Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-11-04
Slaughter az a Fine Art.
New KILLING PLACE FOR POULTRY IN Cow
ERNoK SLIP.
from New York Telegraph.


In four-story brick building at 10 Cow.
erneur slip is a novel slaughter house, estab-
lished some three months ago by Simon Hess
and Jacob Fleschhauser. under the approx
al of the Board of Health of this
city. Its A oors are covered with thick
coating Of cement. Each floor has on all
sides large row of cages made of worked
wire, with tinc-lined drawers forming the
bottom of each, and tin vessels containing
water and corn, attached to the front, very
much larger but constructed very much In
the fashion of those miniature receptacles for
similar food and drink that are found upon
bird cages. The large central section of each
floor, too. is covered by a four-faced cage,
built on the same principle as those at the
sides. These cages will contain from one to
three dozen fowl each, according to the size
of the birds, from pigeons and chickens up to
geese and turkeys. The entire establishment
Is kept in a clehnly condition by the free use
of water. with lengthy attachments Of rubber
pipes. These upper floors are denominated
storage rooms, and the place of slaughter
is the huge basement, which like the floors
above, has a cement bottom, but, unlike
them, a channel or gutter running through
the centre, through which for several hours
each day there is constantly flowing a san
culinary fluid which passes into the city sew
er, and two blocks away miDgles with the
waters of the East River. From 5000 to
10000 fowl are killed in this basement ia
single day, the largest number being dis
patched on Thursday or Friday, and the mum
Der of birds slaughtered during the current
year will doubtless be 100, 900 or more.
Dull MONTHS IN THE TRADE OF KILLING.
January and February are the two months
H. l. .T1 r.If
lull in the business comes from the vast ac-
emulation of food and game shipped from
places from far and near, to the metropolis.
The Territories, the western States and the
provinces of the Dominion of Canada. send
train loads of wild and domesticated fowl
here, while the choice dry picked production
shipped from Philadelphia and the quota sent
from Long Island and New Jersey, then
reaches our markets. The arrivals of rab-
bits and hares in some years, when the win
tiers are exceptionally cold, reach as high
as fifteen to twenty car loads in a
single day. In the years when there is a pro-
longed January thaw," chickens have been
sold in Washington Market at 50 so per 100
pounds and during week or more of warmer
weather following season of prolonged cold
some years ago rabbits in prime condition
were sold upon the streets at 10 cents per
pair. while hares and wild ducks were freely
offered at 1.-TWO for quarter" The reason
assigned at the time was that Canadian
hunters found the animals lying frozen to
death upon the snow, and that with a market
already Qlufted with game, an arrival of fit-
teen carloads of rabbits in a single morning
sent prices down to a song. In these excess
sively cold winters, all kinds of wild game.
finding no food in their usual haunts. come
nh. 81 IL.
of the North aud West, and are easily Melted,
shared, and slaughtered in immense numbers.
All this lends to the depression of business in
Gouverneur slip.
How THE BIRDS ARE SLAIN.
All along the sides of the basement in
Messrs Hess & Fleischhauser's establish
ment there are spikes driven into sort of
wainscotting at ten inches apart, and to these
protruding spikes are appended stout cords,
with small moose at the dangling end. Three
fowl are brought in each hand of helper,
and the three bundled together have the
cord passed several times about a single
leg of each, and when the moose i.
slipped over the spike they hang securely with
their heads towards the floor. A rabbi of one
of the synagogues. or substitute duly appoint
ed by a rabbi, passes along the line, and with
a wooden handled knife having a blade fash
ioned somewh hat like that of a rszor, and fully
as keen of edge, deftlv sewers the windpipe
and artery in the neck of each bird, and
passes rapidly on to the next group The
birds may futter for moment and sometimes
emit a low. broken cry of agony, but death
follows speedily and surely the drawing of
the sharp. thin blade across their necks. The
CHI rye for storing and killing fowl is appar-
entity very light, being only about one and
a quarter cents each. In the aggregate, how
ever. it pays. or the firm would hardly have
invested $4,000 in preparing place for the
business. From the point of view of the
Board of Health this enterprise is of consid
cradle Importance to the city. 1t removes
the filthy and odorous wooden cages which
have for years been crowded upon the side
walks of the narrow and thicklv thronged
streets of one of our most populous quarters.
II will put stop to the keeping and killing
of fowl in the cellars of tenements and the
drenching and plucking of them in small and
i'll kept bedrooms where the work was done
stealthily
These are solid Facts.