Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1895 — HORSE MEAT AS FOOD. AWAITING THE KILLER. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HORSE MEAT AS FOOD.

AWAITING THE KILLER.

TIS SAID THERE IS ALREADY QUITE A DEMAND FOR IT. Two Regularly Organized Horae Packing Plants in the United StstssMeata Used by the Poor of Large Cities and Much la Shipped Abroad. It'a a New Industry. It was during the dark days of the Paris commune that horse flesh as a table viand flrat came into metropolitan use. The necessities* of the beleaguered citizens drove them to its adoption, and there are many Americans now living who were shut up In

the famine-stricken metropolis, who could probably confess to more than one meal from some ancient charger worth his weight In gold on the butcher’s block. At that time It was considered a rather unique and valorous operartion. To-day, however, the systematic killing of horses on the market Is by no means a new thing, and capital Is reaching out to utilize the industry for all It is worth. No one can be absolutely sure that In buying a can

branded “corned beef” he is not securing an equine preparation masquerading as the genuine article, and all because horses are cheaper to kill than to keep. So far, popular sentiment is against the noble steed as an article of diet, but among the lower classes of Poles and Bohemians, in large communities of cheap workers, and especially abroad, there seems to be quite a demand, and liking, too, for “roast horse,” “horse steak,” “fried horse,” “horse soup” and “horse sausage.” One of the men now largely engaged in the industry insists that horse meat is wholesome and palatable, and “unusually fine with cabbage,” himself and family occasionally indulging; but, as his men were engaged in butchering an animal with-an ulcer big as a silver dollar as he made the statement, there was certainly nothing of an inviting character in sight to engender kindred tastes In persons of finer susceptibilities. There are two regularly organized and tolerated establishments in the United States operating horse packing plants, and any number of smaller ones. One is located on a wild prairie

at the outskirts of Chicago, occupying a building 30x70 feet,Tmt fitted up with every accessory for conducting a genofcil slaughtering business. Its capacity Is about 100 horses a week, which are purchased at an average cost of $1.75. The animals secured for sacrifice are wornout horses from liveries, mines and street car and omnibus companies, and generally weigh about 700 pounds. After killing, about 200 pounds can be utilized. This brings three cents a pound from commission merchants, who distribute it among the 8,000 workers on the drainage canal, and in other industrial centers, as demanded. By canning it and shipping it to Antwerp, packers get 4 cents a pound. The hides and bones are also marketable, bringing the value of a butchered animal well tip to ten dollars. A visit to this horse-killing establishment reveals system, if not cleanliness.

The animals are allowed to roam in a iklnd of corral, and when one Is selected for slaughter, a man places a gunny sack over its head and leads It Into the killing room, where another man stands ready with an axe and de-

livers a blow between the eye* that Instantly kill* the animal. It is then skinned, its leg* being chopped off, and the marketable part ia hung up in the cooling room, the treatment being identical with that awarded beef. Some of it is salted, other parts are thrown into iron cauldrons with a capacity of 300 gallons. The packers claim that only parts are thus treated that are sold to the glue makers, but an outsider insists that he saw the necks of horses in one of these vats which were made 'lnto “beef extract;” another thought it was soup stock, and yet another was certain that saloon free lunches were supplied out of these kettles. The enterprise at Portland, Ore., has a much wider scope than its Eastern prototype. There it was simply sought to utilise the thousands of half-starved, semi-wild horses roaming the plains. Last July a big bunch of these animals were rounded up for the butchering block. They were forced to swim the Columbia Hlver, driven to Umatilla, and then transported by rail to Portland, en route for the abattoir at Linnton. Here extraordinary preparations were, made for them. The horses wero corralled and, as needed, were driven up an inclined plane into an inclosed pen, leading into convenient buildings, supplied with cooling rooms, large, modern taks, canning rooms and all the varied departments of a first-class packing house. On the ground floor were the vats for steaming the fat out of the meat, a number of smaller tanks of galvanized iron, two large vertical digestoreor retorts, a press for pressing the oil out of the meat, a kiln heated by steam for drying the bones, a bone crusher resembling a rock crusher, a disintegrator or machine for grinding

the refuse into a fertilizer, a boiler and an engine. All the by-products are utilized, so that the profit Is not only on the flesh. After being killed, the legs of the horses are cut off at the knee, the mane and tall removed, a slit made the whole length of the skin, and the head skinned and also a part of the neck. A rope is made fast to the skin, so it cannot slip, a chain put around-the neck and fastened to a post, and power Is applied. In ten seconds the skin comes off, a few cuts and slashes ensue, and the horse is on the way to the cooling room, or being boiled up for canning purposes. Recently various State Boards of Health have taken cognizance of this and kindred slaughtering establishments and their methods, and there a determined effort being made to suppress the industry, at least so far as the indiscriminate sale of the product is concerned. It is charged that quite reputable retail butchers have more than once palmed off choice horse cuts as prime beef, and large beef packers are very much concerned for fear these exposures will injure their trade, and induce foreign governments to lay an embargo on legitimate products.

CORRALL AND HORSE PACKING PLANT NEAR PORTLAND, OREGON. New York World.

PACKING PLANT NEAR CHICAGO.

IN THE BUTCHERING ROOM.