The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1899-09-14
A VISIT TO KANSAS OITY.

The Editor Makes HIS Rounds IN the
Busy CITY The Packing Houses
OoIds Fire-Other Points-The
State OF NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
Distances.
Editorial Correspondence.
KANSAS CITY. Mo-, Sept. 6, '99.
Here is located one of the busiest
cities west of the Mississippi. In
fact there are two cities, Kansas
City, Mo-, and Kansas City, Kansas,
having a combined population Of
100000 people. One Of the chief
industries here isreprcsentedby large
stock yards and packing houses. AT
the stock yards they now receive
daily about 5000 cattle, 1000 sheep
and 5000 hogs, but whenthe wealth
er gets cool in the fall, they receive
as high as from 1000 to 10000
cattle and a proportionate number of
hogs and sheep. The stock yards
cover acres and acres of land right
in the flats between the two cities.
PACKING HOUSES.
There are eight packing houses in
Kansas City, the largest OF these is
the establishment of the Armour
Packing Co. and this is the plant we
had the pleasure of visiting. The
Armour interests in Kansas City and
Chicago form the largest packing
establishment in the world. The
Armour beef house at this place is
alone the largest in the world, being
seven stories high with a cold stor-
age capacity of $4,000 dressed cattle
and covering an area of of3OOx 500
feet. We append a few general
statistics: (kansas City plan D,
Ground acreage covered by build
ings and used for other purposes,
so acres; Floor acreagein buildings,
80 acres; Cold Air Rooms, 80 acres;
Storage Capacity, 2oo,OOo,OO0 lbs.
Ice CApACITY.-Sixteen Ice Ma
chimes, producing a retrigation equal
to the melting of $500 tons of ice
every "a hours.
ELECTRIC LIGHT CAPACITY
Equal to that used in a we'll lighted
city OF 25, 900 inhabitants.
DAILY KILLING CApACITY.-I
Hogs. ............ ......lL,Ooo
Cattle, e,..................4, 900
Sheep, 80. ............ .........5,OOO
TOTAL SHIPMENT.-Fiscal Year,
45O, 100000 lbs. go.
The plant employs 5000 people
Or enough, if ifMiddlebrug had only
one such plant, to make our county
seat the largest place between Har-
risburg and Williamsport. l visited
the packing plant on Friday after
noon of last week and that day they
killed about 2OOO cattle. 1t is
simply wonderful how quickly they
get away with large herds of cattle.
one or two men killing them,
one or two to hang gthem up and then
one has a steady job sticking them.
The blood flows from this region
like water in brook. Each beef
is suspended on track arranged at
the topot the killing room. Thereare
side tracks so that a beef
can easily be pushed to any part of
the room covering several acres.
There are quite number of sets Of
hands in the killing room and about
a dozen in each set. The first set OF
men skin the head and the next set
the legs and the next about half of
the body and Sd on. They then take
out the entrails andorgans. Itkeeps
one man with a cart to haul the
livers, another the hearts andtwo or
three the heads. The beefis washed
and after having gone throughabout
a dozen hands, it is then ready for
the cooler at the cutting room. Ev-
goes with a rush. 1t seems
to a spectator as though they were
hurrying to get through to catch a
train. Everybody is active and what
seems to be easy is a very hard job.
The beeves are carried out on the
tracks and carried on an incline
elevated track for a quarter of a mile
to the cutting department. Here
the same speed characterizesall their
work. A big beef disappearsbefore
two men like an ounce of ice in q