Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1888-07-25
HORSE FHESH EATERS IN NEW
YORK
A Butcher Whose Gust omers Are tho
Park Birds and Beasts.

A Butcher Whose Gust omers Are the
Park Birds and Beasts.
The man led the way through a pas
sage from the stable to the other side
OF the building. The passage opened
into large square room lighted by
spacious open doors on both sides. The
wood floor was stained dull red. This
Is the slaughter room, where the horses
are killed and cut up for the animals at
the arsenal at Central Park, New York.
Ona couple OF hooks on one side of the
room hung portions of a carcass like
| the quarters of beef. At a glance
| one who was not an expert in raw meat
would have said this was beef, but the
horse butcher pointed out that the
| meat was meat was OF a deeper color
| and closer grain than beef. Horse
meat is, he said, as he could state from
personal knowledge, equally as good as
beef when young and tender. There
was peculiar flavor to horse meat, he
added. that some people liked better
than beef, and the lions and tigers were
fond of 1t, but for himself he preferred
a good piece OF porterhouse steak every
| time.
In one corner of the room was a re-
! frigerator, where the meat is kept until
it is required. The skin OF the last
horse who had been killed a few days
before lay on the other side of the
room. He was a bakers horse, the
butcher explained, and his hair had
been yellow. Everything was as neat
and cleanly anc free from taint as
butchers shop could be. The chopping
block was washed and as tidy as a
kitchen table. The cleaver, the saw
and the small knives, shining bright
and sharp, hung In their places beside
the butchers apron. About two years
ago the park authorities adopted the
plan of supplying the carnivorous ami
mails In the menagerie with horse meat
instead Of beef. The measure was
purely an economic one. Director
Conklin found difficulty at times In OBJ
tanning good beef % mutton, and the
prices ranged from twelve to eighteen
cents.
In Europe the animals In the Zoolog-
ical collections are fed on horses flesh,
and he advised the commissioners to
make tue trial here, PresldentBorden
became Interested ana- the brick build
ing was fitted up asSa stable and butcherd
shop, with result that has justified
the outlay. From $40 to SIS are paid
for horses, the butcher is hired by the
Park Board and the actual cost Of the
meat is now three or three and one
half cents pound
About two horses on an average are
killed each week. They are rarely old
horses, as might be supposed, but
usually those which have given out
from some cause. Before they are ac-
Fcepted a veterinary surgeon makes a
careful examination OF the animal 10
ascertain IL it is free from disease
There Is no difficulty In securing all
that are needed by the city, and
usually two or three are kept IN the
stalls, some Of them to be fattened be-
fore they are killed. From the ceiling
near the centre OF the room a rope hung
down from heavy staple. The horses
are led through the passage from the
stable into the slaughter room when
they are to be killed.
''How TO you kill them?" was
asked.
The horse butcher picked up a short
handled, heavy hammer and said:
Horses die easy. When bring them
out here L ties a cloth round their
heads, so that it blinds them, and they
are SO quiet you can do anything with
IhcLu. 1HcH LdSUcu IulS rope ITOIl
the ceiling around the brute's neck, and |
one heavy blow from the hammer is
generny enough. If you you'd like to
come around tomorrow morning I'll |
show you how l do 1t, 1t is bootcherIn' |
day tomorrow and old Dobbin will |
have to go; that's the gray one you saw
in there"
The reporter declined the invita-
tion.
Makes you kinder sick, 1 guess"
added the butcher.
well, didn't like it myself when |
began, though was used to butcherin' |
cattle, but horses 'peared so different. |
You get used to it, though. The worst |
is when some horse that's done good |
service gives out, and the people who |
bring him here feel so bad to give him |
up. But they say they would rather |
have the horse killed than to sell him,
where he may be starved or beaten. |
Sometimes woman comes up crying |
and makes mc~give back the horse. |
Once had little bay mare that the |
surgeon operated on and she got well. |
You never saw anybody so tickled In |
your life as the lady and the children |
were when I told them, and they took |
her back again. Most of the animals |
they come here. Them stone pave |
ments is kIllin' on horses. 1t gives |
them the 'quitters,' a swellin' around /
the ankles, and they amt good much |
after that. Now, there's an animal in /
that wagon out there, in which I'm
going to take the meat over for the /
lions dinner. You never saw such
shaddsr as that big horse was when he
was fetched in here last spring with
bad hoof. He looked sick and L kept |
him a month, cause L thought he
wouldn't be good to feed the animals,
though the doctor said he was sound.
Then bis hoof began to heal and he
picked up. Now you can jest see that
he limps a little; he's as strong as an
elephant and as healthy"
The horse meat was piled into the
wagon and the rescued horse proved
his good character by the gait which he
took in drawing the vehicle through
the Park to the arsenal. The keepers
divided up the joints of the ''baker's
yellow horse' among the hyenas, the
lions and the tigers, who crushed the
bones and polished them with gusto.
To the eagles chunks of flesh weighing
a pound or more were thrown and were
quickly dragged away by them in their
talons.
sThe bones," said the horse butcher
pointing to several barrels, ''are saved
and 90 to the bone man. They are
pretty well cleaned when he gets 'em.
Last month had a horse that had
been a trotter, but couldn't git any
flesh on his bones. He was tough
one and no discount. / dulled my
knives cuttln' him up. Them lions
chewed on him till their jaws was tired
and hung down. Mr.. Conklin says TO
me: what kind of meat are you givln'
the animalsY' 1 says: ITS the trotter;'
then he didn't say no more"
The importance Of soft water for do