The Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1885-1886, 1886-09-13
SHOULD BE PROUD OF 1T.
Views of the Secretary of the state
Board OF Health on the City
AbattOir

AbattOir
DR.. John H. Rauch, of Chicago, secre'
tary of the state board of health, with
official residence at Springfield, arrived al
the Harper house Saturday night and
in company with Health Commissioner
Craig he visited the new city abattoir
yesterday morning He came to
the city in his official capac
ity; hence his visit to the abattoir was
one Of considerable importance at the
present time. DR.. Rauch was for many
years prior to his appointment to the i'm
portant office he now occupies. health
commissioner of the great city of Chica,
go. He has given The greater portion o!
his life to sanitary measures, has had eX-
perience with abattoirs time and time
again, and is therefore as capable of
passing unbiased judgment upon one as
any man in the state.
An ARGUS reporter called upon him at
his room at the Harper house yesterday
afternoon. and though the doctor was
hurriedly preparing for drive. he lent
his attention to the scribe long enough to
give his opinion of what he had seen in
the morning.
1T is one OF the most complete
siaughtering establishments | have ever
seen, he said, in reply to question from
the visitor as to his opinion of the inSti-
tuition. ut may be kept clean with
out trouble; it has all the appliances
OF doing the work with neatneSs and dis
patch There is plenty of water and all
the facilities for removing the water
The fact is have never seen anything
better constructed for the purpose intend
ed.
six years ago visited your city and
examined every slaughter house here at
that time Winter cholera was then
prevalent here to a considerable extent,
and traced the cause to the city's means
of obtaining water supply. The pump
ing station was in the lower part of
the city, aud the water was taken from
below the city instead of above it as is
now the case. took several specimens
of the water then and had them analysed,
and the result was that the cause of the
epidemic WAS apparent. That defect has
been remedied since was here, and | am
telling you these things now to show you
how much the sanitary condition of the
city has improved in few years. |
also inspected the dump, where the off
al is emptied into the river. There are
few places where this is so nicely done.
| find also an accurate death rec
ord kept, which could not be obtained
when | was last in your city. Now all
these things come under the sanitary
government of the city and it is from this
same sanitary government that the abattoir
comes. There was not a city in Illinois
where the small pox epidemic WAS han~
died better than right here in Rock Isl
and. This goes to show that your
health commissioner is the proper man
that he is doing what he believes to be
his duty in this abattoir matter.
This abattoir has all the facilities for
protecting the city of Rock Island from
unwholesome and unfit meat, through its
methods of inspection before aud after
the animals are killed Il has every con-
venience for the conducting of the bust
ness properly. The modes of conducting
the offal out to the river and where there
is no danger of its breeding contagious
diseases are as nearly perfect as can be.
In Chicago there are several abattoirs on
the same plan but none any better than
this.
Il know nothing about the legal tech
nicalities of this case, but as far as the
purpose of protectingthe city and the PEG
pie are concerned, it is simply questio n
like this: Will you have your slaughtering
business conducted decently and 10 order.
or not?' The institution is directly in
the interests of the people, as against the
supposed interest of the butchers 1t Is
simply Il question of common sense. |
am delighted with your abattoir, aud the
city has every reason to be proud of it.
Rock Island is ahead of many other cit
les IN the state in this matter and all
must come to it. Peoria is moving in
the same direction and will soon have an
abattoir similar to this. Il is a matter
in which the health of the people is at
stake"