Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1893 — SIGHTS IN A BIG TOWN. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SIGHTS IN A BIG TOWN.

SOME PLACES OF INTEREST IN CHICAGO. The Great Meat Packing Industry and How It Is Carried On at tho Stock Yards —Lumber Yards Along the River—City Prison, Etc. Garden City Gossip. Chicago correspondence: Southwest of the business center of Chicago lies a vast district given over mainly to industrial interests and to the homes of the humble artisan. There are no imposing mansions, few stretches of greenness, and the picturesque is not present, but the visitor determined to “do" the city thoroughly and well will be surprised at the amount of information to be gleaned and practical benefit derived from a glimpse of this section, which has a great bearing upon the social and commercial growth of the World’s Fair metropolis. The South branch of the Chicago River winds its way through the district in question, and influences its character to a large extent. It is not impossible for an energetic talker to prevail upon some of the owners or captains of the numerous tugboats which ply the stream to allow a free trip from the mouth of the river as far

south as they run. A great panoramic view would be the result. Docks, slips, quarries, tanneries, brick yards, the extensive wood and coal wharves, the old canal inlet, the starting point of the mammoth drainage ditch, which is to cost millions of dollars before it is completed, and mix the waters of Lake Michigan with those of the Gulf of Mexico would in turn greet the beholder. Tho immensity of Chicago’s commerce will not bo wondered at after such a voyage is made, and the variety of water craft to be seen, from the mud scow to the new whaleback grain steamer, pretty thoroughly display the best talent ana ingenuity of the modern ship-builder. A like profitable trip may be made on the Blue Island avenue street cars. These pass the West Division water works at 22d street, immense shops devoted to the manufacture of agricultural implements, boilers, machinery and malleable-iron castings, and the celebrated lumber district of the city as well. Here the visitor will find the great central lumber distributing point of the Northwest, guarded by' fire

boats, covering miles and miles of river frontage, and giving employment to many thousands of laborers. Just , beyond the terminus of the car line lies one of the model workhouses of tho country—the city bridewell —the correctionary prison for the punishment of light crimes and misdemeanors. In system, and interest this institution fairly rivals the noted State penitentiary at Joliet. Its cell houses are built on the very latest plans for perfect ventilation and general utility, and its workshops give occupation to a motley throng well worth studying as truly representative members 01 the unfortunate classes of society.

The Stock Yards. Another interesting point of importance is the Chicago Stock Yards. Thousands, almost millions, have come from all over the world to visit this center of the cattle industry, probably the largest and finest in its line in existence. They are accessible by way of the South Halsted street and the State street cable cars. Meat packing is the basis of Chicago’s prosperity, for it is the oldest of all the city’s industries, the first lot of cattle ever packed in the

county being slaughtered in 1832. -They numbered on that occasion some 250 head, and cost $2.75 per hundred weight; about 350 hogs, costing $3 per hundred weight, being slaughtered and packed at the same time. years later, the city received in twelve months no fewer than 7,059,355 live hogs, 1,382,477 cattle, and 335,810 sheep, since which time the proportions of the hog product of the country handled by Chicago have kept on increasing. In 1891 the estimated value of all cattle handled was over $239,000,000, while 278,044 barrels of pork, 362.109,199 pounds of lard and 57,189,677 pounds ®f wool were shipped away. An inspection of these yards, which

front on South Halstad street just beyond Thirty-ninth street, and which have so interested the gaze of the world-wide tourists, will strike the average beholder with wonder. They comprise a city in their area and environment, the enormous business done centering in some four - hundred acres of ground. The yards are divided off into sections so as to include 3,300 pens, 1,800 of which are covered, provision thus being made to handle 25,000 head of cattle, 14,000 sheep, and 150,000 hogs at one time. They contain twenty miles of streets, twenty miles of water troughs, fifty miles of feed troughs, and seventy-five miles of water and drainage pipes. Five artesian wells, having an average depth of 1,230 feet, afford an ample'supply of water. There are also eighty-seven miles of railroad tracks, all 'tne’ great roads having access to this vast market. » The entire cost of grounds and improvements was over four millions of dollars. The meat packing industry is carried on in immediate proximity to the Stock Yards. The extent of this interest may be imagined from the fact that a single business controlled by one of the great packing firms of the city occupies seventy acres of floor space and employs 3,500 men. The Stock Yards are open to visitors at all times, but a person wishing to view the workings of the packing houses, can, on application, be furnished with a guide,

usually a workman, in the establishment visited. The traveller in remote and unsettled districts who purchases a wholesome and convenient can of prepared meat, the villager who receives daily a consignment of pork, beef, or mutton, fresh and refrigerated, have the great packing industry to thank for it all. It is possible to follow a cow or a hog from the pen into which it is driven at morning to the shapely loins of meat it forms a few hours later, by keeping it company and passing from section to section of the systematic handling it receives. The cattle are driven from the pens at the Stock Yards to the slaughtering houses. Here one swift blow dispatches the animal, and moving hooks catch it up, with scores of other carcasses following. It is cleaned, given a bath in a steam vat to remove bristles, quartered, its various portions sent to particular apartments, and then placed in the cooling houses. Equal care is taken in the shipment of the meat, clean refrigerator cars being used, which deposit Chicago beef, pork, or mutton in New York City within forty-eight hours after the cattle are received at the , Chicago stock yards.

Currencies Condensed.

Nineteen persons were prostrated by heat in New York Tuesday. Two BLOCKS of frame buildings burned at Findlay, Ohio, causing a loss of $20,000. The Citizens’ Exchange Bank, of Grant, Neb., hap closed its doors, the State Banking Board taking charge. Rates of ssl first class and $33 second class, St. Paul to San Francisco, were announced by the Great Northern. About 180 miners in the Gem and Frisco mines in Idaho have gone on a strike. The miners demand equal wages for skilled and unskilled labor. The Lane County Bank of Eugene, Ore., assigned. The officers say depositors will be paid in full. No statement of the liabilities has yet been made. The death is announced at New York of Mareschal Jose Simeao de Oliveria, of Brazil, President of the Brazilian Commission to the World’s Columbian Exposition. Justice Beach, of New York, grant* ed Frederick Blanc a decree of absolute divorce from Elizabeth Blanc, the “Baroness.” She is enjoined from the use of his name.

A STEADY improvement in the condition of labor is shown by the report of a sub-committec of the Senate Committee on Finance on prices and Wages for fifty years. It has been learned that Ralph E. Gaylord, who left Omaha, Neb., sixty days ago, and who was thought to have been insane, is in financial distress. He has probably fled to escape his debts. David Bryant, a street-car driver, was savagely kicked and beaten by Francis McCarton. a sergeant of police, at New York. McCarton was intoxicated and in citizen's clothes. He got into a quarrel on a street car with the driver and caused his arrest. A police-

man of the court squad finally jumped in between Sergt. McCarton and his victim and the latter's life was saved. The man’s screams were agonizing and penetrated to the court-room, causing excitement there. At Flat Prairie, Texas, the negroes held a big Emancipation Day celebration and a row started between two factions, one led by George Laplin and the other by Adam Watson. Knives and pistols held full sway for half an hour, both sides fighting fiercely. Many on both sides were badly wounded. Watson was riddled with bullets and knife wounds, while Sandy Laplin and three others on that side were killed.

THE CHICAGO STOCK YARDS,

entrance TO THE STOCK YARDS.

IN THE MOUTH OF THE RIVER.