Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1901-10-05
The Use OF DEAD HORSES.
MADE INTO OIL. sEaTlLlzeR. BOOTS.
HAiEcLCTh AND VIOLIN BOWS.
Nothing Goes to Waste Annually 5000
Animals Die in Philadelphia and the
Carearses Are Sold With PROT, TO the
Buyers.


Carearses Are Sold Win Prof, 10 the
Suyers.
Every year COCO horses died i'll Phila-
de!ph.a, says the Record OF that city.
WHAT becomes of them after they are
dead? They are bought and carted
away and put through certain processes,
and IN time they reappear pecemeal i'll
the world again. their fat changed into
lubricatng oil. their flesh and bones in
10 fertilizer, their shoes into iron, their
hides into base ball covets and water
proof boots. their short hair into com
poucni OF plaster, their long tail and
name hair into tomponcnts OF hairclo,h,
of brushes. and OF violin bows.
This articles purpose is to accompany
horse upon the sombrc pilgrimage and
through the gloomy processes that fol-
low on his death. Imagine the horse
now to have died. Some fourteen years
Of patient and faithful toll. Enlightened
oy any pleasures save those OF eating
and sleeping, are ended. The horse.
master says: He was good horse.
and his carcass will net lie $3.50
Adam w. Loutl has been i'll the dead
horse business at Greenwich Point since
March, 1855. Mr.. Loutl sends team
ster TO the master-hc employs four
teams;ers who do nothing but haul dead
anitnals-ard the teamstcr comes and
examines the horse, ard pays for it il it
is in good condition. loads it OIL his
wagon with windlass and returns to
Greenwich Point.
Greenwich Point is mile and hall
down Foint House Road from Snyder
avenue. The Delaware skirts Green.
wich Point. bu. the air: that blow there
smell only of fertilizer-a bitter and
penetrating odor made OF acid. OF
ground bone, and of the pulvcrized fesl,
OF animals. Lou;hs place is on the river
front, lot OF big aud dusty buildings
OF gray stone; and in the dark interiors
one sees, through the open doors
mounds of grayish or brownish powder
cd stuff. queer grinding machines, and
thousands of stained burlap bags OF fer
tilizer piled tip neatly.
The dead horse is dumped out on tho
floor OF high. story building. with
;hrcc or four odd-looking boilers in one
corner. a colored man rolls the horse
over or its back. pegs its legs TO the
ground. so that they are as far apart as
possible. pulls of its shoes. cuts off the
hair OF It's name and tail. and then be-
gins to skin it. He SKINS it dcxtrously
with a sharp knife. making the first in
cisions III the usual manner down the
median line OF the belly. and down the
iegs, and the removed skin he spreads
ont carefully IN corner and covers
thick with salt. so that it will cure. a
tanner will come and buy j, later for S,
or $3.50. A junk dealer will buy the
shoes for old iron. the name and tail
hair will sell for 20 cents pound. but
ii the tail hair happens TO be long and
white they will fetch % cents or more
because :hen they will be used for fiddle
bows.
The dead horse, skinned, is dragged
70 one OF the huge tanks. or boilers. in
the corner, and thrown to boil. These
tank: arc abou; thirty feet in height and
ten feet in diameter They will hold
eight horses apiece. The animal bois
tor tweniy-four hours. and every eight
hours the fat Is skinned from the sur
face OF the water it is boiling in. Final
ly the water is drained off, and what is
left OF the horse is shovclcd into wheel
barrows and dumped in drying room,
q place intensely heated.
When the drying is done the bones are
Sorted from the flesh and piled neatly
in the bonc-room. There bones are
bull, up evenly into walls. like bricks
and that is white and startling sight
The dried flesh is piled in another room,
ready 10 be ground. 1t is called tank.
age. The horse has yicdcd-and this is
an average yield computed by Adam
Lou,h from 4 iorty-tiye years expert
ence:
700 pounds ,ankage.
40 pounds bone.
80 pound. grease.
The grease sells TO an oil maker, for
lubricating oil, az IS cents pound. The
iarkagc is worth a half-ccnt a pound (;
and bone hali-cent. though the bone
and tankage are not sold They are
pulycrized in strong machines; they are
mixed with various chemicals, and. TO
an accompaniment OF fierce smells,
binding dust clouds and whirling noises
they finally become fertilizer, and are
baggcd and shipped at so much per ton
10 the worlds end. This poor dead
horse, whose carcass was bought for
$3.50, has yielded.
700 pounds tankagc at Hc......... so
10 pounds bone At &c. 20
90 pounds grease at I5c.,........7.so
$50.
And this is exclusive OF the sale OF
the hide, hair and shoe iron.
Now the horse is packed in stained
burlap bags, and a farmer buys him,
ard in the form OF iertlizing powder
his remains strew the fields and help
the grain TO riDcn. Maybe, il he had
been a farm horse. his own master
romes and buys him, and maybe It Is
over the fields where he drew the plow
in life that he lies snread in death.