Arizona weekly enterprise., 1888-12-15
MONEY IN OLD BONES.
Men Who Make Fortunes Out of
 the Refuse in Meat.
How Horns, HOofs, Bones and Every PoF- ton of Slaughtered Beef Are Utilized A Number of Industries -Pe-
 culiar to Chicago.

Of all the products that como Into Chi cago market beef is the most effectually utilized, says the Chicago Mdl. From the time beef leaves the pasture until it's steaks are served by some fashionable caterer, it has passed drought several thousand hands, and has contributed either directly or indirectly to several hundred distinct and separate industries.
 In no city in the world is the principle of the divison of labor more strikingly exem- plitied than in Chicago, with her manifold industries dependent on the traffic in beef. One would naturally suppose that beef was so plentiful and cheap in central market like Chicago that no one would think ot making special business of utilizing what in many cities is cast away as refuse. But tho very fact that Chicago is so great beef market renders it possible for almost every ounce of beef to be put to some prac- tical use.
 There has grown up in this city within the past ten years the largest bone and tall low industries in this country. These in dustries have not only served 10 build up immense private fortunes, but, as an officer Of the Board of Health said recently, they have been of untold value to Chicago in sanitary point of view.
 This may seem at first thought curious statement. But the explanation is simple. A bone and tallow factory is not desirable neighbor, as every one knows who has ever had the misfortune to live within scenting distance of such an establishment, and yet the odor is neither so unpleasant nor nearly so unwho, ,esome as many other exhalations from the Stock Yards. The bone and tallow factory serves as a con venient repository and crematory of the pifaI from hIifPhar GhaT1G In a f.itN hga Chicago there must necessarily be at every large butcher shop large amount of good meat remaining over each day unsold. To remove this meat to some suburban dump ing-place would entail considerable expense on the butcher, and he would in many in- stances, be tempted to let economic consid- erations take preference over regard for public health. The dealer in bones buys of the butcher whatever is worth paying for in the way of bones, horns, hoofs, hide, tar low, meat, and hauls it away, and often gets for the mere hauling away meat that would soon become a nuisance to the butcher. but which can be turned to some practical ac- count at the tallow factory. All of the lead ing butchers of Chicago have now come to depend on the bone and tallow dealers to relieve them of what they can not dispose 1 of to their regular customers.
 To facilitate in ascertaining the price of i the commodity it is usual for the butcher to sort it. For instance, he puts all the kidney suet in one barrel, the flank tallow in ] another, the soup-bones in another, and the waste meat in another These are all sorted in the order of value. If the bucher fails to do the sorting himself he is obliged to sell for a lower price, as the work of sorting after the stuff is once mixed is both difficult and unpleasant and frequently costs more than it is really worth. The bone and tallow dealer sends out his wag- ons every day to different parts of the city to buy up the butchers refuse. Each wag- on has regular route and makes regular / trips at stated intervals The loads are brought into the factory and distributed to appropriate places. All of the tallow is put 1 into a vast caldron and rendered into the
 form in which it is found in commerce.
 There are number of steps in the refining process, but they vary according to the
 purity of the article when it comes into the
 factory. The bones form a curious collec-
 tion, and suggest at once the prophets
 vision in the Old Testament. Here are the
 bleached skulls of oxen, with yawning jaws, grinning teeth and empty sockets. They
 seem almost to speak from out their grim
 receptacle some legend of the Humane So