216 
DÜSSELDORF. 
reception of three hundred men. Already the town has given a site valued 
at £7,500 for the purpose, and an equal sum is to be raised by private effort 
to meet the cost of building and equipment. 
Retail Prices. 
Groceries and other commodities. 
There are no public market halls in Düsseldorf, and the working people pur 
chase from three classes of shops—(1) those of their own Co-operative Societies 
of which there are three kinds, answering to the different types of industrial 
organisation, viz., the Social Democratic Society, with ten stores and a family 
membership of 2,450, representing 12,250 consumers, the Roman Catholic, and 
the Hirsch-Duncker ; (2) those of private traders scattered throughout the 
working-class quarters of the town, and (3) the large shops of the “ multiple ” 
type. An open market is still held daily until one o’clock in the market place 
near the town hall, but the supplies consist chiefly of vegetables and agricultural 
produce (brought from the country by the wives and daughters of the growers), 
fish, fruit, &c. The working classes of Düsseldorf are in the habit of buying 
their food stuffs of good quality. Of bread many kinds are eaten, but there is 
no home-baking. “Grey bread” is the staple loaf. It is made either of pure 
rye-flour or, more commonly, of rye with an admixture of wheat, and is sold 
as a rule in loaves of from 1J to 2 lb. weight. It is bread of close texture, 
soft within the very hard and resisting crust, and very nutritious. The 
predominant price in both October, 1905, and May, 1906, was from 
5\d,. to 6d. per 4 lb., the price of factory-made bread being rather less than that 
of the retail baker’s bread. A cheaper and coarser bread is black bread. It 
consists of unsifted rye, either once or twice ground according to price. This, 
too, is very largely eaten by the working-classes, and was sold at Id. to 1 \d. per 
lb. White bread is less commonly eaten, save in the form of breakfast rolls. 
The almost universal price for coffee paid by the working-class families was 
lid. per lb. A large amount of “ sugar coffee ” is sold. This is coffee roasted 
with a small amount of sugar, giving it a black glossy surface ; it goes farther 
than the ordinary coffee, and is used for the sake of economy. Roasted rye 
and malt are also substitutes for which there was a considerable demand at 2\d. 
and 2|rf. per lb. respectively in October, 1905. There is no demand at all for tea. 
The sugar exclusively used is loaf or “cube” sugar, for coffee, and white 
granulated, and the price was about 2f or 3d. per lb. for the former and 2\d. for 
the latter. Of margarine a large amount is consumed by the working classes,, 
though many grocers in the industrial quarters sell more fresh butter. As a rule 
only margarine of good quality finds a ready market. 
There are two kinds of bacon, the one consisting wholly of fat, w hile the 
other is of the kind commonly called “ streaky.” The former is not eaten as 
bacon, but used for frying other meat ; in fact, it serves the purpose of suet or 
lard, a circumstance wRich is somewhat surprising when one considers that the 
price in October, 1905, was usually about 9fd. per lb., while streaky bacon cost 
only Id. more ; indeed, in some shops the same price is charged for the one as 
for the other. It follows, therefore, that what are regarded as the best cuts of 
bacon in England, viz., those from the back, are not sold in Düsseldorf, and 
this appears to be the case in Germany generally. The fat is removed entirely 
from the back and ribs and sold in the form just described ; the remaining lean 
is then sold as pork chops. Bacon, as the term is understood in England, is 
made only from the belly, and is eaten boiled. 
The favourite cheese of the working classes is Dutch, at about lOd. per lb. 
Limburg cheese comes next in favour, at 5Id. per lb., and a smaller quantity of 
Swiss (“ Gruyere”) cheese is bought at 10\d. The price of milk was 2£dL per 
quart, but it is a common observation that the consumption is not as large as is 
desirable in the interests of young children. Hence it is that a society has been 
formed in Düsseldorf for the free supply of milk to families of restricted means. 
In the ordinary way milk is retailed in carts by farmers from the country, by 
dairies supplied direct from the farm, by small grocers in considerable number,.