a "sampler" of butter. The "butter" which was shown the reporter might be distributed among fastidious families and eateu with great relish, and the very unpleasant sensation in the stomach afterward, such as followsthe eating of very greasy pies be never attributed to the butter which is half lard. When put into packages and ready for shipment, it is labeled butterine, and is sold to buyers as such. What the latter cali it wheu they dispose of it the flrm would not undertake to say. One of the members said that it was furnished a restaurant keeper around the corner near their establishment as butterine, and he ate it there daily and liked it. The reporter found that butterine was being manufactured by a man named Hobinson, in a basement at the corner of Lake and Market streets, who characterized the various gradea of his product as "Clover Leaf ," "Clover Blossom," and "Aroma," There are also reports that many others are engaged in manufacturing it. As to the proflts in the business, they are simply enormous. A gentleman who claims to know what the average pro portion of the ingredients is, said that in every one thousand pounds of butterine used there are two hundred and seventy-five pouuds of good butter, six hundred pounds of lard, and one hundred and twenty-flve pounds of salt. lts manufacture is not confined to this city alone, but has already spread over the entire Northwest. A dealer ordered a car load from Wisconsin the other day of the best creamery butter. He was not a little astonished on ita arrival to find that it was all butterine, but so well made that it could not be detected l'rom the best creamery except by careful inspection. It is adapted to all Eastern cities as well as to Europe, and is in great demand, simply because it satisfies the consumer and can be bought at a lower price