The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1867-09-24
THE PORK BUSINESS IN CfECTrxArTI

oslty 20 visit one ol the celebrated pork
making establishments The Banner
Slaughter and Pork packing HOUSE. ("
which, being the newest contains All
tho improved apparatus
II Is clean new brick building with
extensive yards adjoining It, tiIled with
hogs from the farms and forests Of Ohio.
Indiana and hentuckY From these
yards TO the third story of the house
there is an inclined plane, mp which
q procession Of the animals march slow
ly up 10 their doom from morning until
evening. Here is the FIRST economy. .--
The thing to be done is to transfer the
pigs from those yards to the basement
Of the building, and on The way convert
Them into salt pork, They walk to ale
scene oi massacre at the top OF the
building, and thezdoscent to ihe cellar
aecomplsshes itself by the natural law
which causes everything to seek tho
earth. Arrived at the summit, the fif-
teen foremost find themselves in "a
tight place" squeezed into pen, in
which they must remain standing from
want otroom 70 lie down. There are two
OF these pens, and two pen mem" SO
that at the moment one is empty, there
is another ready filed, and work thus
goes on without interruption. The If
teen animals which stand compressed.
with their heads thrust upward await
ing the stroke Of fate, express their emo
tons N language natural to them, and
the noise is great
The executioner, armed with q long
handled, slender hammer, and sitting
astride Of the fence, and gives to each
OF these yelling creatures his quietus by
a blow upon the head The pig does
not fall when he is struck; be cannot;
he only stares and becomes silent. The
stranger who. is unable TO witness the
execution has an awful sense of the
progress by the gradual cessation Of the
noise. We mention here, for the bene-
fit of political economists, that this
knocker-down, who has the most disa-
.greeable and laborious part OF the work
to do, has the lowest wages paid of any
man in the house. He does not rank
as any artist at al, but only as a labor
er Renders of Adam Smith and John
Stuart Mills know why. When silence
within the pen announces the surren-
der of its occupants, a door is opened.
and the senseless hogs are laid in row
upon an inclined plane, at the bottom
Of which is long trough Of hot water.
One Of the artists called the sticker
now appears, and approaches the pig
nearest the steaming trough, gently
iNs its fore-leg, and gives it one easy,
delicate and graceful thrust in the
throat. Along the trough on each side
of it, is row Of men, each with an in
strument in his hand, waiting to begin !;
and apart.from them stands the head
scaldvr, t,lav FsafEc nvvuuu In tho aoara
having task of all but the q~ootoat diff
iiculty to perform. Scald pig too hong.
or IN water tp arfy dcgreeb too hot, and
he comes out as red 6p u Iabstarl lot
the water be too cool OF keep him in it
too short time, and the labor Of scra-
ping it is trebled. Into the hot water
the hogs are soused at intervals Of twon
ty seconds, and the scalder stands,
watching the clock and occasionly try
ing the temperature of the water with
his finger, or the adherence OF the hair
on the creature first to be handled
"Number One" he says, atlength. BY
amachne for the purpose Number One
is turned over on II long, declining ta-
bic, where ho lies smoking. At the
same instant two men pun ont his val
liable bristles and put them into bar
rel, and two other men serapc one side
Of him with scrapers. In few seconds,
these turn him over and pass him on to
two other scrapers, who scrape the 9TH
er side, and then slide him along to four
other men, who trim and finish him,
leaving not a hair on his soft and quiv-
ering body. Then be falls into the
hands of two 'gamble-men, who insert
a stick to keep the hind legs apart, and
by the aid of machine, hang him up
with his head downwards Next, the
the animal is consigned to the great ar
fist OF all, who performs upon him the
operation so much in favor among the
nobility in Japan This artist, we re-
greet to say, but viii not conceal from
to fastidious public, is called "the Gut
ter" One long, swift cut down the
whole length Of his body--two or three
rapid in and out cuts on the inside
and the entire respitory and digestive
apparatus are smoking upon the table,
under the hands Of men who are remov-
ing from it the material for lard
This operation, here performed in
twenty seconds. and which is frequently
done by the same fifteen hundred times
day, takes an ordinary butcher ten
minutes This man earns six dollars
and a half day, while no one else re-
ceiyes more than four; and if he is alb
sent from his post, his substitute, who
has seen the thing done for years. can
only perform it one-ffth as fast, and
the days work Of the house is reduced
to one fifth Of its ordinary propuction.
The long room in which the creatures
are put to death, scalded, and japaned
presents as may be imagined, most
horrid scene Of massacre and blood--ol
steaming water and fabby. naked, quiv.
ering hogs-of men in oil skin suits al
shining with wet and grease. The resi
of the establishment is perfectly clear
and agreeable. The moment the bodJ
II the animal il empted, boy innun