The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1872-11-08
MI 9 elan g GUS



MIA will do we'll to stop two days in Chi
cago, and one day in Salt Lake City, in
which case he would get to San Francisco
in ten days, and with surprisingly little ia
! tigue, and he will have seen several very
remarkable sights on the way. For in
stance, though Chicago itself was burned
and is not rebuilt, the ruin is worth seeing;
and near at hand, accessible by frequent
trains, he may find one of the most charac-
| teristic sights of our continent, the great
Chicago stock yards-a city whose inhab-
itants are cattle, sheep and hogs; and where
these creatures are so well cared for that
many a poor human being supposed to
have an immortal and amenable soul, liv-
ing in New York tenement house, is nei-
ther so clearly lodged nor SO well protect
ed against harm or cruelty.
This city of the beasts has streets, sew
ers, drains; it has water laid on it is light
ed with gas; it has bank, an exchange,
telegraph office, post office, an admira-
bly, kept hotel it has even a newspaper
else it would not be an American city. 1t
has very comfortable accommodations for
1880 residents namely 1000 head of
cattle, $4,000 hogs, $4,000 sheep, with stalls
for $50 horses. 1t contains 345 acres of
land and when all this is prepared for
use, 81 900 head of cattle can be lodged,
fed and cared for there at once, and with
the certainty that not one will suffer or go
astray.
1t has 35 miles of sewers ten miles of
streets and alleys, all paved with wood !;
three miles of water troughs, all so arrang-
ed that the water may be stopped off at any
point; 1890 gates, which are the front
doors, so to speak, of the place; 1900 open
pens, heavily fenced in with double plank;
100 acres are covered with pens for cattle,
and all these are foored with three.inch
plank; 800 covered sheds for sheep and
hogs; and II miles of railroad track con-
meet this city of the beasts with every road
which runs into Chicago. 1t has two Ar
teslan wells, one 1922, the other 400 feet
deep, which, being spouting wells, send the
water into huge tanks 45 feet high, whence
it is distributed all over the place in pipes.
Fourteen fire plugs are ready to furnish wa
ter in case of fire immense stacks of hay,
and large granaries ofcorn contain the food
needed fox the beasts and, believe, a
train of palace cattle cars now bears the
emigrant animals from this their city COM
fortably to the Eastern butchers.
OF course, as the ''lower animals do not
help themselves, q considerable force of
men is needed to attend upon those gath
cred here. The company receives and cares
for all animals sent to it. 1t has thus TAX
en- in, penned, fed, watercd, Uttered, and
taken account of 41,000 hogs, 5000 cattle
and 1000 sheep in a single day, and that
without accident, hitch or delay. From
175 to 200 men are constantly employed in
this labor; and to accommodate these and
their families numerous cottages have been
built, while town hall for public meetings
and lectures, church, Sunday school,
and a well kept day school provide for
their instruction and amusement. The no.
tel, which has bathrooms, and is in other
resp ects well fitted, is for the use of drovers
and owners ofcattle, whom business brings
hither. At the Exchange sales are effect
ed, and the news of a sale may be sent to
| Maine or Texas by telegraph from the
same room, while the money paid may be
securely deposited in the bank, which is
under the same roof Thus you will see
that this surprising enterprise is complete
ly furnished in every part; and it will not
be the least part ofyour surprise and pleas
ure to find that this whole business, which
about New York often involves painful
brutalities, is here conducted as quietly as
though Quaker presided over it, and
with as much care for the feelings of the
dumb brutes as though good Mr.. Bergl
T were looking on all the time.
1t will cost about two millions when il
is completed; is pecuniary success, as il
deserves to be; and when you hear tina
so long ago as 1869 Chicago received ano
sent off 4O8,102 head of cattle, 1861,
hogs, and 34O,072 sheep, and that it will
probably remain for years one of the great
est cattle markets in the world, as well q