The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1893-06-08
A Visit to Chicago Slaughter
Houses.


know, but the idea never before SO
forcibly impressed itself upon our
mind as it did on Thursday morn
ing, May %, when the firm of Mel
son, Morris n Co., chartered spec
ial train on the Michigan Southern
and conveyed the National Editorial
Association to their packing houses
in Chicago TO witness the Slaughter
ftheinnocents' to feed hungry man.
This company owns and controls
part of the 32o acres in South Chi.
cago Justly called the "City of
Blood. Thirty-two packing houses
have here been erected in close
proximity for the sake of couyoioncc
to the stock yards. which occupy
32O acres more. Armour, Swift.
Morris and Hammond, generally
known rs "tho Big Four are the
largest. Armou's buildings alone
cover 40 acres with n total floor area
of 135 acres, having storage capac
ity of 1900 tons of meat.
Upon our arrival at the slaughter
house our ears were greeted by the
bawling OF calves and the bleating OF
sheep, and as we ascended to the
fourth floor our own voice almost
became inaudible from the saueal
ing OF pigs. Here we were ushered
into a kind of balcony. Under
meath IN n pen were probably five
hundred pigs. AT one end was d
gangway aud here stood man with
pair of nippers which he fastened
to the hind legs of the animals, and
before they knew what had happen
ed they were hoisted to an mrial
railway and hung suspended before
the, ss;S--ss.' We aerery did bks "
see nog-sticking, but the scientifi 9
manner in which this man perform
ed his part so interested us that we
could hardly get near enough. He
stood in blood up TO his shoe. laces.
His right arm was bare to the shoul-
der and he was blood all over. Three
hogs per minute passed through his
hands, although he could have easily
stuck dozen per minute, for it re-
quired but one single movement of
that terrible right arm, and the
blood would shoot six feet away and
the hog would slide down the rail
against the other dozen or fifteen
that hung there still kicking. At
the terminus of this railway each
successive hog is automatically
dropped-lifeless, yoiceless, and
bloodless-into II vat of boiling wa,
ter, which soon put his hide into a
condition SO that the bristles can
be easily removed. The carcass
continues its exciting progress down
a long inclined table between two
rows of men, each with long, keen
knife it is rapidly deprived of its
interior organs, and assumes the ap-
pearance familiar to every visitor in
II butcher shop. 1t is then hoisted
to a perpendicular position upon an
other Hrial railway, and disappears
within the cool and vast interior of
the chilling room
Think of the old.style country
butchering where it required a
whole neighborhood from three
o'clock in the morning till ten at
night to kill half dozen hogs.
Their capacity in this one house is
1900 per day, and the skill with
which some of the men perform
their part is almost increditable.
For instance the man who cuts of
the heads is an artist in his line, BY
a single pass with IN ordinary butch
er knife he sewers the head from the
carcas as though he We're cutting
cheese. He never misses the Joint
and never dulls his knife by letting
il come in contact with the spinal
column. Then the man who cuts up
the hogs is an artist, and it requires
only five seconds of his precious
time to cut up half hog Standing
with an uphfted clever the side is
brought before him. One cut sewers
the hind foot, one the front one in
front of the ham and one back of
shoulder. There you have it--fve
cuts in five seconds. Everything
goes by machinery-eyen the men
appear to be but machines-so per-
feet in every action, so correct in
every movement