The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1893-04-06
| EQUINE MEAT FOR FOOD.
HORSES 3UrCaERED IN AMERICA
AND SOLD IN EU ROPE.
Accordin. to an American Consul,
the Meat is Bought by the Poor
of Several Foreign Countries.

GulOpC Pooi'
ILL That sentence is one that
is creating no end of com
ment these days, for it is the Official re.
mark made recently by Unitea States
Consul Roosevelt at Brussels.
Still further, the Consul says that the
meat is furnished by American specu-
lators. 1t is a misdemeanor to sell
horse meat.ior food i'll this city. 1t is a
misdemeanor to cart horse meat designed
for food through the city of New York.
But if the meat can be taken to any one
of the dozen big transatlantic liners and
shipped without detection it isn't illegal
for the ships to carry it.
it is this latter statement that tells
the story of the reason why the United
States furnishes Europe with its tooth
some horse meat. The risk of detection
may be great, but the profits are so large
that the risk can be taken with impunity.
In fact, 1600-pound horse can be made
| to produce in cold cash at least $50, and
as the average weekly output Of horse
meat slaughter house is $50 animals,
you can easily see that the business is a
profitable one.
Horse meat is not particularly unpal-
atable if it is good young horse meat.
It is strong, rather ''gamey" in taste,
and has coarse fore which makes it
rather tough, but if you are so poor that
the purchase of beef is utterly beyond
your means, good substitute at four
cents pound would be horse meat.
''It has been found profitable" adds
Consul Roosevelt, ''ro ship cargoes of
such meat from New York to all points
in Belgium to supply the tables of the
poorer classes. Horse meat has become
the daily diet of the poor OF Belgium,
Germany and Austria. A steady supply
is constantly arriving at Antwerp, whence
it is distributed to dealers from all Euro.
pean cities, and thus reaches the masses.
In speaking of this remarkable official
story to DR.. Cyrus Edison and President
Charles G. Wilson. of the Board of
Health, both officers joined in saying
that it was very probable that good horse
meat was as life sustaining as poor beef.
"But you can rest assured that if any
horse meat reaches Europe, as Consul
Roosevelt says, it is the meat of wornout,
discrepit, diseased animals, which have
outlived their usefulness, and are only
fit to KILL" said DR.. Edison. OF course,
their flesh is not fit to eat, but the Euro
| pean peasant seems to have q strong
stomach, and what would kill an Ameri-
can working man he seems to thrive
upon. AS far as our department is con-
cerned, we do not propose to allow horse
slaughter yards to exist in this city.
Outside of it we have no Jurisdiction.
We also take pains to see that no horse
meat passes through the city or enters
it, and that is about all that we can do
to save Europe's poor from horse meat
bills of fare"
Hardly mile from Long Island City,
on the broad highway that leads to Win
field, l.. j., is one of the largest horse
slaughter houses In the country.
1t is an establishment unique in its
fittings. Standing in the centre of a
little plot of five or six acres of land is
two story and attic stable. In the in
terror of the stable the space has been
2artitioned into two big rooms. One of
the rooms has been turned into regular
stable, where the horses which the
owner of the place is to make into sue
culent steaks and chops, calmly eat away
and await their fate. The animals stand
in long line of stalls, and wheu a
Journal man visited the stables recently,
four worn-out old horses were the occu-
pants of the stalls.
1t is but step from these stables to
the other room, which has been turned
into the slaughter room of this great
"horse-m meat mill" The slaughter room
has masonry floor, set upon an incline.
One end of the room has gigantic
double tank, while barrels, and boxes,
and hooks, upon which were hanging
the remains of several horses made up
the queer outfit. In the centre of the
room is post, to which was tied big,
raw w-boned, aged horse. A man dressed
in blue ovcralls and flannel shirt was
standing over the animal, with gleam-
ing revolver in hand.
Pop"
Thus the weapon spoke, aud the horse
fell with ponderous slump, dead upon
the masonry floor.
The Journal man explained that he
wanted to buy some horse meat, and was
promptly told that none was for sale.
81 do not sell any meat in this coun-
try" said the owner of the establishment,
who came to talk to the reporter from
his neat cottage home, few hundred
feet from the stable. sit Is against the
law to do so, especially in this State, and
besides, there isn't much demand for
horse meat in America. Poor people
here nearly always can earn enough to
buy beef, but in Europe they can't, so
they buy horse meat. / did sell some
horse meat about a year ago to Gar
man who lived in Long Island City, but
l was arrested and made to pay fine of
$3.50, and l shall sell no more in
America.
Sutton said that he buys horses of any