The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-05-02
PURE. MIL K AS PURE FOOD
STORY OF ITS ORIGIN AND FIGHT TO SECURE 1T

LESLIE's WEEKLY.

only ends In their death: statistics OF
the trade; statistics of the mortality
among infants attributed by the facul-
ty to the use of distillery or swill
milk" and the names and false in
scriptiOns upon the carts which carry
the swill milk about the city, and such
other points as may arise in the course
of our minute investigation. =.
The perusal of that article produces
more than Il startling effect upon the
reader; it is unwholesome. Follow
ing the old files. found that this was
no mere isolated outburst of righteous
Indignation; the paper had only set
out upon its crusade on May Sth, 1858,
and kept it up. 1t instituted a system
attic investigation OF the distillery
stables--if they were worthy of the
name of stables-where unhealthy
COWS were then being fed and MIXED
for the wholesale poisoning of man
kind, especially of human babies. The
detectives sent by the Leslie paper
were detected by the cOnscience-bur-
dened and angry proprietors of this
nefarious business, and they and the
artists who accompanied them were
violently assaulted by the male help
ers. always referred to by Leslie as
the Hibernian millimaids." AS a re-
suit, however, he had the satisfaction
of seeing his lead followed by the New
York dailies, and reporters from the
Times. the Tribune (them the great
Horace Greeley's paper), and the Her
aid, as we'll as Frank Leslie's artist.
accompanied the committee of the city
government, which made its tardy in
vestigation on June 5th, 1858.
T. Il. -, tnots~ ,,f
terance in answer to a multitude of
questions from anxious subscribers.
late in the summer of 1888. when 1t
was apparent to all that the objec-
tional milk traffic was broken up. The
chief concern of parents was expressed
in the questions so frequently asked,
What are we to do when this milk is
abolished?" Where shall we get our
milk from?" and the additional fear
that the supply from the country
will not more than half meet the de-
mand from the city," His well-timed
reply shows remarkable foresight in
the mind of this writer of fifty years
ago. Extracts from his vigorous
editorial give us the following per-
| tinent reasoning:
abolish that baleful manufacture,
and the pleasant hillsides, the teeming
valleys, and the luxuriant bottoms
will be covered with beautiful crea-
| thresholds milk fountains for our
children's health and succor:" Take
ii circuit of twelve miles around the
limits of the city" lit would furnish
grazing grounds enough to supply
all the pure. healthful, life-saving milk
that we can consume
Then there are the rich countries
opened up by the lines of railroads
the Hudson River. the Erie, the
Harlem, the New Haven, and the Long
Island; all these would pour in tide
of wholesome lacteal fluid. New York
would be the depot for the richest
milk in the world; our children would
gain the privilege of retaining the life
breathed into their nostrils, and New
York would cease to be the city of
wholesale infanticide." We are now
in a position to Judge the extent to
which these prophecies are fulfilled
by pointing to the information contain
ed in the paragraphs to follow.
1t was in the days OF Buchanan's
presidency that these things happened
The crusade resulted in victory for
Frank Leslie and humanity; the hOr-
| rOr OF the dlStlllefy-fed, plaSue-Stllck-
en-, and plague-spreading mich cows
was swept out of existence, and-to
cut this part of the story short-the
originator of the campaign had the adj
ditional qualification of receiving, on
Christmas day, 1858, a beautiful gold
watch, with this inscription on the in
side of its back cover:
presented to FrankLesle in be-
half of the mothers and children of
New York as a grateful testimonial of
his manly and fearless exposure of
| the swill-milll traffic"
Now all this must be. and is. even
to this day, very fattering to the feel
ings of Leslie's Weekly; but it is one
thing to prevent .rogues from selling
milk in a lethal form another thing to
find such milk for the babies and