AMERICAN PORK.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6851, 6 May 1884, Page 4

AMERICAN PORK.

Bad blood is being stirred up between the Americans and all people in the Old World who have put a ban upon American pork. It is nothing new to hear that France and Germany are very sensitive on the subject of trichina. Bnt now the character of the American hog has been so^ frequently '.called in question that its importation in the shape of bacon or bam has been prohibited. The Americans not unnaturally resent this. To begin with' they entirely repudiate the charge. It has no more foundation, they say, than the complaints of cannibals who have suffered from a diet of hog-eating American missionaries. If it were so the cannibal countries would return the missionaries sent them, as Germany returns the pork barrels, unopened. There is nothing for it but a war of reprisals ; the American papers suggest that everything shall be rejected that comes from abroad, " whether it is intended to be eaten, drank, worn, or associated with." More, if a cannibal is imported for a show let him be returned unless he can show that his countrymen are still partial to American missionary as a table dish. Let Prince Bismarck's rations of Milwaukie beer, his favorite beverage, be ruthlessly cut off. Above all let every American religiously stay away from Paris, and as steadily refuse to buy any articles of Paris manufacture. The result would certainly be that the most fastidious would soon consume any quantity of pork, even when raw, rind and all. No doubt the threat is a serious one, and may prove very successful if tried. Meanwhile the closing of foreign markets has done much to reduce the price of this succulent but suspected article of food, and the result is that while hog raisers and manufacturers suffer, native patriots can dine off pork and beans as often as they please.