The Monticellonian., 1906-06-07


 One witness told the commissioners tfat hn knew of a case in which two members of the same family had fall n into the lard vats and had been par italy rendered into lard. The first to lose his life was boy, nine years old who stumbled into che of the rendering yats while taking dinner to his father. The father fell in some months later.
 There is no telling how many men net death in this way. There was case only a week before we reached Chicago in which a man fell into tank, and the room was closed while the remnants-mostly bones-were fished cut"
 Widow Got s2,5oO.
 MT. Bloor said: T heard of the case in a saloon and after drinking with a workman who was in the place until he got pretty communicative he told me he would take me to the man who was working beside the unfortunate fellow, and who helped fish out what was left of him He did take me to this man. to whom l represented myself as the agent Of benefit company. I gave the com mission the name of the witness.
 He readily stated that he had wit messed the death, and gave me the name of the widow, who received. he said g.. 500 from the company"
 "Potted Chicken"
 Mrs. Bloor, consulting her memo randum book, 5hen told of the testi- mony submitted to the commission by man who had worked for some years on the killing floor in one of the big packing houses.
 His first employment there was to pick I'D legs, and the commissioners heard his story in full He told them that "slunk," or unborn calves. were always utilized
 They are taken out of the carcasses and doped up," were his exact words Then they went to the potted chicken
 Another Dainty.
 After this the witness went to the produce department. where chickens. butter eggs and butterine are handled. He said that when chickens came in large quantities many of them would be dead and spoiled. When they were so far deeomposed that they could not be handled without dropping apart. they were taken to the refrig- erating plant and frozen solid. Then they Were deodorized and turned out as canned chicken-not potted chick. en, but chicken in pieces. He said formaldehyde and other stuff was used to take the smell away
 "kiIIing DeEd CattIe..'
 There were several grades in the butterine department, he said. The principal ingredients of course, was oleo. Oleo is made from scraps of fat swept from the floor and barrel scrap ings of strong butter, which had been deOdorized.
 Butterine.
 T wrote out the testimony of a very intelligent man, taken before a wit. ness who did not wish to go before the commission, and presented it my self. He had worked for r years on the killing floor and said that he had often killed dead cattle This was in one Of the trust houses, and accord ing 10 him, four or five of these dead cattle were usually cut up every day. Cattle came up so badly diseased that they were hard to handle. He is what Is known as a header it being his business to cut the heads from the bodies of the animals.
 High Priced Tongue.
 "Often in doing the cutting, when the carcass was that of an animal which had suffered from lumpy jaw. he would strike into the abscesses ac- cidentally and the putrid matter would fly all over him. These carcasses went right along, he said, and everything was used but the abscess. The tongues are sold as high-priced tongues.
 Newspaper Womnn'S Story.
 Miss Bertha Wilkins, newspaper woman, who sought and obtained work in the trimmed meat department of one of the trust establishments, appeared before the commission. She described conditions which were simply imprint able.
 Too RevoIting For Publication.
 MT. Bloor described conditions as he had learned them from employees, tend- ing to show that there was absolutely no barrier between the sexes, and that sush thing as modesty was impossible amid the surroundings of the workers. Sc told story which bears out in every particular the Washington story that some of the features of the Neil. Reynolds report are too reyolting for publication-too revolting, almost, to