The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1860-09-15


untamed bulls. cows. and oxen, looked at
the walk they were expected to take. was not
at all surprising. e vas to cross plank
platform into ChaFybdis of darkness, ma
chinery, fire and strange objects. running
8 gauntlet of diabofcal looking men upon
the way. and most fearfnlly banged upon
the runp and sides balofe starting. Thiss
for me, was not the new part the spectacle.
however. One may see at almost any rail-
road depot or misunderstanding, q similar
preparation of frantic beef for the market
land. mercy aside, it is an everyday tain
ting of our comestibles with madness, which
Medical Science should give us report up
on } but there was something must de-
scribe more particularly, the forcing Of men
to force cattle!
AS the reader already knows, probably,
the hands of Mississippi steamer are a
moral driftWood for which that river is the
whole western country's Understanding
sluice. It is vocation for desperate men,
requiring no skill, and resorted to as q last
refuge from starving or crime-the only
class of men I have ever seen, who could
utterly forget that their dirt and rags and
hideous abandonment of demesnory and
countensnce we're visible to any huMan eye
unconscious as well as desperate in their
misery. Over such men there must be 3
tyrannical master, of course; and quite a
model of that thing was the boatswaip, or
''boss' of the "Die Venom brutal
Hercules of fellow, who could whip any
dozen of his crew, and who walked about
with short club in his hand, looking IS il
be expected every moment to be called up
on to do it.
The cattle were on the open leVee, snor-
ting and plunging, and each striving to get
his head to the center of the herd, when
thirty or forty men were diyen out over the
gangway to compel them toward the plank.
AS It was really dangerous to approach the
maddened creatures, there was naturally
some lodging and fiinching by the crew: and,
close upon such demonstration. followed q
clenched nape of mans reck or punch
with the club or fist, which showed the an.
imal's horns to be the easier alternative.
There was not only no directing. but no or
dering or rebuking of the desperadoes.-
They were treated as if below everything
except blow or curse, and they were ex-
pected to push and crowd the cattle onward
as if part of their duty were total disre-
gard of their own worthless lives. For
most of the beeves, the thirty or forty clubs
were sufficient persuaders but there was
here and there an Infatuated bull who took
look at the steam machinery and tunred
and for these there was final propulsion
which I had never before seen applied.
The Hercuiean ''boss" seized the creature
by the tail, and, with twist of it which
would end in wrenching it from the spine,
evidently inflicted a torture which there wac
no resisting. AS the awful elbow went
round, straight ahead went the bull, gallop-
ing up the plank and jumping on board as
if discharged from mortar Upon inqui-
ry, afterward, found that the tails were of
tenest dislocated by this process-not con-
sidered of much consequence, as the cattle
were on their way to the slaughterhouse.
ventured down to the lower deck, after
dark, and made my way through the la
Eyrinth of freight. machinery and cattle 4;
and the men found, were disposed of very
much like kennel of dogs. Most of them
were asleep, wherever they could End a
corner or a resting place for the head here
and there group gambling by the furnace
fires, some stretched like wet clothes over
the hogsheads of tobacco, but no sign of any
thought of accommodation for them The
contrast of the level of abandoned men and
moaning cattle, and splendid luxury of the
floor above-all af1oat over the same keel
and guided by the same helm-was, to say
the least, suggestive