The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-07-09

opening into the galtol. which is fur ther closed by a movable beam. Be- low the bridge Is a low, square iron truck on a tramwav which runs into another galpon, branching into two parallel lines So that one truck may pass another. This IS what happens; A vilIainous-looking Suach6. who evil dently finds pleasure in his work, mounts the stockade and takes uner- ring aim with his Iass0 at the biggest and most powerful OK. One end of the lasso is attached to a winch, turned by steam, which hauls the astonished beast, slipping an1 stumbling aud pushing aside the other animals Tn his way, till his head touchas the fatal beam upon which stanls matador, or kill CT, who holds short, broad-bladed, disappointed knife. With one blow cf this weapon, delivered close behind the horns, he sewers. the spinal cord, and the huge victim drops like a lumF of lead, without a struggle, upon the iron truck in waiting. The lasso IS then disengaged, and the truck, pro- pelled by three men, is pushed into an adjoining shed, where are a hundred men, silent, but busy as bees, skinning and cutting up carcasses. Following the truck, you observe that one side of the great shed is lined with poles for hanging meat upon, and the other side is occupied gy fiat, slightly elevated, stone-paved place, upon which the dead cattle are laid. It reminds one of the marble slab at the morgue, and the sight of the long building, splashed with blood from end to end, the pave ments running rivers of clotted blood, and fifty porpses being dismembered at once by half-naked, blood -bespattered men, spells one's appetite for meat for many and many a day.
 Confning your attention to one espe- cial carcass, you see it hauled on to the stone-paved platform by means of a lasso attached to horse, and placed in position for the skinner. The latter individuals wild Uruguayan. spat- tered with gore from top to toe like an Aztec priest at a sacrifice-begins ope- rations by cutting the animals throat, letting loose another river of blood, so hot that 1t seems to steam as it seeks the gutter, and emitting sickening odor of freshness. The hide is then torn off with marvellous rapidity and horrible to relate-the great carcass moves and struggles and a faint below is heard. No doubt the severance of l the spinal cord has rendered the poor beast dead to all sense of feeling, but muscular action remains. However, in less time than it takes to tell it, he is divided into a hundred pieces, and with lightning like rapidity the parts are salted and carried off in different direc- l ions. While yet warm and quivering
 every partical of meat is cut from the bones, hung upon the poles that line the other side of the building, and the skin put to soak in bath of brine
 The minutest scrap is preserved and l utilized in some shape to the en- l trails, hoofs. horns and skull The
 bones are ground into powder and mixed with what remains of the meal after the juice has been taken out fol 1.-the Extract, 7 and, together with ths blood and hide-trimrning are made linto a fertilizer for the soil, which l;
 said to be better than guano.
 I To return to our skinner: His knife lis sharp as a razor and he uses 1t witt Incredible swiftness and dexterity. Il requires just eight minutes to skin ar OK and cut it into hundred pieces and we are informed that it can bt done in five minutes! A skinner's sala " is fifteen cents the carcass. but if 1T I any skin he makes the smallest hole ht forfeits payment for the animal. For. lty animals is an average days work though the more expert skin fifty ant Upwards. The men are not allowed t ltaik during working hours, the strictes lorder is preserved and everything i kept as clean as the gory business vii allow. Soon as it is cool, the meat oi lthe poles is cleared of every particle Q fat and put to stew in large oblont
 caldrons, in which the water Is kep
 below the boiling point. for it Is a pc lcuIiarity of the mixture that 1t contain Inc matter not soluble in cold water. {
 thin soup is thus obtained, which l lcarefuily skinned and strained, so tha
 the smallest trace of grease is removed
 Then the soup is subjected to a serie Iof corporations, growing thicker ant thicker, till 1t finally acquires about tn
 color and consistency of sorgurn, an
 when cool becomes a jelly and is read,
 for use.
 It is a singular circumstance that tn
 Extract commands higher pric fright here in Uruguay, where it 1
 made and raised so to speak, thal in foreign markets; or it would be sin
 gular did we not remember that qui ' nine costs three times as much in Per
 and Bolivia, where 1t grows, as else
 where lowing to exorbitant duties o the manufactured product; that tn
 dearest place in the world to buy pearl Is at the pearl fisheries, opals at tn IopaI mines, onyx at the onyx quarries
 seal skins at the headquarters of tn fur-seal company, and so on to the en
 of the chapter with most desirable ar lticles.
 i FANNIE B. WARD.
 c. N. G. OFFICERS EXAMINED. 3 |