Wichita eagle., 1888-08-04
IN THE PACKING HOUSE.
LAST HOURS OF A HOGS LIFE IN
EAST CAMBRIDGE.

Daily In One Of the Suburbs Of Boston.
Bloodshed in tho Hot Water-The SHAY.
ing Machine.
A pig may 60 into the pork packing house
IN East Cambridge pig, but when he goes
| out he is numerously referred to as hams,
| pork sides, pigs feet, hogs heads, spare ribs,
| picked tongues and shoulders, lard, bristles,
| fertilizer hair and hogs grease and lard oil
| Recently, in company with one of the en-
ployes Of the concern, the writer spent several
hours in examining the various buildings. A
| long, low structure at the extreme northeast
corner Of the enclosure, about which q high
fence extends to protect it from the world
outside, is the hog house where new arrivals
are kept before the slaughter. A car load of
sleek looking porkers, that might be called
| the aristocracy Of the swine population Of
the west, were just beginning to settle down
| for q few hours of solid comfort when small
boy aad a man came kurriedly along and
shouting to them, the entire drove were in &
minute upon their feet They saw a means
OF exit that had purposly been left open, and
through it they passed, unconscious Of the
terrible fate awaiting them on the other side
| Of the long, narrow bridge into which they
were entering. And what a long, dark
bridge it isl You have seen covered railroad
bridges up in the country that are like it.
Through occasional cracks in the walls tho
sunlight streaned in, and there in a babel Of
sounds could be seen line OF hogs packed
closer than sleisAs on the Milldam in Janu-
| airy. They were crowding, pushing each
other towards the little opening so far ahead
which marked the end of the bridge, and
pretty soon they had all passed through it
not into tie sunlight which seemed to be
awaiting them, but into a triangular pen
where the rumble OF machinery came to their
ears, and occasionally the dying wall of one
of their kind whose wind had been cut by
the lord high executioner.
The porkers were closer together than sar-
dimes in a box, and restless as eels They
tried to walk on top Of each other, rubbed
against the trousers of the men among them,
and then some would try to climb the wooden
wall and escape. As it was no less than six
feet high, they could do little more than
stand on their hind legs. This was an excel
lent opportunity for the swine herd He had
been for several minutes watching a wire
rope that hung from pulley some twenty
feet above the pen. Then it was lowered
toward him, and we knew the end was inn
minent
If l were to describe the scene after the
newspaper style Of an execution, would
say:
1908 o'clock-Pig Sly, the largest and most
intellectual appearing victim, is now being
seized by the hind legs The left is clasped
by band Of steel, which fastens like hand
cuff
1O:0Ssl-He is suddenly drawn high in the
air, and is swinging to and fro like the PEN
dulum Of a grandfathers clock A pro-
Ionsed squeal in the key Of high C reverber-
ates through the death chamber. The rope
begins suddenly to pull him along towards
the executioner
1904 o'clock-The e1ecutioner has Just let
fly mouthful of tobacco juice. Tae victim
for a second hangs silent before him The
awfulness OF the situation is evidently numb
ing his mind, for no sound escapes him.
Courage such as his in the last moment of
life seems more than human The e1ecu-
toner raises his knife. He holds it rs Edwin
Booth does his napier in a stage duel a
second its trusty blade glitters in the electric
light, and then it is buried in the victims
apoplectic neck. He twists like screw
driver, and then the killer pulls forth his
weapon, while the life blood starts in Grim
son stream like muddy Cochituate through
half open faucet. In an Instant commissions
seize the dying porker. His flesh twists and
the muscles become distorted The agonies
are intense, and then the reaction of death
begins the cords relax and on towards the
bathing tub he goes, dead as a doornail
Ten seconds after tho pig becomes pork he
is shot down into hot water bath. Ye who
have thought LIES end was coming in the
sweltering confines Of Turkish bath take
heart always. Don't kick about hot water
until you have seen the bubbling, seething
caldron in killing room. The hog is
always supposed to be dead when this stage
is reached but it sometimes happens that he
is not, and in the few brief moments before
final darkness blinds his mind how thoughts
OF past wrongs and uisdeeds must come from
their graves to hound him, The tub In
which he is dropped is long one. and after
being rolled over several times until the
bristles are ready to drop out of their own
accord he is pulled up on a board, and in a
twinkling two men have removed ks bristles
and he goes on his way rejoicing. Hooked
like fish under the chin, the rope to which
he is suspended carries him through shower
bath, and then the shaving machine is
reached I can say truthfully that would
rather take my chances in going through
that machine than to repeat the experience
of being shaved by some BARRIERS know who
claim to be first class worknen-
But you want to know something about
this machine. Suppose, then, you zee the
head Of barrel removed, and in its place
imagine there are arranged upon springs
dozen or more knife blades, so that when no
pressure is brought upon them from the under
side they remain SO close together that you
could not drop kitten down between them
Then imagine that pigs nose comes into
sight It gently slides up, pushing back the
scrapers, which in turn do their duty and
leave bis snout hairless and white as baby's
face. On he comes, and further back the
blades are pushed His neck comes through,
then his body, and finally, when he has been
all scraped, as he is by one passage through,
tho knives resume their original position, a
stream of water dashes over them, and the
hair is washed down through passage into
. repository below.
On goes the porker until he reaches table
where four men are employed, two On each
side in removing such hairs as have escaped
the automatic barber behind Before you
can say JACK Robinson he has resumed his
journey and is landed on a bench, where his
Intervals are removed and several shower
baths gwen Then, when al is over and he
is looking as pure and clean as pork can look,
be is given the only roller coaster ride pig
was ever known TO take. The course from
the end Of the finishing room TO the cooling
room, where the pork is placed before pack
ing, is down 3 long incline Of perhaps 800 +
feet The dressed hog is hitchei TO q little 4