Show iT 11 1 L fL c I Hi I i b d91L N THE old days I for Which I hour l grandfathers sigh every housewife set apart one darIn 1 dar-in seven as unitS I unit-S n g I I a y a n d arose early tonIc to-nIc the pnn off of-f I dough which had I j boon left to rise m q all night She sent cD the children out J il for extra wooJ and spent half the day over a hot cookstove or perhaps In giving careful attention to one of those oldfashioned Dutch ovens fashioned of brick in tho shape of a flattened dome Nowadays the man of the house does not llnd It necessary to pray for his hilly portion of bread 1 he has lo do Is to go and select it from an assorted as-sorted collection behind n plateglass window and flY the price Each loaf is 1 precisely r like its fellows in weight iml shape and complexion and there Is a little stamp pasted on the side leslgnating the name and address of the maker Tho man who buys l knows little and cares less of the process by which the oaf came Into existence A few weeks ago some of the bakers oC this city went on strike because as they al eged they were working too many hours a day and getting paid too little i l 1 T Baking Small Stuff I The breaduser wondered casually at tills and then went on buying bread list the same Some Idea of the duties with which the bakers found fault may 13 I of interest to those who buy the product of their labor The process of making bread is after all not essentially different In a big modern bakery and in the cottage kitchen except In the magnitude of the operations and the substitution of machinery ma-chinery for hand work in a part of the process The same ingredients of flour and lard and sugar and salt etc enter en-ter Into the composition and there Is the usual period that must elapse while the dough is allowed to rise GOES TO WORK AT FOUR As a rule the baker works at night so that the bread 1 comes out of the oven crisp and fresh in the morning and goes to the consumer atlll warm 311 from the heat of the baking The baker on the night shift goes to work usually at 1 oclock Four i hours previous pre-vious to that the workmen on the day shin have mixed and set the sponge 11 which consists of four dunces of compressed com-pressed yeast to ejioh bucket of water and enough Hour to make a soft dough Coming on at 1 the baker divides the f Tir nINtflE o I s f sponge Into different parts for the different dif-ferent kinds oC bread and rolls and then proceeds toimlx the dough for the c molding He adds water in amount about equal to the quantity of sponge and mixes In with each bucket of the newformed dough eight ounces of salt twelve ounces of sugar and eight ounces of shortening Instead of kneading this by hand In the oldfashioned way he puts it Into a machine run by l steams and in twenty minutes 11 i is I thoroughly mixed The dough Is then lalun out of the machine ma-chine and placed In troughs to rise During the twenty or thirty minutes Interval required for the dough 16 rise the baker huts time to eat his lunch brought with him from home As soon a the dough has risen sufficiently ciently Il Is cut over and kneaded again and once more set to rise for thirty minutes Thlu period the men occupy In making up small stuff the sweet hun etc Then the I dough Is taken out of the troughs and placed on the bench and tho real hard work of the night begins With a sharp chopping knife one man cuts up the dough Into portions weighing exactly one pound each These are tested by a small pair of scales oji the bench LOAVES WEIGH A POUND At the other end o the bench two men take the pound weights of dough and mold them Into uniform shape for loaves of bread As each loaf Is shaped up it Is placed on1 canvas cloth spread over a long board A fold of the i cloth separates each loaf from the others and when the board Is full It Is placed on a rack to let the dough dry out for a half or threequarters of an hour I you ever tried lo take u pound of dough pound It on a board to knock tho wind out of It and then slap and push and squeeze it I into shape with both hands you will realise a little of the labor It requires to shape a thou sand similar loaves in the course of an evening From 7 oclock until 12 tho moulders stand at n unt IL Huperheated room with perspiration rolling down their cheeks and with legs wearied from the strained posture There can be no delay for the ovens arc yawning for the 1 white loaves and the timo lost means perhaps soured read and other unpleasant conse quences As fmst as the loaves are sufficiently dried they are placed In sUfclenUy time baker The modern oven Is heated by Injections of steam to l temperature of over 100 degrees Fahrenheit The scam envelopon tho bread and keeps It from burning at the same time im I parting a gloss to the crust which no I housewife with crude appliances can hope to imitate In the baking about two ounces of the weight are lost and the t bread Is token out ready to sell except for the paper trademark which Is pasted on by u small boy GET AWAY AT THREE When the ordinary loaves aro finished np about midnight tho molderr turn their attention to rye bread German rolls twist bread long French bread New York rolls and other bread eccentricities ec-centricities For each of these varieties urletes a different mixture of dough Is required re-quired and the process of molding la ot course different About two hours finishes this Job and then the bench men are expected lo assist with the packing and to dry out the canvas cloths and hang them up ready for the next shift 3y a i oclock usually some tlmcs not until 4 1 or 5 they arc through wllh Iho nights work and ready to go home For these eleven hours of labor spent almost without intermission In a hot room standing continually at n bench and working Incessantly with both hand the baker gets 11 a week The man who runs the oven gets n few dollari more Tile contention of the bakers union of this city Is that they should receive v16 a weekand extra pay for overtime with a whole days rest in every seven Hence the boy cols and strike which have < been of weeks frequent occurrence in the last few |