5000 HOUSEWIVES CAUSE RIOT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15175, 14 December 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

5000 HOUSEWIVES CAUSE RIOT.

* BUTCHERS - BOMBARDED WITH §|j f SAUSAGES. • - V' Extraordinary riots were caused by t 5000 housewives in several of the Berlin' A municipal meat 'markets. t, . ?§||iSt Owing to the scarcity of, German • meat ' the Berlin Municipality recently opened a fund of £30,000 to purchase fresh ■ meat for ; sale in ■. the poorer districts $'o%k ■ the city. :v&: \ For the first . time . ■ the . Russian f' meat t^. 1 ■was placed 'on sale. Crowds of ; pobt,|:tf,j women gathered outside the market halls y| long before the gates were opened, with 5;; their bags and money ready, 1 - l-'J'Sg , As Boon as the gates were opened, they rushed to . the stands, straggling • to served first. : Several of them came i : f|; blows, and somo had their clothes torn ■off in the fight for placet). . ' /,-* Vy Suddenly, to their consternation, posters \£m were issued r announcing that the butchers ' refused to sell the Russian meat because V-'A it was of bad quality. The real reasonj'-iji. for their refusal was that, being oblige# |;s|i to . sell at ~. fixed prices, the sale was scarcely profitable for '.them. \ The news was received by the disappointed housewives with loud cries of in» | |' dilation, and violent demonstrations, w Q quickly followed. In on© market hall the retailers were bombarded with sausages; ,{0 in another, where the meat supply ||f ! scarce, the women fetched largo c[uanti- ; ! || ties of vegetables from a neighbouring';^§ market and used cabbages as missiles. . : ,,jg The retailers fled by back doors, under ! police protection. One of, them provCk«d'M| the hysterical women by shouting: "W*i/'p you cannot afford our good . German meat, feed on cats and dogs. He was threshed and would have been killed by the irt* Jpjj furiakd women if the polioo had not ia* terfered. . . ■ ■ I n. i'