Greenfield Evening Republican, Greenfield, Hancock County, 1 December 1894 — Page 4

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UNION STOCKYARDS.

ONE OF CHICAGO'S WONDERS AND !TS 'JNEQUALED MAGNITUDE.

-The Great v-fyter- jmil Psflting Hoases. In i«w «ix iu:ilc -iij sii«ninsr and

THo IWnrlMt.

nil Correspondence.]

C: :cAv^. J7.—My opinion of the Chic ago stockyards as they were seen yesterday is of a lro ul expanse of territory divir1*•. rations and traversed by busy streets, of squealing pigs and bleating 1

f"ighti,ne.l

but silent cattle,

of streams and pools of blood, of bare armed and onsruiLcr.incd butchers, of clouds of stea.'i!. of aeres and acres of mud, of smell! :f nuuiy shades, but all of the same general cr! and all equally indescribable, of r!H"-frig to and fro and shouting and ,j.-.-Hmiiug, of almost interminable vistas between hanging rows of dressed pork mtl l»vf and mutton.

But aDove all these impressions is the doniinaiii s.. iu that here is system of a ino: fc '\iir.p" ]:enp:ve order. Here human ingenuity been taxed to the utmost for tiiv- \s urging out of that most important problem in the world of affairs of today, i-Iow shall time be economized? Hero the principle of co-operation is vindicated in a leic. ki Kr.iiH) decree. ..cj.t.iiiiij Aiii./iigh the Yards.

The '"v1" are perhaps quito as interesting :.h ilso iekini/ houses, but after you have scon one or two blocks you have practically seen them all. The blocks arc divided h\' beard fenccs into pens, and from certain of these pens men on horseback and in foot aro continually driving tho stock through the streets into other pens. There is a deal of whip cracking and yelling expended in the operation of this transferring tho animals, but they go quickly enough in the main, although now and then a Texas steer makes things lively for a few minutes, and the confusion is made worse by the men who drive about in buggies tnrough the stock crowded streets, and in the morning by the many buses that forco their way among the cattle ami -sheep and hogs. These buses are not e: ::e'.jy !ik» any other vehicle with which I am familiar. They are furnished by the proprietors of the packing houses for tho conveying of their office employees, of which there must be some thousands of both sexes, to r.r.d from their work.

The confusion on the streets would bo even worse than it is were it not for tho fa-. lie yards are connected by ovemeait runways, crossing tho streets at an elevation of 10 or 15 fret, and which not only 1 vo the traffic of the yard, but furnish a nnicine feature to the landscape, if the.' -c .applicable to a stockyard view.

Tho Packing Houses.

It is quite a walk across tho yards to tho packing houses, and during tho stroll the visitoi passes the exchange, a low brick and stone building in which many firms of dealers and brokers in meats, both on font and dressed, are located. The packing houses themselves aro enormous institutions. A dozen separate concerns operate tuem. tho two most important of which aro Swift & Co. and Armour & Co. This information is probably gratuitous, for their brands are to be read in all parte of the kimwn world, but a writing upon the pae! ing houses that did not mention them would miss a, most important allusion. I haven'!, any idea which of the two is the i.-wger, but I am told that the Armour peofjie kill more pigs, while tho Swift, iol,,s butcher more cattle. I ran across i-- 3 and was guided by an cmp' i...: '.''/".'.it! for that purpose through the packing house.* of that coneern.

The k)n' hu: -r guide is a most entcrtauiintr epviuive. It is his delight to tell startling stories of the number of killings t'n st. may be aeeompli -hcI in a day by '•our h(iijse"ai!d to hold up all other killers and packers to well deserved scorn. lie also fivis ii, incumbent upon him to see that tl visiln Witnesses every tiling going-

I si Tow tf a Guide.* \v the guide told me today but I shall not repeat his ^ate:eiv. The reader might, believe ovthem from tho lips of that guide,

men is ery on

but he would not. probably swallow them whole il I were to write them down. It is the gi M.'e ..'-t'-iioTi that pig butchery is the most interesting feature of a packing house, and ho said I ought to see it if I ,6aw nothing else. I saw it, and this is how it is done and how it is viewed by tho ivisitor:

First as to the visitor. Ho is guided across a vast and bloody floor crowded with men who aro operating on dead pigs in various ways and past a vat of hot and

ENTRANCE TO THE STOCKYARDS.

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Bteaminc water, where the carcasses aro scalded before the hair is taken off. Then a narrow Hight of stairs, half hidden by the steam of the scalding, is climbed. Then the visitor binds his noso with his handkerchief, even if he is somewhat defective hi the sense of smell. Thon two or three mysterious doors and corridors aro passed, a perpendicular and very dirty ladder is climbed, and—there you are, standing in a little gallery over a pen of pigs, every ono of which is squealing at tho top of its pachydermatous voice. Tho inference of the visitor is that tho pigs know that thoy om to die, and ft is a pleasure to record that once thoy have been got into that grewsome place thoy die quickly.

How the Pigs Are Killed.

A brawny chap staryis ready as tho pigs are brought in. With tho strength and skill that come only after long practice he loops a chain about ono of the hind logs of a pig. On a sort of shelf some six or eight feet above another man stands, and he pulls a lever that leads to the suspension of tho pig, head downward, from an "overhead railway." Then a man with a long and keen knife buries It to the handle in the animal's throat. There Is a sudden stoppage of that particular pig's squeal, a great gush of bright pig blood, and what was erstwfiile bog is now meat.

The carcass is sbovod along to the soalding vat, thenoe through an elaborate system of rapidlv moving "scrapers" that remove the bristles, thence to various outting tables, where It is separated into

sidoe, hams, shoulders, sparer!bs and other cuts. A hundred men maybe have a hand in the killing and dismemberment of every pig. The fellow who severs the hams and shoulders from the sides is one of the most powerful men I have ever seen, ami he Ooes bis work impassively and with the.steadiness o£ a clock. About once in

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seconds he raises a mighty cleaver, and when ho lets the edged steel fall the cut n. i.iaoe invariably and oonipietoiy. "Say," said the guide, wlio saw me watching this brawny chap, he's as good as the feller in Paris with his gelatin, ain't he?"

The Beef Killing: Bed.

While tho pig whose brief death agonies and subsequent nirvana have been described was progressing from cutting tablc to cutting table, other pigs, in one conI tinuous stream, have been following along I the same grewsomo road at the rate of severai every minute, and at the same time numbers of sheep and steers have been deftly though not so rapidly sent along similar roads in other houses. Sheep aro killed in much the same manner as pigs, though their necks are broken after their throats are cut, and they are skinned and not scraped.

Cattle are driven into pens that will each hold one steer and tapped on the head with sledge hammers wielded by brawny men who do nothing else. They are after-

I

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KXOrKIXG DOWN THE STEERS.

ward ''stuck," eviscerated, skinned and cut up with the utmost neatness and dispatch, and every night there aro hundreds of carcasscs cooling in pieces that in the morning were great, handsomo steers, each one strong enough to put to flight a hundred unarmed men if only its animal might were backed by intelligence. The place where cattle are slaughtered is called a killing bed.

Quite as interesting as the killing beds are the packing departments, and the loading departments, and all the other departments, but they cannot all be described, and so I will stop right here, merely adding a few figures for tho benefit of those who liko statistics.

Some Stockyards Figures.

G. W. Dale was tho first Chicago meat packer. I.Ie began more than half a century ago with 200 head of cattle and 350 hogs. Tho Bull's Head stockyards were established in 1848 at tho corner of Madison street and Ogden avenue. The present Union stockyards were opened in tho Town of Lake, now part of Chicago, on Christmas day, 1S65. There wero seven miles of streets and pens for 118,000 animals, costing fl, 1(55,000. Now there are 20 miles of streets, as many miles of water troughs, 2K times as many miles of feeding troughs, 3% times as many miles of water and drainage pipes and S7 miles of railway tracks, while tho first cost of tho yards has now aggregated $4,000,000. Tho packing houses cost a good deal more, and in yards and packing houses together fully 20,000 persons find employment in the busiest times. Horses are handled here as well as butchers' animals, the Chicago stockyard horse market being tho largest in the world. It is carried on in a pavilion that was built at a cost of $100,000. I

The yards now handle .^(30,000,000 worth of stock a year, and it takes 313,000 cars annually to bring the animals here and 5(7,000 to take? them away, dead and alive. CIIAKLES APIJLEW:E.

GOSSIP AND GLEANINGS.

Mrs. of

I/Rngtry's Complexion—Women «:t—Horse .Show Echoes. [Special Correspondence. NEW YOUK, Nov. .'2(1—Mrs. Langtrv, with her marvelous complexion, looks as handsome as ever, if a few years older. The Jersey Lily always asserts that the brilliancy of her complexion and tho firmness of her skin are altogether due to her daily energetic constitutional. "A slow walk is little better than no walk. It is the rapid walk which brings the blood to the cheeks," says the famous beauty.

A woman of tact never says aught against her women friends when talking to a man. In almost every man's composition there is something which resents a disposition to injure those who aro absent and unable to defend themselves.

The light which the women of New York made to defeat Tammany will go down to posterity as a historical event in New York politics. Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell, the inspiration of the feminine forces, was 111 almost from the beginning of the campaign. From her bed, however, she directed the movements of the different factions, consulting daily with a representative of each.

There were a larger number of horses entered by women this year at the New York horse show than over before. Mrs. John Jacob Astor exhibited several saddle horses. Mrs. Foxhall Iveeno's horses were among tho prize winners.

Mrs. Coleman Drayton's recent denial of all her husband's allegations, signifying her intention to opposo his application for a divorce, has caused people who knew her as ''Lottio" Astor to become reminiscent. A woman who knew her as a child says that at 10 years of age she was noted among millionaire's children because of the little girls of her own ago employed to wait upon her, and, to quoto the reminiscent Indy, they wero "bossed" around considerably by their small, imperious mistress.

Something new and very sensiblo for the woman who must go out in bad weather is the rainy day outfit. It consists of a skirt and capo of cloth covered rubber. Tho mackintosh ulstor, while excellent, invariably means bedraggled skirts underneath. These outfits come in small checks of dark colors and are becoming as well as useful.

Tho passion for bicycling among fashionable women has received a few shocks lately. Mi's. Clement C. Moore, a well known New York society woman, had a very serious fall, resulting in a sprained anklo, and Mrs. Harper Pennington, the wife of tho artist, fell from her wheel, breaking her leg. It is reported that Mrs. Cleveland intends riding a bicycle. There have been some cruel rumors lately about the women bicyclists who have been independent enough to adopt the rational dress for wheeling. The makers of artificial sinews and musoles aver that they are unusually busy at present making padded calves for many of the women bloyclists. This rumor will confuse simple minded people, who Imagined the bicycling costume meant a decrease of feminine vanity and an Increase of good sense.

LAURA OLIVIA BOOTHS.

A TKUTHFUL SAILOB.

RELATES THE EXPERIENCE IN WHICH HE SWORE NEVER TO UE..

Two Scasncn, Futiicr nr.d Son. by a Shark, but Both Were Rescued In Igga UTarv-t! -..n -A .»t YV..S /Certainly Vwj iter.

"Have I ever seen a shark? Ask my mate—him that's rowing that 'ere couple out yonder. We were shipmates together aboaid the Rajapootah Indiaman. His father, who is dead and gone this SO v- cr more, was carpenter aboard of hoi "Well, ono day ^vevrere becalmed ou the line, wL n, says young Bill—he was young Bin t/ien, hi:a as I just pointed out to yoti—says he, 'I shall have a swim round for a cooler,' for, believe me, tho sun was that hot \re had to' throw buckets of water on the desk to keen it from catching fire.

In fact, a pig we killed tho day afore wo Iraus* aloft and roasted him in the sun, catching tho gravy in a bucket, and he was none beautifully. "So in ho goes head first, with bis clothes on, and me and his old man looked over tho side just abaft the forerigging to sc..) him oome to tho top of .tho water again. "But no iiill could we see, and instead of him up caruo a tremendous shark, with his sides stioking out as i: he had a cargo inside over and above his regular bill of lading. "It was thon as clear to us as the lioso on our faces that poor Bill had dived clear down his throat. "Tho poor old man had a fit right away, and we carried him below and put him in his hammock and then ran up on deck again in the hopo that we should bo able to catch the fellow. "But it vas nowhere to be seen, so after watching some time to no purpose we went down below to seo how the old man was getting on, and to our astonishment and sorrow wo found hi3 body nearly cold and as stiff as the flying jibboom. "We sewed him up iu his hammock, putting tho grindstone that he used to grind his tools with inside to make it sink and laid tho body on a hatch, with the union jack spread over it for a pall. "Then the skipper read the funeral service, all of us standing round dreadfully cut up, me especially, for young Bill was my messmate, and I was very fond of the old man. "As soon as the skipper had finished the last words, which I shall nover forget, they was so solemn, the hatch was tipped up, and overboard the body went with a splash, and all was overr at least we thought so. "But almost immediately afterward up comes another shark, a bigger one, it seemed, than the first. "Tho boatswain at once ran for the shark hook and baited it with a hunk of pork and slung it over tho stern, and it was not many minutes afore we had him hooked and hauled on deck. "Well, tho first thing we did was to cut his tail off, for he was flapping it abouA so that it shook the ship from stem to stern, that wo were afraid it would shako her to pieces. "After wo had done that we thought wo heard a very strange noise inside of him—a sort of grating sound, like a boat being dragged over a shingly boach. "So wro set to and cut off his head and then ripped him up, when, what d'ye think? What should wo see, to our groat astonishment and delight, Irit Bill and his father sitting upright liko two I Jonahs, the youngster turning tho grind stono and the. old man sharpening his knife, intending to cut their way out of tho creature's belly. "You say I said tho old man Was dead? Please don't interrupt luo, and I'll tell you all about it. "There's no doubt but what he seemed dead, but it was only his blood frozo with horror, and tho shark warmed him to life again. What made him most uncomfortable, Bill said, was the slipperyness and topsy turvyness of tho place, for there was no rest at all, for one minute he was standing on his head and the nest on his feet, and then he would be tossed from one side to tho other, sometimes getting, jammed botween the ribs, and he wondered the meal didn't disagree with the fish itself. "But at last camo the climax, and Bill thought it was all over with him, for down its throat was shot a he: vy body like that of a sack of coal rigi.t atop of him, nearly smothering him, that he had scarcely room to movo inbreathe, and he must have been soir.o time insensible, he said, when he was woke up with aloud report "He thought for a moment the creature had swallowed a powder barrel and it had exploded, but it was only tho bursting of the canvas shroud the old man was sewed up in, which had blown up like a paper bag. "The noise in its inside, Bill said, must have astonished the shark, for he again found himself standing upon his head, so he knew it was making for tho surface, and on reaching there it opened its enormous jaws for air, when a flood of light entered between the rows of teeth which enablod Bill on gaining his feet to take stock of his lodgings, and the very first thing that he saw was his old father crawling out from under the canvas like a chick from its shell. "The old man had caught sight of the grindstone and soon put it into working order, a'nd on tho fish onco more coming to the top and again admitting light Bill at once saw what was in the wind, and they commenced business at once, when they wore startled by a sudden change in the shark's movements, and soou they distinctly heard the sound of human voices, and they knew they were saved. "Well, we all was bo thankfnl at their miraculous escape from the jaws of death that eveiy mother's son of us on board took our solemn affidavits that we'd nover toll a lie or anything of that kind again, and me and my mate have k»pt our words ever sinoe."—Chicago Times.

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